Digital health initiatives are more than computer projects. They are strategic resources that can be used to change the way health workers can extend and develop their multi-disciplinary teams and improve the health and health care of their patients, informal carers and communities.

There are two main activities. One is developing health workers’ capacity. The other is developing digital health leaders both clinical and executive in all organisational levels who can support health workers’ capacity building.

Realizing benefits from most digital health initiatives needs health workers and digital health leaders to:

• acquire extensive knowledge of the workings and potential of their digital health services;
• understand how to change some of their clinical and working practices to realize the benefits;
• share good practices and pitfalls to avoid as digital health users; and
• ensure they maximise health and health care benefits for patients, carers and residents.

Activities to achieve these include:

• continuous engagement with ICT teams that enables health worker to share, learn and contribute to changes in clinical and working practices and realizing benefits;
• conventional training events on digital health’s functions and opportunities;
• action learning events leading to structured personal development plans.

These are rarely achieved by conventional one or two-day training events about implementation. Instead, continuous engagement and sharing of experiences and knowledge are needed. Enabling this is a vital role for digital health leaders.

Health care workforces are widespread and diverse. Engaging effectively with them requires distributed and delegated digital health leadership models. It is important that effective engagement and digital health leadership are defined and structured, and on a continuously developing trajectory.

Matching health workers’ numerous roles and location, many digital health leaders are needed in decentralised locations. They can help health workers to develop and apply their information skills. Digital health can sometimes create organizational challenges, so it is important that distributed digital health leaders either address these promptly, or, where resolution is beyond their scope, ensure that appropriate people deal with them promptly. These two roles, supporting health workers and a conduit for engagement must in place for effective capacity building and managing change.