Secrets to a Successful Healthcare IT Career

An interview with Anastasia Adam, a leading Health Information Technology (HIT) account manager with a top IT recruitment and staffing firm.

Anastasia Adam is a leading Health Information Technology (HIT) account manager in Southern California working for one of the leading IT recruitment and staffing firms TEKSystems.  I met up with her at several SoCal HIMSS events where she volunteers.  She provides expertise to companies seeking to gobble up the best healthcare IT talent.  She knows the market - what employers are looking for - where the growth spurts are - what the future landscape will look like. 

Tom's IT Pro: Healthcare has taken the National stage as the issue of choice for US politics.  From a policy perspective, what is driving HIT (such as EHR deployments)?

Anastasia Adam: From a policy perspective, when ARRA (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, 2009) was passed there was a portion of the bill that was dedicated to HITEC

(Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act). The HITECH provisions of ARRA provide billions of dollars for the adoption of Health Information Technology (HIT). These incentive payments are available to organizations that meet the ‘meaningful use’ criteria. If organizations miss these deadlines they will begin to be penalized.

Do you believe this is a boom-and-bust cycle?  Or boom-and-stabilize?  How long? Next 2,5,10 years?

I believe in a boom-and-stabilize cycle. In order to get these EHR systems up and running there needs to be a boom for the implementation. However, the implementation itself is not the end of the road. Following the implementation comes upgrades, analytics, and user adoption. What are hospitals going to do with this all of this information? How is it going to drive decision-making? What will be the impact to issues like evidence-based medicine?

What are the most common job requisitions/titles within HIT?

The most common needs we are seeing from clients right now are in the following areas:

• Integration: HL7 Analysts, Developers
• EMR Trainers: (On any platform- EPIC, MEDITECH, CERNER, etc).
• ICD-10 Project Managers

What do you see as some major challenges in recruiting HIT candidates?

The major challenge in recruiting HIT candidates is finding people with both the Healthcare experience as well as the IT or systems knowledge. Because there is such a high demand for candidates with experience in both areas, hospitals are competing for local and national talent. Because of a high demand, most people are working! 

What career tracks that you see within HIT?

The career tracks that we seen in HIT are very unique. In many hospitals, we have seen people coming from a clinical background (i.e. Registered Nurse-RN) into an IT role. Other examples are people starting as trainers and working their way into the system build and then up to management if desired. Our clients are doing quite a bit of internal shifting because there are new jobs needed for all the projects, so there is a great deal of opportunity. An example of a new leadership role is the CNIO (Chief Nursing Information Officer).

What certifications or credentials are available within HIT?  Which one of these has been industry adopted and recognized?

There are certifications in specific EMR (Electronic Medical Record) systems (i.e. EPIC). These are widely recognized by all hospital systems. Many employers also look for a healthcare educational background (i.e. clinical informatics, public health, RN degree, etc.).

Mikhael Felker is an IT pro who has worked in Defense, Healthcare, High-Tech and Non-Profits. He teaches, writes, and speaks at numerous Southern California venues about technology.

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(Shutterstock cover image credit: Stethoscope on Laptop's Keyboard)