Solving the talent equation for health IT

Companies are scrambling to fill a health information technology talent void that could impede progress toward meeting government and consumer expectations, delivering on strategic priorities, and capitalizing on new growth prospects. As a result, more than three-quarters of top healthcare executives anticipate changes in their talent strategies over the next year.

• Healthcare companies are increasingly borrowing technology specialists from other industries.
• Healthcare companies must bring business and technology closer together to take advantage of the wealth of data being generated to improve health outcomes and constrain rising costs.
• Seventy-five percent of providers are currently hiring new employees to support their IT priorities. They believe clinical informatics will be the most important skill for achieving their IT priorities.
• Insurers ranked systems and data integration skills as most important to meeting HIT priorities and 89% think it is very important to have employees trained to integrate and analyze data from various sources.
• Drug and device companies need a new set of tech skills to support emerging methods of conducting research and the need to prove the value of drugs to public and private purchasers. Thirty-nine percent believe it is important for new hires to be skilled in health economics outcomes research.