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Top 5 skills for a career in health technology
Top 5 skills for a career in health technology

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Health technology is accelerating at a great pace and there's a need for technologists to invest their skills towards solving future global health care challenges. The impact of advancing technology in health care has been profoundly transformative.

Essential skills for technologists

Today, health technology is improving the quality of health care delivery, patient data security, virtual care, medical research and more. As the role of technology in health care continues to grow, it's creating a gap in the demand and supply for technology talent across the world. 

To be a part of this rapid development, technologists will need some essential skills to empower care providers and consumers alike:

Cloud computing

Cloud computing allows users to access services like storage, software, databases, networking, etc., over the internet through a cloud provider, creating efficient functioning and reducing costs. It also facilitates easy tracking of patient data, safe storage, and enables health care officials to deliver care remotely through telehealth.

The health tech industry is growing and approximately 83% of the global health care sector relies on cloud for its data management. This warrants a need for professionals like cloud engineers and architects, who can design, implement, configure and maintain cloud-based systems in health tech organizations. 

Cloud service platform expertise, knowledge of programming languages, and familiarity with database management, among others, are also highly sought-after skills in technologists working in the field of health care.

Health data analysis

Easy data storage, enabled by digital technologies, has made vast amounts of data available to researchers, insurers, care providers and others. The processing, analyzing and leveraging of this data is an integral aspect of health tech. Health data analysis involves systems analysis, system design, system selection, implementation, support and maintenance, systems testing and evaluation, and system privacy and security.

The field has a strong demand for professionals well-versed in skills like database programming languages such as SQL and Python, data visualization and management software such as Tableau, data processing and communication skills.

UI/UX design

Large-scale digitization in health care is providing new opportunities for tech professionals to create customer/patient interfaces that bring smooth, engaging and satisfying experiences. Technologists would need to balance the requirements of patients, medical practitioners, and health care institutions, and have skills to create clear and simple-to-use designs for compliance, checklists, task management and patient data management.

Aspiring UI/UX design professionals in health care need proficiency in design framework, wireframe tools and troubleshooting UX problems. Their areas of responsibility include wearable technologies, telemedicine and remote patient monitoring, chatbots, mental health virtual assistants and more. 

Medical coding and health informatics

Health informatics professionals’ competence in processing health care data in coded and classified formats for payment, registration or patient record maintenance, is poised to make them indispensable in the industry. Also indispensable will be experts in medical coding, which entails converting health care diagnoses, procedures, medical services and equipment into universally accepted medical codes.

Professionals looking to excel in this field will need to be qualified in medical coding and billing systems, medical terminologies, regulatory requirements and auditing concepts and principles.

Artificial intelligence

Technological advancements like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the internet of things (IoT) have proved to be game changers in health care. 

AI applications in health care can enable better outcomes, substantially reduce cost of care, enable early diagnosis including precision health, advance clinical research in emerging areas like pharmacogenomics, assist with accurate procedures using robotics and more.

Digital technologies and health care's future

Health technology is accelerating at a great pace and there is a need for technologists to invest their skills in health care to solve for future global challenges. This sector is fast-evolving, allowing professionals with industry-specific skill sets from varied backgrounds to find exciting work opportunities.

Professionals with a passion for solving complex problems will be instrumental in anticipating future pandemics and enabling drug discovery with analytics. Consequently, this new generation of technologists will play an important role in simplifying and improving patient experiences and helping modernize the health system.

 

The article was written by Sureshkumar Rajasekar, PhD, vice president, technology, Optum Global Solutions (India) Private Limited, and was published by Express Healthcare.

For more such content, please visit - www.optum.in


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