If you've kept up with the news in recent months, you're aware of the shortage of qualified IT professionals to fill positions in hospitals and medical practices. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts that jobs in health informatics will jump by 18% by 2016 and expects there will be shortage of about 50,000 health IT workers over the next five years.

Few people challenge those statistics, but what's upsetting job candidates is that many health IT managers only want people with a clinical background.


Essentially, the debate revolves around this issue: Is it easier to teach an IT generalist the clinical principles needed to work in a hospital or practice, or teach a clinician the general IT principles?

Juliet Daniel, MD, senior director of medical informatics for Community Health Systems, which is responsible for more than 130 hospitals in 29 states, thinks the latter. During a phone interview, Daniel said it's important for someone working in health IT to "understand what it's like to use an EHR" from an end user's perspective. "Healthcare and clinical workflow are just so important, and if you're an IT person and don't understand it, it's hard for you to be influential."At the managerial level, a clinical background certainly has advantages, especially if you're in a liaison position, as Daniel is. She spends part of her time translating the IT department's capabilities and limitations to clinicians who want to tweak the IT tools so they improve patient care. A comparable position at a company in another industry might be business analyst.

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