Whether telemedicine or digital patient records: Technological progress is opening up new care options, treatment paths and services for companies in the healthcare sector. In view of the revolution in the health care system and the growing cost pressure, it is becoming increasingly important for the healthcare industry to take advantage of the opportunities of digital transformation.
Consistent information flows and more efficient workflows between all players in the healthcare industry require a high level of interoperability in the IT landscape. Healthcare IT consulting supports companies in the healthcare industry in the use of innovative technologies such as Big Data Analytics and eCollaboration as well as mobile solutions to make their processes cost-effective, compliant and secure.
Companies and institutions in the healthcare sector are facing the challenge of digitization. They are forced to meet particularly high security standards. Healthcare IT consulting firms provide companies with modern healthcare applications that rely on an IT infrastructure or IT technology which offer new opportunities to accelerate long-overdue processes in healthcare management, ensure patient safety as the highest good, and thus also reduce costs.
What is healtcare IT consulting?
Healthcare IT consulting firms help companies keep up with the rapid digital development and develop further. This includes the logistics of medicines, medical procedures, and the storage of patient histories. For many healthcare institutions, the dynamic and fast changing technology revolution is why they turn to healthcare IT consulting firms in order to ensure that under the strict healthcare templates and requirements, their patients receive the most effective and up-to-date care.
Typical duties of healthcare IT consulting firms include the following:
- Ensuring compliance with government regulations.
- Supporting internal or external staff and training procedures or technologies.
- Forecasting future trends in healthcare IT, including technology requirements.
- Disseminating new information to various levels of an organization, including those outside the IT department, such as physicians and nurses.
Healthcare IT consulting salary
Salaries in the field of healthcare IT consulting vary depending on the position and location. Generally, however, it can be said that the Healthcare IT consulting salary is on a high range. According to the salary website Glassdoor, the healthcare IT consulting salary is approximately 83,899 US dollars. However, you can also find much higher salaries in this sector.
Is healthcare consulting a good career?
The demand for specialists in the field of healthcare IT consulting is growing rapidly, as supply is scarce. IT specialists in healthcare are among the most sought-after employees in the industry. It is expected that both the salary and the supply of specialists will increase by 23% by next year.
Healthcare IT services
The healthcare industry has unique requirements for cloud services, IT security, software licensing and procurement. For health, the concern is saving lives, making patients’ lives easier, and protecting their sensitive data.
To do this, keeping devices compliant and secure, choosing the right cloud solution, and ensuring data compliance are all very important. Today, IT teams in clinics and healthcare facilities have one of the toughest jobs. They must ensure that physicians and clinical staff have access to the right applications and data sets when they need them. They must optimize IT operations while adding the most value to the organization and supporting improvements in patient care.
Protection against outside cyberthreats is necessity as healthcare organizations are increasingly targeted by online criminals. Healthcare IT services must protect systems, users and patient data from aggressive hackers.Healthcare IT services must deliver exceptional and timely service. With increasing expectations from physicians and patients, regulatory mandates and external security threats, this is a major challenge. Aging, unpatched software and the growing number of attacks targeting users leave the healthcare industry vulnerable.
Further, the time physicians have for patients is scarce. Patients get more attention and better care when the right records and applications are immediately available.
IT staff should ensure availability of critical systems and applications and reduce life-threatening consequences when clinical applications are not highly available.
And most importantly, the device landscape for IT is complex. Devices must be securely connected and equipped with the latest applications, access controls, and tools.
What is a healthcare software developer?
A healthcare software developer offers compatible and integrable solutions into healthcare companies or institutions such as hospitals. Most healthcare facilities already have information systems in place, as well as medical equipment. It is important here that software solutions are compatible with in-house systems and hardware. After all, medical facilities have less time than ever for complex installations, configurations and training. The requirements for healthcare solutions are high.
A healthcare software developer must provide health specialists with applications that are absolutely reliable and meet strict data protection requirements. Solutions used in medical facilities today often have their origins in other industries. This makes them impractical for doctors and nurses. For this reason, the solutions must be easy to integrate into everyday hospital life, be as intuitive as possible to use, and offer a high level of added value for hospital staff and other health institutions.
Nowadays, there is no way around digitization in the healthcare sector, because there is a pronounced shortage of skilled workers in the medical field – so it is not a matter of cutting back on skilled personnel, but of attracting and retaining well-qualified specialists. Facilities with a good digital infrastructure will have better chances in this competition.
Healthcare IT consulting firms
As in other sectors, information processing in healthcare is aligned with business needs. For hospitals and other healthcare institutions, this means that the IT strategy is based on two essential cornerstones: the business strategy and the medical strategy. It is important that the strategy is developed stringently from the resulting requirements. Only in this way can the value contribution of IT to the company’s success and thus the meaningfulness of cost-saving or investment measures be justified.
The components of a hospital IT strategy, for example, are identical to those in other industries: First, the IT mission and guidelines are sharpened and the service model and portfolio are defined. The organizational structure, process and management structure are defined in terms of a target image.
The next step focuses on the technology management to be determined. In addition to planning the application landscape with an IT application development plan and migration paths, this also includes the selection of the technology and operating platform.
The insights gained from weaknesses and the need for action are then analyzed together with the associated business case considerations, worked out in detail and transferred to an integrated plan. The development of the IT measures in turn supports and empowers the corporate and medical strategy.
