CAREER OPPORTUNITIES

---

Search Our Site:

Article Archive

Aug/Sept 03 June/July 03 April/May 03 Feb/March 03 Dec 02/Jan 03 Oct/Nov 02

Changing Technologies
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE AND RELATED INDUSTRIES

Healthcare IT: strong & growing

Spending is projected to increase this year and next. That's good news for technologists who can meet the special requirements of IT's most viable industry

By Michael Gates
Contributing Editor

Geraldine Cruz.

Even in a down economy, the healthcare industry continues to hold its own. According to a recent report by research firm Gartner Dataquest (San Jose, CA; www.gartner.com), healthcare is one of two industries that will show the strongest growth in IT spending in 2003 and 2004 - though the growth will be only by single digits.

"Across the industry, healthcare organizations are investigating the benefits and costs of IT and business process outsourcing," declares Geraldine Cruz, senior analyst for Gartner Dataquest's IT services group. There are "compelling drivers to IT spending," she notes, although she cautions that "The industry's constrained ability to invest capital, and its difficulty embracing IT systems, may slow new initiatives."

Staffing shortages drive IT
The Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS, Chicago, IL; www.himss.org) discusses these issues in its 2003 staffing and technology survey. "It is widely recognized that American healthcare providers are facing a staffing shortage," the survey notes. "Many believe technology can help lessen the impact of staff shortages, particularly by automating clerical and other tasks to give practitioners more time for direct patient care."

Nearly 60 percent of the healthcare execs surveyed by HIMSS agreed that the increased use of technology can enhance patient safety and reduce errors. When asked to name specific technologies, 51 percent cited electronic medical records. About 43 percent mentioned point-of-care technology like automated monitoring equipment, and 34 percent listed mobile communication and wireless technology.

The privacy-of-records avalanche
Complying with government demands for the privacy and security of patient records is a major IT-related challenge. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) of 1996 was first implemented in 2003, as everybody who visited a doctor this year knows very well. The act mandates standard formats for electronic claims and enhanced confidentiality procedures.

But according to the U.S. Healthcare Industry Quarterly HIPAA compliance survey for winter 2003 (www.hipaadvisory.com), only a small percentage of healthcare providers and payers were in compliance at the end of 2002. There's clearly a lot of IT work still to be done.

Specific focus is vital
Reconfiguring electronic record-keeping systems is one of the first places to start. And this requires IT pros who understand not only systems, but the security and privacy issues involved with HIPAA.

Susan Sumner is VP of info management for Alza, the drug-delivery technology firm.

"For our industry, business knowledge and focus are more important than specific technology skills," says Susan Sumner, VP of information management for Alza Corp (Mountain View, CA), a maker of drug-delivery technologies. Talented IT folks easily learn new applications, tools and technologies, she says, but healthcare "has very specific needs in terms of regulations that must be met. The regulatory environment in which we operate is significantly different fromÊother industries, and guides all that we do. This is crucial to understand and take to heart."

Al Beaulieu, director of compensation and benefits at Boston Medical Center (Boston, MA), is set on finding IT people with hospital experience. "It shortens the learning curve," he says, "because they're already familiar with the interpersonal dynamics."

Drawing talent
Some healthcare organizations go so far as to recruit IT staff from the ranks of nurses, lab techs, pharmacists and even doctors. "We try to find clinical professionals who have made the move toward clinical IT systems and solutions," notes Kristi Lyon, a resource manager at Perot Systems (Plano, TX), which does healthcare consulting and IT services.

Monica Hamling.

But most draw their IT talent from a variety of industries. At Medtronic, Inc (Minneapolis, MN), a maker of implantable biomedical devices, talent acquisition consultant Monica Hamling notes that IT recruits often come from telecom, defense and "other quality-critical environments."

Other skills
At healthcare provider Humana Inc (Louisville, KY), corporate staffing manager Cindy McCauley looks for IT pros "who have really good communication skills and are able to communicate with the nontechnical audience."

Mark Green, VP for human resources at Eclipsys (Atlanta, GA), a software company that specializes in healthcare apps, is seeking high-caliber talent, especially pros with managerial and leadership abilities.

Exciting times for IT pros
These are exciting times for IT professionals in the healthcare arena, says Green. Healthcare places "a continued premium on information and those who can channel and harness it." He points to "a multitude of varied opportunities within the industry."

