Managing Health Information Technology

Paul Mulhern, a faculty member with UMBC’s graduate program in Health IT, spoke with us about the Health IT field and the importance of professionals who are able to bridge the gap between technology and patient care. He said that the number one complaint of clinical health care professionals is that the technologists don’t understand what they need to serve their patients in the best and most effective way possible.

What this means is there is a huge opportunity for those entering the field. If a person can bridge that gap and create cohesive communication between technology and patients, then their value will increase.

“It’s imperative that Health IT professionals develop a strong sense of empathy so they can see the world through the eyes of others,” Says Mulhern. “Being able to understand technology problems and the concerns, anxieties, and fears that come associated with them is crucial. If a person is creating, maintaining, or managing software for an emergency response system, then having a sense of what the people who are doing the frontline work are experiencing is really helpful when you're providing the technical support for them. The better a person can grasp the issues and offer alternate solutions, the more successful they will be in performing client work,” concluded Mulhern.