You may want to consider a health IT job, for which openings-along with pay-are soaring year over year, according to online career site, Dice.com, which specializes in engineering and technology postings. While the number of open IT jobs posted on Dice.com overall has climbed 24% since last year, demand for health IT talent has shot up the most, said Alice Hill managing director of Dice.com. "health IT jobs are up 75% over last year," said Hill in an interview with InformationWeek Healthcare. Although health IT jobs make up a relatively small segment of overall tech jobs posted on Dice.com, "nothing has been as large" as the surge in demand seen by Dice for health IT postings, she said. Approximately 3,000 health IT jobs are currently posted on Dice.com, she said.



It's not just the number of health IT job openings that are spiking, but pay for those positions is climbing too, she said. Health IT annual pay averaged in the mid to upper $70K range for many years till recently when it broke the $80K mark, she said. Of health IT, the set of skills being most sought after are those related to e-health records or e-medical records, she said. Also, among health IT job openings, positions that require skills in working with Cerner health IT platforms have jumped 80%, said Hill. Overall within health IT, many employers are seeking professionals with previous experience working in enterprise environments, as well as strong analytical and problem solving skills, she said.

Among employers looking to fill health IT jobs include Sharp Healthcare in San Diego, UnitedHealth in Minneapolis, and Baylor Health in Dallas, according to a Dice spokeswoman. Open positions at those organizations include health IT program and project mangers, and senior systems analyst. The hunt for experienced health IT people could get tougher as Meaningful Use deadlines loom, and newly installed EHR, computerized physician order entry, and other clinical information systems require ongoing support and enhancements, Hill said. In addition, private organizations have been also stepping up with new programs to train an emerging health IT workforce. Recent offerings range from new certificate programs for health IT implementation and support technicians from professional organization CompTIA to online training EHR courses for techies and non-techies from private educational firm Alameda Services.

CPOE,CureMD,Dice.com,e-health record,e-medical record,EHR,EMR,health it program,hitech,salary,Technology