Demand for Health IT Professionals Continues To Rise

A look at the week of December 19 in public advocacy for the IT channel: This week, Fierce Health IT reports that health IT professionals are some of the most in-demand members of the workforce.  The Hill listed network protections as one of Congress’s top priorities for 2012.  Federal CIO Steven Van Roekel wants to break agencies’ habit of clinging to outdated technology.

Demand for Health IT Professionals Continues To Rise — There is a significant demand for health IT professionals with medical experience, says a new report from MedZilla.com. MedZilla estimates that 50,000 new health IT-related jobs have been created since the passage of the HITECH Act in 2009, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently projected that health IT jobs would increase by 20 percent annually through 2018, far above the average for any other occupation, reports Fierce HealthIT.

The Hill Sees Network Security as Top Tech Priority of 2012 — The Hill reports that pressure on Congress to improve the country's network protections will continue to increase. House Republicans have recently begun moving on a series of measures designed to encourage information-sharing between the private sector and government.  Meanwhile the Senate is close to finalizing a proposal much closer to the White House's plan, which would give the Department of Homeland Security broader authority to ensure critical infrastructure firms comply with government security standards.

Federal CIO Pushes for New Systems, Shared Services — Agency information technology shops often spend so much time and money trying to get the full value from old investments that there are not sufficient resources available to try something new, federal Chief Information Officer Steven Van Roekel said this week.  The result: agencies pay more in the long run to maintain old technology and are saddled with sudden funding challenges when those systems finally break down, reports Nextgov.com. Earlier this month, Van Roekel outlined a shared services strategy aimed at consolidating IT functions, first within divisions and then at agency and interagency levels.