Tech professionals working in healthcare not only face all the same challenges their brethren in other industries do, but they also must cope with a dizzying variety of regulations and rules from federal and state agencies, as well as complying with internal policies and providing for the needs of insurance companies.
And then, of course, there are the medical devices controlled by sophisticated programs, and the doctors, nurses, lab technicians and others who depend on speedy and accurate access to medical records.
It’s never been an easy job managing medical databases, not to mention keeping up with the networking and software needs that are common to every large employer. It’s even harder now, with so many rules and requirements changing as a result of Obamacare, and the coming implementation of an expanded system of classifying and coding illnesses, injuries and procedures (ICD-10 CM and ICD-10 PCS).
Fortunately there are any number of blogs specifically for tech professionals in healthcare. Some focus on specific issues. The 3M Health Information Systems for example deals almost exclusively with the classification revisions.
Health IT Buzz — a government run site — focuses on explaining the transition to medical records. A Microsoft sponsored site attempts to comprehensively cover issues relevant to healthcare tech workers, ranging from developing successful UIs to mobile-ready records and the use of tablets instead of clipboards and charts.
Since privacy and security are huge issues for every healthcare provider, it’s natural to expect a site addressing just that issue, which is what Healthcare Security/Privacy does.
HealthSystemCIO.com is big-picture oriented, focusing on strategy and trends for those who lead tech groups.
There’s also a professional organization for medical IT workers. The Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation offers certifications, technical resources, conferences and discussion groups.