Health information technology (HIT) focuses on systems that maintain patient data and enhance patient care. Specialists who work in the field of HIT develop and maintain systems that store information, analyze data and allow for secure communication between healthcare professionals, doctors and patients.
HIT often focuses on electronic health records (EHR). While accessible EHRs that meet Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy regulations are an essential part of modern healthcare, health information technology comprises a diverse range of tools, from virtual appointment systems to wearable heart monitors. Examples are telemedicine platforms, medical coding software and digital imaging systems.
Health information technology vs. health information management
HIT and health information management (HIM) are two distinct but interconnected fields within the healthcare industry.
HIM differs from HIT in that it’s a discipline that involves managing and using patient health information. This includes ensuring the accuracy, accessibility, privacy and security of patient records across different healthcare settings. HIM professionals are often a bridge between clinicians and administrators, as well as technology designers and IT professionals.
While HIT workers design the systems, HIM professionals use those systems to code and classify the data within patient records. They’re also responsible for ensuring compliance with regulations and medical information management.
In short: HIT focuses on the technology used to manage the information, and HIM focuses on the actual management and governance of the information itself.
Examples of health information technology
Health information technology encompasses a broad range of technologies that are designed to manage and exchange health information. Some examples can include but aren’t limited to, the following:
- E-prescribing software: Technology that allows healthcare providers to send prescriptions directly to pharmacies. This can make the process faster and more accurate.
- Patient portals: Secure online websites that offer patients 24-hour access to personal health information.
- Remote patient monitoring systems: Digital technologies that collect medical and health data from patients in one place and transmit it to their provider, often in a different location.
- Telemedicine systems: Technology that includes live videoconferencing, mobile health apps, asynchronous electronic transmission and remote patient monitoring. Telehealth systems let patients receive care and consultation remotely, improving their access to care.
- Health information systems: EHRs and medical practice management systems that providers can use to store, retrieve and manage patient information.
Health information technology careers
One of the most appealing things about health information technology and careers within the industry is the potential for growth. A wide variety of roles are available, from entry-level or early-career ones, such as help desk and support center positions, to hardware and infrastructure roles that help develop these products.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) projects healthcare employment to grow faster than other sectors over the next decade , making it an exciting time to pursue a career in healthcare technology. What’s more, skills that you develop in healthcare technology may even be transferable to or from other tech sectors, helping you prepare for new opportunities.
Potential roles available for health information technology professionals include the following:
- Health information management director
- Practice manager
- Program manager
- Medical records technician
- Medical records coordinator
What does someone in health information technology do?
Health information technology careers typically involve designing and building the tools that health providers use to manage and organize patient health data. That means creating technologies to secure and manage that information to protect patient privacy. Typical job duties for someone in this role can include:
- Building out software for the management of patient health data
- Designing tools to help improve interoperability between health technology systems
- Troubleshooting and maintenance of health information systems
- Securing patient data by implementing security measures against unauthorized access
- Integrating healthcare systems to ensure data flows between departments and facilities.
One thing to remember is that specific duties will vary widely, depending on your role within the HIT field. For example, health IT consultants might focus more on advising organizations on how to improve their use of technology, while health informatics specialists work specifically on data analysis and reporting.
Where does someone in health information technology work?
HIT professionals can work in many different settings. Because their skills are necessary wherever health data is collected, stored, processed and used, they have flexibility in choosing their workplace. Common places of employment for health information technology workers include:
- Hospitals and clinics
- Healthcare IT companies
- Insurance companies
- Government agencies
- Consulting firms
- Research institutions
- Educational institutions
Skills needed for health information technology
A career in health information technology requires a unique combination of technical ability and interpersonal skills. To do the job well, you’ll need to be able to understand the design processes and inner workings of the technology. You’ll also need to be able to capably and clearly explain how these things work to people who might not share that same technical skill set.