IT pros in healthcare "will be challenged and able to stay abreast of the technology," agrees Bruce Stiely, senior technical recruiter for Integic (Chantilly, VA), a software integrator for healthcare and other industries. "The opportunity for growth and advancement is tre-mendous," he notes.

Alza's Sumner sees healthcare through the pharmaceutical lens. "All sorts of new technologies like bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics are coming into play in the pharmaceutical industry," she notes. "They will change the world of healthcare and the role of IT in it."

Everyone agrees that, at least indirectly, IT professionals in healthcare affect the well-being of millions of people every day. The seven IT pros we interviewed understand that, and consider it an important perk in their careers.

Saad Ayub handles customer contract systems at healthcare insurance giant Aetna.

Saad Ayub: customer contact at Aetna Information Services
Every time customers call healthcare insurance giant Aetna or click on its website, they're interacting with Saad Ayub's technology. His customer contact systems group designs everything from speech-recognition systems to Web apps.

"I find it satisfying," he says. "I can go all the way from seeing what the problem is to delivering a solution to it."

He also likes managing his sizable group. "I find a lot of interesting projects that intrigue me."

Ayub joined Aetna in June 2002 after five years with McKinsey & Co (New York, NY), a management consulting firm, where he worked on technology and business strategy. Before that he was with GTE Labs (Boston, MA), doing systems development and support work.

He has an MBA, an MSCS and a 1992 PhD in CS from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (Troy, NY). He's originally from Pakistan, and earned his undergrad degree in computer engineering at the Middle East Technical University (Ankara, Turkey).

"When I first got into IT, it was just because I liked the technology," he recalls. "Over time, I've found it interesting to work with people and mentor them, and that's become one of my passions."

Ayub agrees that understanding the business is highly important. "People think they have to know each and every technology to get a job in healthcare, but I think that's only 50 percent of the picture. The other half is business acumen. Take some business courses, so that you think more holistically about problems."

At Integic, Lisa Foy manages "technical ops that go on across our healthcare practice."

Lisa Foy manages projects at Integic
At Integic, Lisa Foy is director of process integration and helpdesk. She also manages "a lot of the technical operations that go on across our healthcare practice." About twenty-five people report to her.

She joined the company five years ago, originally to work on its e.Power workflow product. Before that she did similar work for CACI, another systems integration company.

The systems integration specialty is particularly interesting to Foy. "I like the ability to operate without a vendor bias - to go to the customer with multiple options for potential solutions, and a recommendation on the best possible one. I like having all of the options available."

At Georgetown University (Washington, DC), Foy studied Russian and linguistics for her 1988 bachelors. Later, she found that her studies in linguistics made it easier for her to pick up programming languages. "All languages are about syntax, proper structure, ending your sentence well and those kinds of things. But you have to have business logic."

After college she did some work in biotech and some related to the state legislature before joining CACI. She started there working on administrative databases. "The more I did that, the more involved with technology I became," she recalls. She began to work toward an MS in information management at Marymount University (Arlington, VA), and when she finished the degree in 1994 she moved to Integic.

Healthcare IT can be particularly satisfying, Foy believes. "The word Ôcritical' takes on a whole new meaning here," she says. "We never forget that there's an individual at the other end of our systems. This is technology working for people, and it's really about the people, not the technology."

Nadine Lezada directs info management for enterprise solutions at Alza Corp.

At Alza, Nadine Lezada directs information management
"Every day is different. It's exciting," says Nadine Lezada, who directs information management for enterprise solutions at Alza Corp. She's been with the company for nine years.

She started as a computer support specialist on desktop apps. But she had experience with ERP from a previous job at Teledyne Microwave, a defense contractor. So when Alza began to implement its PeopleSoft financials apps, Lezada transferred to the accounting department as a business systems analyst to help out. "I ended up becoming a manager of that effort," she says.

Besides the integration work, she served as a liaison between accounting and IT. Then she went back to the IT department as manager of IT software development for business systems.

After Alza was purchased by Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, NJ), the IT organization's focus turned to integration and transition work, Lezada says. "Integrating our systems with J&J's systems is a big job, and it's ongoing."

Lezada originally thought she'd be a hardware person. She studied computer engineering at Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, CA) but didn't enjoy it. She transferred to Bay Valley Technical Institute (Santa Clara, CA), earned a degree in electronics and went to work as an electronics technician for Teledyne.

