PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Digit. Health
Sec. Health Technology Implementation
Volume 7 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fdgth.2025.1461342
This article is part of the Research TopicAI-Driven Smart Sensing and Processing for Personalized HealthcareView all articles
Digital health literacy – a key factor in realizing the value of digital transformation in healthcare
Provisionally accepted
- 1Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden
- 2Gobierno del Principado de Asturias, Oviedo, Asturias, Spain
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Background: Digital health technologies and AI are transforming healthcare by improving access, optimizing care, and enabling personalized, preventive, and predictive solutions. However, digital health literacy remains a critical barrier, affecting individuals' ability to engage with digital health technologies (DHTs) and limiting progress toward digital health equity.Aims: To propose a framework that captures the complexity of digital health literacy and guides research, and to share key insights from the Improving Digital Empowerment for Active Healthy Living EU project.Results. We introduce a conceptual framework that explores digital health literacy's interactions with social determinants, providing a foundation for research, policy, and practice. Insights from the project (Improving Digital Empowerment for Active Healthy Living), involving 14 partners across 10 European countries, offer evidence-based strategies to empower individuals and promote digital inclusion.Concluding remarks: To keep pace with technological advancements, digital health literacy should be integrated into lifelong learning initiatives. Urgent research is needed to inform policies and guide interventions that enhance digital health literacy and ensure equitable digital transformation in healthcare.
Keywords: Digital Health, Equity, Digital Transformation (DT), Digital health literacy 1, Health Care
Received: 14 Jul 2024; Accepted: 22 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wamala-Andersson and GONZALEZ. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Sarah Wamala-Andersson, Mälardalen University, Västerås, Sweden
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.