Hard skills
The hard skills involved in HIT roles primarily revolve around cybersecurity, medical coding, and building and using EHR programs, but those aren’t the only skills. Consider the following technical abilities you’ll need to thrive in the role:
- Medical coding: Health technologists working in medical coding need to know the appropriate diagnosis and treatment codes, including the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10), Healthcare Common Procedure Coding System (HCPCS) and diagnostic-related group (DRG) codes.
- EHR programs: Clinical IT analysts and application specialists need to be familiar with programs and systems used to collect and organize patient data. Depending on their duties, these IT professionals may also need to know computer languages like SQL and Python.
- Cybersecurity: Because of privacy regulations, every health IT professional needs to know cybersecurity best practices. Technical staff members need to monitor the network security of their databases and systems and ensure that firewalls and antivirus software are up to date.
- Data analysis: Health informatics professionals need to be able to look at large amounts of data and extract information for accurate analysis.
- Attention to detail: Since mistakes can affect the chances of a positive outcome for patients, HIT professionals need to pay close attention to detail regardless of their area of specialization.
Soft skills
Some of the key soft skills that you can use or that professionals often find valuable include the following:
- Communication: HIT professionals act as a bridge between healthcare providers and IT. That means explaining complex technical concepts in simple language.
- Problem-solving: As with any tech-related field, problems can and will arise. Having the ability to think on your feet and solve problems is crucial.
- Adaptability: Health information technology constantly evolves, whether it’s regulations, systems or practices. You need to be willing to learn new things.
- Teamwork: HIT professionals are a valued part of a team, which means collaborating with other healthcare stakeholders.
- Ethics and confidentiality: Because of the sensitive nature of health information, HIT professionals must adhere to ethical guidelines and protect patient confidentiality.
- Organization skills: Working in HIT means handling large volumes of data and multiple tasks at once. Staying organized and prioritizing projects are vital.
- Customer service: You’ll often interact with patients, healthcare providers or other stakeholders. Strong customer service skills help ensure positive interactions.
How to enhance a career in health information technology
Whether you’re coming to the field from another tech sector or are brand new to health information technology, building your career typically starts with earning requisite degrees and certificates. That’s because you need specific knowledge and technical abilities. In addition, even though most HIT roles don’t require direct patient care, many do require some form of licensure or certification.
Health information technology education
The types of jobs a health information technology education can prepare you for can vary widely, from help desk roles to oversight of the entire technology department. Some of the specific career tracks that University of Phoenix’s online healthcare information technology certificates can prepare you for include the following:
- Information systems director
- Information systems manager
- Health information management director
- Applications analyst
Health information technology certifications and licenses
For those who want to bring existing technology skills into the healthcare sector, health information systems certification can help open those doors. Whether you have an undergraduate degree or a graduate one, it’s possible to enhance your career and improve patient care with an understanding of informatics.
Licensing requirements for health information technology roles can vary by state. Although some states do not require professional certification, some employers may make it a hiring requirement. Professional accreditation options for healthcare information technology careers can include the following:
- The Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) certification is for health information technicians with an associate degree who can pass the RHIT exam.
- The Certified Professional Coder (CPC) certification has no education prerequisites, but you need to know medical coding to pass the exam.
- The AMIA Certified Health Informatics program is for master’s degree holders who want to advance in the field of health informatics.
- CompTIA A+ certification proves that qualified IT experts know necessary healthcare regulations..
Health information technology salaries
Health information technology salaries vary widely according to many factors, including the specific role, level of experience, organization size and location. These figures are from BLS and reflect annual earning ranges as of May 2023:
- Help desk or support center specialist: $45,660 and $121,920, with a median wage of $71,530
- Application analyst: $63,230 and $165,700, with a median wage of $103,800
- Project manager: $57,500 and $163,040, with a median wage of $98,580
- Directors of IT and chief information officers: $101,590 and $239,200, with a median wage of $169,510
Health information technology job outlooks
Over the next decade, BLS projects that demand across all healthcare occupations will grow much faster than the average for all occupations . That translates to an average of roughly 1.8 million openings projected per year. What does that look like for workers with careers that can stem from a health informatics certificate or a health information systems certificate?
