If you’re out of work, or otherwise are looking for the next big wave to ride, you might consider a certain niche in the medical industry.
Incredible amounts of money are about to be spent by the Obama administration on converting the entire hospital system to electronic patient records. Systems will have to be designed and commodified, which is plenty exciting work, but is not where the real money lies. Each hospital will have to implement the package, which will be in some ways comparable to implementing an ERP system. Way difficult, time consuming, and costly.
How expensive? The article I reference suggests $20 million for a small hospital, and $200 million for a major research center. This is an IT ricebowl that will feed tens of thousands for a decade, and provide a lifetime career to the agile and adaptible. Contractors with the right mix of services in the right geographical location will make a fortune year after year offering support. Cynical observers will note that when the federal government embarks on multi-billion-dollar enterprises, it suddenly becomes easier to get rich. Even ethically.
Implementation will require skills in software packages, hardware, systems analysis and programming, security practices, networking, project management, and training. And, anyone who wants to really get ahead will realize it requires an underlying understanding of two major businesses, health care delivery and health care administration.
I’d look for this to get up and running in 2010, and going full steam by 2012. If you’ve got time on your hands, train for this.
http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20090325/ap_on_hi_te/med_hospitals_medical_records
