I’ve written a number of articles and a few video interviews on job opportunities in digital health recently and have received a steady stream of questions since then. Given healthcare IT professionals can make $90,000 or more annually, there has been growing interest in the industry. To help separate fact from fiction and dive a little deeper in to the realities of these opportunities, I reached out to Beth Kelly, a freelance writer from Chicago, IL to summarize the projected outlook for specialized positions within the field of health IT. Careers in healthcare IT are appealing whether your preference lies within the computer or medical sciences; what’s clear though is to succeed you’ll need to have your passion fit somewhere between both. As positions in the industry are constantly evolving, the ability to adapt to new technology is also crucial — whatever is “cool” today will be different tomorrow. As healthcare providers and physicians strive to implement new technology systems, the expertise of HIT professionals will guide the industry into the future so knowing the Outcome Driven Innovation (OID) and JTBD of clinical professionals will be a differentiator for those who possess such skills. The market for healthcare information technology continues to show enormous growth potential – with no signs of slowing down any time soon. Here’s what Beth thinks the outlook is:
General Qualifications and Useful Certifications
It’s clear that the expanding field of healthcare IT affords plenty of opportunities. But of course, making the move into this field isn’t as simple as picking up the phone and interviewing. Qualifications are important — in a recent salary survey report completed by HealthITJobs.com, it was noted that certified workers are on average making $10,000+ more than those without certifications. If you are an IT worker currently, CISSP, CCNA, and PMP are a few technical certifications that are in high demand in Healthcare IT. But beyond the classroom, health IT requires a unique set of skills, and not all of them are related to technology. In healthcare, the right applicant needs to understand more than codes and processes. Many hiring managers look for applicants with “soft skills” who are willing to work in a highly collaborative environment. Applicants for HIT positions need to be aware that in a hospital environment, their position is not the star of the show. Ultimately the healthcare world revolves around the patient, and IT roles provide supportive care. In many cases when hiring, institutions prefer applications with a combination of IT and clinical skills.
Optimizing opportunities afforded by the changing healthcare landscape requires a lot of hard work and insight into the diverse nature of the healthcare IT job market. Whether you are transitioning to IT from a clinician position, or you have an IT background already but are new to healthcare, challenges are inevitable. But in an increasingly digital world, where people use technology in more ways perhaps than they even realize, an HIT skill set is almost guaranteed to pay off.
The healthcare sector of IT is as diverse as the industry itself. There are numerous areas in which to specialize; the following domains being several of the most promising.
Mobile Healthcare
Looking purely at the numbers, Americans are inseparable from their phones. And with nearly one third of all mobile applications being health related, the opportunity to access and utilize vast amounts of health data is there, also. As Silicon Valley tech companies take a greater interest in mobile health devices, advances in analytic software now make it possible to capture illuminating data about our daily lives. The sum of this information is aimed to transform medicine. Even as privacy concerns loom, the ubiquity of smartphones and tablets promises career opportunities in the realm of HIT.
Joseph Hobbs, CIO at Community Hospital at Anderson located in Anderson, Indiana, had this to say about mobile technologies: “This is a huge topic for any organization. Whether it is a mobile cart, a tablet or a smartphone, you need to give caregivers access at their fingertips. The [other] challenge in healthcare is that it’s not a one-size-fits-all initiative. Beyond just finding a solution for all you then have to worry about security and application presentation to all of these types of devices.”
Many health professionals agree that the data from medical devices and data from modern EHR solutions should be integrated. When mobile devices are capable of being linked to EHR, physicians can provide patients with appointment alerts and medication reminders, as well as additional medical assistance. In the remote patient monitoring space, cell service provider Verizon represents the Converged Health Management solution, one of the first products that hopes to bridge the gap between monitoring devices and EHRs. Partnering with Ideal Life, a medical device company, Verizon’s platform is capable of measuring blood pressure, oxygen saturation, glucose levels and weight.
The market for mobile healthcare apps promises many new opportunities with room for tremendous growth and earning potential. According to German market research firm research2guidance, the worldwide market for mobile health applications and their corresponding services reached $2.4 billion in revenue in 2013 and will grow to $26 billion by the end of 2017.
Mobile apps are becoming increasingly significant in the healthcare community, their influence extending throughout both the medical and insurance industries. Mobile app developer positions are in extremely high demand. With medical health app growth ahead of the general mobile market, there are tremendous number of opportunities for people interested in these positions. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, from the years 2010-2020, there is a projected growth rate of 57.4% for software application developers. For software systems developers, there is a projected growth rate of 71.7%. It’s estimated that overall employment in the industry will continue to grow rapidly.