For an information systems manager, the projected job growth between 2022 and 2032 is 15% . For applications analysts, experts predict job growth of 10% for the same period . Health information management director roles — a subset of information systems managers — meanwhile, are projected to also see 15% growth during that same span.
Is a career in health information technology right for you?
Health information technology careers are ideal for people who want to be involved in medical care without having direct contact with patients. Though they do not provide direct care, health information technology professionals are integral to the healthcare process.
You might choose this career path if you are interested in a career that requires technical knowledge, such as medical coding or computer programming.
Applications analysts and other information systems managers who work in medical settings need technical skills, but they also must be able to communicate with healthcare providers, both to learn about their IT support needs and to show them how to use computer systems and applications.
Finally, all health IT careers require postsecondary education, so it’s important to choose the degree program that’s right for you.
If you’re ready to explore degree offerings in health information technology, University of Phoenix can help. The University offers an Undergraduate Health Information Systems Certificate and a Graduate Health Care Informatics Certificate. These certificates are designed for people who want to work in information technology within the healthcare industry.
Health information technology frequently asked questions
How difficult is it to get a health information technology degree?
A degree’s difficulty is subjective, so the focus should be, what are the requirements and do you think they would work for you? Adult learning takes time, focus and energy. For many students who commit to their degree track, the time it takes to obtain a health information technology degree can vary. Those who want to pursue the Health Information Systems Certificate at UOPX must complete 24 credits, including eight core courses. The Graduate Healthcare Informatics Certificate at UOPX requires students to take four core courses.
What does a professional in health information technology do?
Health information technology involves the technological aspects of processing, storing, organizing and exchanging healthcare data. Professionals need to know how to work within the patient database software applications in which the data is stored in.
How much does a professional in health information technology make?
The salary range for professionals in this field can vary, but data from BLS shows that HIT professionals earned between $35,080 and $77,810, with a median wage of $48,780 per year, as of May 2023. Those who pursue management or analyst positions may have the opportunity to make more.
This article originally appeared on Phoenix.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org
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14 of America’s “Smartest” & Most Innovative Cities
The concept of smart cities has been around longer than one might think. The first smart city, Seuol, started its initiatives in 2014. Since then, the concept has spread around the world.
With recent advancements in AI and analytics, modern technologies have become more affordable, powerful and efficient, enabling the adoption of more smart city projects.
Several smart cities in the U.S.A. are leading the way in innovation. Their initiatives inspire others with projects in smart infrastructure, energy efficiency, sustainability and the seamless integration of digital services that use AI for good.
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A smart city uses data and connected technology to improve the quality of life for visitors and residents. By leveraging sensors, data, analytics, AI and the cloud, smart city solutions are revolutionizing how cities can thrive now and in the future.
Even in the most populated cities, transportation programs and innovations such as smart traffic lights, real-time wayfinding, bike-sharing and smart parking can ease mobility and reduce congestion, making city life more time- and energy-efficient.
By design, smart city projects should have a positive impact on sustainability. Transit-related initiatives can improve air quality by optimizing routes and reducing idling times, while the adoption of LEDs and smart lighting can reduce energy consumption. Additionally, smart home meters help residents monitor their energy and water to conserve and reduce waste, while utility projects can improve water usage at scale while minimizing pollution.
Smart cities’ hallmark characteristic, though, is enabling connectivity for all. Linking people to the resources and information they need, from critical services to education to entertainment, improves the quality of life for citizens and tourists alike. It also helps city leaders capture and analyze data to generate additional insights about civic operations and how to innovate new services for citizens’ benefit. Connectivity, then, is an important component to driving public engagement and empowering residents to play an active role in creating smart cities of the future.
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The key features of smart cities are smart infrastructure, sustainable energy management and seamless integration of digital services, including internet access for everyone. Among the numerous smart cities to watch in the U.S., 14 stand out for their incorporation of foundational projects that push the smart-city concept in new and innovative ways.