In 1987 she got a BS in IS management from the University of San Francisco, and worked in MIS at Teledyne before moving on to Alza.

Lezada loves working in IT. "When I'm interviewing for new staff members," she notes, "I always try to find out if they're truly interested in it. That's the spark that makes a good employee."

At Perot, Homeyra Hollebeck manages healthcare automation
Homeyra Hollebeck manages the healthcare process automation group at technical services firm Perot Systems (Plano, TX). It's a demanding job, she says, "but very challenging and rewarding as well."

Her group of fourteen designs apps, primarily for client Tenet Healthcare Corp (Santa Barbara, CA), a large hospital chain. Group members work with platforms like Windows 2000, DB, ASP, SQL, .net and Intranets, and Hollebeck and her team members have to know all of them.

She also deals with other customers "with different configurations and skill levels. Some are pretty computer-savvy and others not so much, so you have to get to their skill level and help them out."

Born in Iran, Hollebeck received her BS in math and applied science in 1989 from the University of California-Los Angeles. When she started at Perot Systems in 1990 she worked in payroll as a mainframe programmer. She went on to accounting, inventory control and managed care.

Four years ago she took on her management role. "Sometimes I miss the coding part of it, but I really like the interaction I have with my team members," she says. "If your people like you, they'll go above and beyond to help you out."

Valerie Scott: IT support at Medtronic, Inc
It's a complex job. As an IT support engagement specialist, Valerie Scott works with IT contacts in Medtronic's business units. She helps them set up support groups and document their roles and responsibilities.

"Another aspect of my job is to document hundreds of applications, so the support center staff can assist employees when they call for help," she notes. This, she says, means working with a "very structured template that documents escalation paths as well as basic information about each application. After I complete the template I convert the document into compact HTML, format it by adding the appropriate links, and then I post it."

She entered IT in the 1970s, before there were any degrees in IT, she says. Her BA from Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) is in social anthropology. But she also has a background in classical piano, and music and programming aptitude often seem to go together.

"I took a test with IBM and became a systems engineer," she explains. Then she was recruited by AT&T. She's also been a point-of-sale coordinator, installing electronic cash-register systems for a division of JC Penney, and a recruiter.

"In working for other firms, my efforts went to help the company make a profit," Scott says. "At Medtronic, I know my work eventually helps restore full lives to patients. That is really gratifying."

Honghong Zhu.

Honghong Zhu develops software at Eclipsys
Developing software for Eclipsys involves a variety of skills, both technical and nontechnical, says Honghong Zhu. Besides programming, problem-solving, communication and teamwork are essential.

"You also need to become familiar with healthcare-specific terminology, including hospital procedures and other systems," she adds. "My assignments range from fixing bugs and developing new functionalities to working with the QA staff to test new software products. Sometimes I talk with customers directly to help them with their problems."

Zhu got her 1991 BSCS from Nanjing University in China. She worked for five years as a programmer for an electrical power supply bureau in China. Then she came to the U.S. for her 1998 MS in math from Tennessee Technological University. After graduation she worked as a programmer for another company, and joined Eclipsys in 2000.

IT work for a healthcare company is different, she feels. "Healthcare software deals with patient information and hospital procedures. In some IT areas, a problem occurring on Saturday or Sunday could wait until Monday to be resolved. But if there's a problem with healthcare software, there's a higher sense of urgency and criticality."

Eclipsys' Bihn Pham works with healthcare software at beta and production sites.

At Eclipsys, Bihn Pham programs Windows and Web
As a Windows/Web programmer at Eclipsys, Bihn Pham designs, develops, supports and maintains new and existing software at beta and production sites. "The challenges of my job include learning new things at a very fast pace, researching software problems and working with domain experts in the healthcare area," she comments. She uses Microsoft Visual Studio, C++, C, ASP.net, VB.net and Borland Delphi in her work.

Pham has a BSCS from Georgia State University. Eclipsys is her first employer.

"I became a programmer because I enjoy what the technology can bring to our lives," she says. "Computer software was my first key point of interest at home and at school."

"IT pros in healthcare develop and support systems and services that improve the quality of patient care and dramatically affect the success of their organizations," says Mark Green of Eclipsys. "Unique to healthcare, they may have the opportunity to impact the lives of millions through breakthrough, information-based solutions."

D/C

Michael Gates is a freelance writer and editor based in Jersey City, NJ.