Guest Article: The Hottest Jobs in Healthcare IT

Given all the attention being given to healthcare IT these days (especially because of the stimulus bill), many of my readers were wondering how to get into the market (jobs, contracts, etc). I asked Sarah Scrafford, who regularly writes on the topic of pharmacy technician online programs, to tell us what she’s seeing these days. Here’s what she had to say about the healthcare IT job market.

There’s an inherent satisfaction in working in the healthcare field – you feel fulfilled because you’re helping people get better and get over ailments that get them down. But on the flip side, you’re exposed to suffering and pain on a continuous basis, and for some people, this leads to a great deal of stress. If you want to remain in the healthcare sector and yet avoid all the hardships that are involved, the best place to go is the IT department, the one that takes care of managing patient records and integrating information and data. If you’re eyeing a job in the healthcare IT sector, here are some of the hottest jobs available today:

· Health Integration Engineer: As a health integration engineer, you’ll be working with both technical and non-technical clients and personnel. Your main tasks include working with any kind of operating system, troubleshooting any technical problems that may arise, coordinating and explaining tasks and concepts to the people you work with, understanding and being able to work with bug tracking software and software development methods, and solving any problem or technical difficulty that may crop up.

· Healthcare Project Manager: As a healthcare project manager, you’re going to be responsible for designing, developing, and renovating applications that support clinical and administrative tasks in a hospital. You need to be have expert knowledge of the workings of hospital systems, be able to work with people and get them to function as an effective team, have some experience in business development, know how medical processes and workflows work, be familiar with regulations like HIPAA, and know enough about hospital information systems and electronic record management and maintenance.

· IT Resource Manager: An IT resource manager in the healthcare industry is responsible for allocating staff and other resources to ongoing and new projects. You need to be an expert in the strategic management of software and services and be able to estimate, allocate and deploy them as and when needed by projects that are underway. Resource managers are responsible for the timely allocation of resources so that projects are completed according to schedule. You need to anticipate shortages before they happen and relocate resources accordingly.

· Healthcare Systems Analyst: As a systems analyst in the healthcare sector, you’re going to be responsible for enhancing the operating efficiencies and performances of both computer systems and their users so that the planning and decision making processes are better. You need to be proficient in analyzing and improving workflows and procedures, streamlining and automating business systems and processes, and designing, developing, testing and implementing projects on a regular basis.

Sarah invites your questions, comments and freelancing job inquiries at her email address: sarah.scrafford25@gmail.com.