1. Dallas, Texas
Kicking off our smart city list is Dallas. The Smart Dallas vision is to be one of the most attractive cities by 2030. They started with a pilot project in a troubled neighborhood, adding LED street lights, AI-enabled cameras with environmental monitors for air quality, and ubiquitous WiFi. The project reduced crime and increased digital connectivity for the pilot neighborhood.
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Connect Chicago is adding internet access and providing digital skills training and online learning to help people upskill and reskill for the new economy. The Chicago Works for You program provides online views of service delivery, and the Chicago City Health Atlas keeps residents informed on local health trends.
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Denver’s CityNow program tests solar mini-grids and remote-controlled LED streetlights to minimize energy use. It is also piloting a smart road system with real-time navigation recommendations to help reduce congestion.
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Seattle has developed a Food Rescue Innovation Lab to find real-time information on excess food. The system provides the best logistics for getting and redistributing food to people with food insecurity and helps reduce food waste.
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Access Charlotte is extending internet access and improving digital navigation. The Learn2Earn provides digital literacy and online learning for skills development. Smart Charlotte Engagement aims to achieve digital equity and civic innovation.
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San Francisco focuses on smart transportation, with a bike-sharing program that reduces the number of vehicles in the city, and a program called SFpark that uses smart parking meters and sensors to provide real-time parking info to reduce congestion and emissions. Meanwhile, the city’s smart waste program puts sensors on waste cans to monitor when they are empty and reduce unnecessary trips for trash collection.
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The nation’s capital uses AI and analytics from video cameras to monitor who and what is moving through the city, including cars, bikes, buses and pedestrians. Officials also added smart street lights to reduce energy use, and they built digital kiosks for free public WiFi to promote citizen connectivity.
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Boston has added innovative parking apps to reduce congestion. Go Boston 2030 is an initiative to encourage alternate forms of transportation. Boston also installed smart lighting to reduce energy and added free public WiFi to improve the citizen experience.
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Chattanooga is one of two U.S. smart cities that use AI and digital twins to develop smart intersections. It will include the U.S.’s most significant urban deployment of IoT devices. The data collected will help optimize trucking routes.
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As in other cities, Boulder has added smart parking to reduce congestion, but it’s gone the extra mile to enable vehicle-to-grid EV charging to reduce emissions, and it’s enabled real-time smart air quality monitoring.
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San Jose aims to close the digital divide by expanding internet access and WiFi extenders. The Bay Area city also was the first to adopt FirstNet to facilitate reliable communication between all first responders
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New York City, like Chattanooga, makes fantastic use of AI and analytics with digital twins to create a smart system to modernize its aging grid. LinkNYC is adding free WiFi and charging stations and smart traffic management systems, while smart traffic lights using AI-enabled video cameras are helping to reduce congestion in the city.
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Miami maximizes city poles by adding IoT sensors and smart lights to save energy. The city has also focused heavily on smart civil building infrastructure, including temperature control, facial recognition and AI assistants.
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LaGrange unveiled a new solar roadway system that produces energy for a solar-powered EV charging station. These are the first road surface-powered solar panels in a U.S. city.
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It has yet to be determined what smart cities will look like in the future. Will we see flying taxis, wide-scale drone deliveries, self-driving cars, hoverboards and hyperloops? Maybe. But, if we follow existing trends, cities will be more harmonious with nature, find expanded use of natural resources and have ubiquitous connectivity.
Cities will likely add more community green space, including communal gardens where residents can access locally grown fruits and vegetables. Adding more green spaces throughout cities and on rooftops will also help improve air quality and the overall experience of living in metropolitan areas.
Smart cities are at the forefront of the global effort to achieve a sustainable future. Technology, particularly AI, will play a pivotal role in this transformation. For instance, AI will revolutionize utility grids, enabling autonomous monitoring and self-maintenance. Moreover, smart cities will rely on more reliable and sustainable fuel sources, including biodegradables, thereby reducing our dependence on fossil fuels.
One of the most exciting areas of transformation in smart cities is healthcare. The integration of AI in diagnostics and personalization is set to revolutionize the healthcare landscape. This could lead to a proliferation of remote care solutions and customized treatments, significantly improving healthcare accessibility and quality.
