Analytic Skills In High Demand

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

According to a study published in the Journal of the AHIMA, the most in-demand skill for health IT workers is big data and analytics knowledge.

Analytics is increasingly important, and health IT staffs are feeling the pressure to adjust to this shift in the workforce. According to a recent survey conducted by AHIMA, healthcare big data analytics and informatics skills will become the most sought-after skills over the next few years.

“Data analytics is a newer, widely misunderstood domain within the healthcare ecosystem. The projected growth of data analytics is expected, but defining the roles to meet this demand is difficult. However, HIM professionals are perfectly geared to fill this ‘data’ niche because they have a very strong understanding of healthcare data, operations, and clinical processes. Such expertise is often lacking among applicants who are looking to fill analytics roles,” explained researchers.

Health IT Analytics reports respondents envision themselves taking on more visible leadership roles in the near future as care quality and revenue cycle management begin to lean more heavily on actionable insights generated from big data. In the future, they expect to spend a higher percentage of their time on teaching, legal work, quality, and data standards.

Additionally, they expect analytical thinking, research capabilities, and risk management will be significantly more important.

“To meet future healthcare market needs and better define healthcare analytics roles, HIM professionals need to exploit their knowledge,” concluded researchers. “If HIM professionals take a leadership role in this domain, healthcare organizations will be more effective at implementing information governance programs and achieving desired outcomes.”