Experts predict increasing use of health IT will create thousands of new jobs

Careers relating to how healthcare providers generate, store, and mine medical information are soaring in demand and popularity, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported August 13.

 

Research by William Hersch, MD, of Oregon Health & Science University indicates that the continuing trend toward wider adoption of health information technology (HIT) could create 40,000 new positions, according to the article. His research found that U.S. hospitals employ approximately 108,000 full-time equivalents in HIT careers. If hospitals want to increase technology so that it improves quality and efficiency, that number must increase by more than 37%.

 

Don Detmer, MD, MA, president of the American Medical Informatics Association, told the newspaper that Hersch’s estimates are the best available but that they’re inadequate because differentiating between professionals who design the systems and those who make them work is difficult.

 

Detmer said more HIT professionals will be necessary. “It’s an emerging profession. There’s not enough trained people,” he said.