In the future, smart city projects will achieve connectivity for everyone. Students and adults will have access to educational programs and topics taught worldwide. Ubiquitous connectivity will finally close the knowledge and experience gap by enhancing everyone’s lives with realistic tours of museums, historic locations anywhere in the world, and more.
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Addressing data privacy concerns is a significant challenge with smart cities. People need to know what data is collected, how it is collected and how it is stored. Cities must educate citizens about these critical concerns and the benefits of using data to improve daily life. By developing a shared understanding about the data collected and how it’s used, smart cities can inspire better cooperation and collaboration with citizens.
And make no mistake, smart cities require a lot of data. Managing large datasets can be challenging for companies; imagine the task for a municipality dealing with many separate organizations (agencies, utilities, vendors, etc.) along with residents’ data. All of the information collected from these disparate sources must be stored, combined, structured, analyzed, migrated to the cloud and integrated with new solutions and services. Cities should work with experienced system integrators to streamline the process.
Cybersecurity is a risk with any technology project. Smart cities are no different, especially as they collect data from thousands or millions of endpoints, some of which may have personally identifiable information – compounding the privacy concerns noted above.
Project officials must ensure robust encryption techniques when transmitting data, they must go to great lengths to collect only the essential data, and data storage should be decentralized to add another layer of protection. Technologies like blockchain and AI can help safeguard systems and data, and including experienced cybersecurity experts is essential.
Another overlooked challenge, surprisingly, is that not everyone has access to the internet. The digital divide is real. Bringing connectivity to underserved communities and being inclusive in urban internet access is a key feature of smart cities. Some of the top smart cities in the U.S., in fact, have dedicated programs that add WiFi kiosks to extend internet access for those who don’t currently have it. Other cities are using multi-use towers with smart lights and AI-enabled video cameras to install WiFi extenders for improved access.
Regulations can protect all parties involved in smart city programs, and they can help to build confidence in the concept. The Smart Cities and Communities Act of 2021 aimed to update the nation’s physical infrastructure using data analytics and sensors to improve energy, water and transportation services.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) also joined several other countries in releasing guidelines for protecting assets in smart city programs. As smart cities in the U.S. add additional categories of projects, more regulations will likely evolve.
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Becoming a smart city doesn’t happen overnight. Civic leaders should start with one project, something visible and with an immediate impact like traffic management, to prove the concept and build support.
Engaging citizens is essential. Smart cities need data collection, and that requires citizen cooperation. Citizen input ensures that smart initiatives align with their needs, and it helps provide a shared sense of responsibility among residents for the project’s success.
Another benefit of collecting citizen input is uncovering innovation to urban living challenges, a hallmark of smart cities and a key consideration for city planners.
Citizen ideas can lead to efficient solutions, like more online service options. For example, the pandemic drove wide acceptance of the telehealth industry. It was a necessity then, but now it’s a consistent and widely accepted way to provide more people with easy access to healthcare.
Collaborating and learning from citizens and other cities is key to the future. Without knowing what works and what doesn’t, how can smart cities hope to evolve and become even smarter? Information sharing and other collaborative efforts should include a number of stakeholders, even technology companies and associations like the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA), in addition to the “usual suspects” of governments, universities and citizen-led groups.
One collaborative example is the CityBridge program in New York City. The goal of this initiative is to replace 6,400 payphones with smart kiosks that provide and extend WiFi signals. Funding will come not from taxes, but from the advertising displayed on the kiosks, an excellent example of public/private partnership and creative thinking.
In another example, Chattanooga, Tennessee, is working with the US Department of Energy (DOE) to analyze freight-based traffic congestion using digital twins and AI. Truck congestion leads to wasted time and fuel. The project aims to optimize trucking routes and pave the way to truck-based transport efficiency throughout the US.
Smart city initiatives are noble endeavors. The innovative projects in 14 of the top smart cities in the USA will lead to a smarter and more efficient future.
This article originally appeared on Sandtech.com and was syndicated by MediaFeed.org.
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