Competencies Needed for Behavioral Health Professionals to Integrate Digital Health Technologies into Clinical Care: a Rapid Review.

Abstract

This rapid review examines literature on training and competencies for behavioral health professionals to integrate digital health technologies into clinical practice. While the evidence for digital health is growing, research evidence supports its use in behavioral healthcare. Despite this, behavioral health professionals have been slow to integrate technologies into care for various reasons. The aim of this review is to inform behavioral health professionals on competencies needed to support the adoption of digital health technologies. PubMed and Google Scholar were searched for articles from 2010 through 2020. Search terms associated with digital health technologies, behavioral health professionals, and competencies, skills, training, and best practices yielded 1972 articles. Twenty-three articles met inclusion criteria indicating foundational core competencies and data was extracted and organized based on profession and technology platform in order to detect similarities and differences. The findings were used to generate an interdisciplinary approach for the clinical integration of digital health. Recommendations are presented for foundational digital health competencies applicable across behavioral health disciplines, rather than technology- or discipline-specific training. The universal digital health inter-professional competencies identified include: (a) privacy, security, and patient safety; (b) digital health technical skills; (c) ethical and legal considerations; (d) clinical skills; (e) art of therapy and digital health; and (f) administrative tasks. Research is needed to understand if the development of professional digital health competencies helps to improve patients’ behavioral health.