Health IT Jobs Outlook Bright

The health IT sector will spawn 50,000 to 200,000 jobs between now and 2015, survey says.

By Antone Gonsalves
InformationWeek

Most new health IT jobs over the next five years will be filled by consultants and application trainers, a survey of IT professionals showed.

In addition, the survey conducted by the American Society of Health Informatics Managers found that 90% of the respondents believed that employers were looking for people with both IT and healthcare experience and knowledge.

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Participants in the jobs survey released this week included beginners, intermediate workers and experts. Workers at the expert level, which comprised half of the respondents, were described as decision makers and senior management. The ASHIM interviewed 135 people.

Fully 96% of the respondents believed that the number of new health IT jobs that will be created between now and 2015 will fall between 50,000 and 200,000. Asked which jobs would fill the majority of the positions in the next five years, 63% of the respondents said consultants in electronic health and medial records and 61% said application trainers.

More than half of the respondents identified HIT job growth for sales representatives, database administrators and Unix administrators. More than half of the participants also predicted that IT professionals will seek additional skills to work in health IT.

Finally, 95% of the respondents believe health IT certification will be valuable in getting a job.

The ASHIM is a non-profit, professional organization specializing in health IT. The non-governmental group sponsors a credentialing exam for health IT called the Certified Health Informatics Systems Professional exam. Results of the latest survey can be viewed here.

Health IT is the fastest growing segment of the $1 trillion global healthcare marketplace, and is poised to continue its impressive growth through 2013, according to a study from Scienta Advisors, a management consulting firm.

HIT spending in the U.S. will focus on inpatient and outpatient electronic health records systems, at the expense of specialty and departmental information systems and other capital investments, Scientia said.