Digital health care and data work: Who are the data professionals?

Abstract

This article reports on a study that investigated data professionals in health care. The topic is interesting and relevant because of the ongoing trend towards digitisation of the healthcare domain and efforts for it to become data driven, which entail a wide variety of work with data. Despite an interest in data science and more broadly in data work, we know surprisingly little about the people who work with data in healthcare. Therefore, we investigated data work at a large national healthcare data organisation in Denmark. An explorative mixed method approach combining a non-probability technique for design of an open survey with a target population of 300+ and 11 semi-structured interviews, was applied. We report findings relevant to educational background, work identity, work tasks, and how staff acquired competences and knowledge, as well as what these attributes comprised. We found recurring themes of healthcare knowledge, data analytical skills, and information technology, reflected in education, competences and knowledge. However, there was considerable variation within and beyond those themes, and indeed most competences were learned "on the job" rather than as part of formal education. Becoming a professional working with data in health care can be the result of different career paths. The most recurring work identity was that of "data analyst"; however, a wide variety of responses indicated that a stable data worker identity has not yet developed. The findings present implications for educational policy makers and healthcare managers.