Reply To: Topic 2 Discussion

[Panyada Cholsakhon]

In my opinion, Thailand’s healthcare sector is undergoing the development in digital health transformation and still lacks personnel specialised in health informatics. From my years of experience in healthcare, traditional methods of care have gradually been replaced by modern technology. Previously, many institutions made health informatics a compulsory subject in the course of undergraduate level, including in my field of nursing, to help graduates increase their knowledge in healthcare informatics before working in clinics. Recently, with digital disruption affecting every industry, including healthcare, some universities in Thailand have started offering four-year courses related to health informatics, such as Bachelor of Science in Medical Informatics. Moreover, at the postgraduate level, some institutions are opening courses to prepare future skilled health informaticians, including our program BHI, and related courses such as the Master of Science program in Digital Health. Regarding the national strategic planning in digital health transformation, I believe that a sufficient number of health informatics workforce can contribute to its achievement in the future. However, there are some limitations that pose challenges to the effective growth of health informatics workforces in the country:
* Limited educational opportunities: Although some institutions provide courses to produce future health informaticians, there are still limited formal educational programs in health informatics that offer specialized training and qualifications in this field compared to the increasing demand in health data.
* Resource constraints: Developing and implementing health informatics education and training programs requires significant resources, including funding, infrastructure, and faculty expertise, which may be limited in some settings.
* Lack of incentives: As my classmate mentioned before, IT personnel who work in healthcare might prefer to move to other industries that offer adequate payment for their skills and competencies. Therefore, to produce health informatics graduates who intend to work for their professional health informatics field and retain the current health informatics workforce, adequate and fair payment for their skills need to be considered.