Monday, June 15, 2009

Health IT Jobs for Physicians


There are so many different types of health information technology (Health IT) jobs for physicians. If you're a seasoned executive, then you could be a Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO). However, if you're not so "seasoned," then you'll have to earn your stripes. But where do you begin?

Sometimes, the best starting place is to join some professional societies and to learn about the different types of opportunities that are out there. Let me suggest 3 major organizations:
  1. American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA)
  2. Association of Medical Directors of Information Systems (AMDIS)
  3. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS)
You can learn so much by joining these groups and participating in some of the educational sessions. The landscape of health IT is changing so quickly that it remains critical to stay on top of all the updates and legislative changes that are impacting this industry. If you feel like you lack formal health IT education, then you may also want to consider some formal programs (either master's level or post-graduate fellowships) in health informatics (or they may be called medical informatics, biomedical informatics, etc.).

2 comments:

  1. Good advice, Dr. Kim.
    In addition to these examples, there are many opportunities for physicians interested in HIT to get involved at the hospital level (e.g., serving on steering committees, participating in design sessions). These represent good opportunities for clinicians to get a glimpse of applied medical informatics. And, if your healthcare organization is like ours, you would be compensated for the time you contribute as a physician leader.

    Ferdinand Velasco, M.D.
    Chief Medical Information Officer
    Texas Health Resources
    twitter: @ftvelasco

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  2. Dr. Velasco, thanks so much for your comments. It's great to hear about some of these opportunities for physicians working in the clinical setting. This is the type of information that medical residents (who have strong interests in health IT) need to hear.

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