How to Become a Leader in the Future of Health Care IT

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With the passage and implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the future of healthcare in the United States was sealed with an information technology stamp. In other words, American healthcare is about to enter an era of IT assimilation similar to what nations such as Germany and the United Kingdom.

Of the many provisions of the ACA, it is interesting to note the various directives to modernize the IT infrastructure of healthcare services across the nation. Insofar as the ACA being a comprehensive act of insurance reform, which means that regulators and insurance companies must always be on the same page after they evaluate data collected by health services providers.

It is clear that the future of American healthcare depends on strong tech leadership, particularly with regard to the following aspects.

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Federal Compliance

Although the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) predates the ACA by more than a decade, covered entities are still having a hard time with regard to compliance. The typical healthcare facility these days collects a significant amount of patient information that must be stored in a certain electronic health record (EHR) format and protected by specific measures. Failure to adhere to HIPAA could result in substantial fines and corrective actions.

Health Informatics and Information Management

Future healthcare IT leaders will be able to choose their career paths. Those who are more inclined towards building the actual infrastructure for the data handled by healthcare providers, insurance companies, researchers, and regulators, should look into health informatics. Those interested in the actual management of healthcare data, particularly as it related to EHR, may want to consider a career in health information managements. You can read more here if you would like to learn more about these two specialized fields.

Paying Attention to Patient Needs

Within the framework of HIPAA and the ACA, healthcare providers and IT leaders must pay attention to certain trends that develop from interaction with patients. Surveys conducted by respected think tanks such as McKinsey & Company indicate that patients have a clear interest using digital services that relate to their health care and management. As members of the Millennial Generation grow older and require more in the way of healthcare services, they will expect to be able to use their mobile devices to access digital channels that allow them to do more than just make appointments and pay their deductibles.

In the end, the future leaders of health information systems will be tasked with creating an overall more efficient setting for healthcare.

By  Lizzie Weakley

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About the Author: Lizzie Weakley is a freelance writer from Columbus, Ohio. She went to college at The Ohio State University where she studied communications. In her free time, she enjoys the outdoors and long walks in the park with her 3-year-old husky Snowball. If you are looking at getting a STEM related education, Lizzie suggests that you consider an electrical engineering master’s degree from the University of Ohio.