New Job Markets Emerge as Healthcare Embraces IT

June 12, 2016

Healthcare’s relatively recent turn towards tech immersion ushered in a flood of new IT talent needs for hospitals and health systems. The dawn of the EHR bore with it providers’ dependency on third-party IT teams, a trend that healthcare organizations may pivot away from as the list of health IT initiatives unfurls and hospitals piece internal teams together.

Hospital hiring trends rooted in the industry’s tech growth have already introduced Clinical Informatics, Population Health Management, and Patient Engagement roles to many hospital org charts. Higher education programs dedicated to specialized areas of HIT are cropping up across the nation to help shore up capable future healthcare job candidates – preferably ones proficient in both clinical and technical endeavors.

Continuing Education programs that echo healthcare’s IT overhaul will help existing healthcare employees and clinicians hone their IT skills and stay competitive as non-clinical IT talent continues to trickle into the industry. In the meantime, the non-clinical hiring boom in healthcare should easily continue its rising trajectory.

Areas of anticipated job growth include:

Security

With ransomware attacks and HIT security threats on the rise, many hospitals are rushing to implement security measures that will keep their facility from being the next data breach news story. The particularly sensitive nature of patient data means hospitals will have to adapt quickly to stay head of cybersecurity risks. Dipping into hacker talent pools may prove to be one of HIT’s greatest assets.

System Optimization

The ability to quickly aggregate data from various points of origin – including but not limited to internal, outpatient, telehealth and IoT data sources – will set best-in-class health organizations apart. Rapidly and seamlessly presenting that information in a manner that makes it usable at the point-of-care will be paramount to HIT’s success, and will require talent to execute.

Data Analysis

Between the stages of data aggregation and data dissemination, a realm of health data analytics is unfolding, tied largely to Population Health initiatives. As providers streamline the process of patient data capture, building an intelligent view of health (be it individual or group) will require the finesse of health-data-savvy analysts. Teams with the ability to effectively visualize those health trends will simplify the process of drawing inference from patient data sets.

Patient Engagement

Patient advisory roles have blossomed as hospitals seek to bring the patient voice to healthcare business initiatives, but consumers are still eager for healthcare to bring the provider voice to the patient, so to speak. The traditional doctor/patient relationship will need to evolve to answer patient demands for provider engagement beyond the institutionalized walls of care. New roles will emerge in health facilities as providers broaden patient outreach efforts and incorporate new communication mediums.

Health Law

On the heels of healthcare’s digital revolution, the industry will undoubtedly see an increase in the number of legal issues providers encounter. Mounting legal cases related to patient data ownership, security and access rights between providers, vendors, and patients will spur a need for additional resources in the healthcare legal field.