Cross-Pollination is Not Just for Bees

Accelerating Workforce Development

Shashi Yadiki, NTT DATA Health Plans Business Unit President

Today’s healthcare IT workforce has a significant number of remote workers. Keeping them on the same page is a challenge, even for the most organized and forward-thinking organizations. Communication and engagement with the modern workforce in healthcare information technology are unique challenges for our industry in my opinion. Development of these professionals demands a shift in style as well.

A New World, a New Focus

Traditionally, a person came into an organization as a entry level position, and then for IT,  had a very technical movement up the chain and moved on. In tomorrow’s world, especially through digital transformation, we have two key technology areas, AI and Intelligent Automation, that are dramatically impacting what the definition of work is for the future.  Now, people are encouraged to broaden their thinking into, “How do I adapt to using it but avoid being consumed by it?” The workforce, and their leadership has to figure out how they use AI and intelligent automation effectively. That answer will make a big difference for the future.  What is valued by an employee is less about quantity, and more about the value, or creative thinking they bring to the table.

Communication has to adapt, too. In the past, it has been about email and in-person conversations, but now it’s more about virtual workplaces and asynchronous communication. With people spread around the world and across time zones, the question is how to get them together?   Although there are a lot of collaboration tools, they don’t always enable truly virtual teams. We have to build virtual communities to keep teams engaged and motivated and most importantly, informed.

Hybrid IT Workers are the Buzz

So, as a worker in this work, what do you need to focus on, where can you drive impact? Someone that understands data and its importance to the healthcare environment is an invaluable asset in the modern healthcare IT workforce. That’s a given. Further, whether you are a physician or a technical person, data, and the user of data for the business is the foundation. When we bring people into the workforce we have to really emphasize the use of data. How is it gathered? How is it analyzed? What does it tell us, and what do we do with it? Everything has to start with better use of health data. Creating an environment where there is a higher understanding and appreciation of data leads to more engagement in the workforce.

Since almost every advancement is related to data – and how to work with, analyze and utilize it – people who understand data in these ways can move into different career paths. But, it is more than just the data, but, where do we get it.  We are moving from all of our data coming from the transactional systems, to the broader digital world. When you can have people that understand the social elements of healthcare like, say, social workers or chronic care nurses, and that also understand what data tells them — the Social Determinants of Health — they can more effectively provide care. This is the type of “hybrid” professional we need now.

Cross-Pollination for Worker Bees

At NTT DATA, we give our people the toolsets they need to understand data better. We also help them understand the care part of healthcare, so they go on different paths as part of a digital transformation journey and career. HIMSS reminds us that a well-trained workforce is the foundation for continuing to support healthy communities. To achieve this, the entire system has to be revamped. We need to train people to look beyond the normal structured data models. We need more of a hybrid education, focusing on both structured and unstructured data.

We have a trend now — which I think is essential — where efforts are made to ensure the people gathering and analyzing the data have an understanding of how the caregivers use the data. How data is used in the field, in a hospital setting, and even in telehealth. This gives the data scientists a real view of the end-to-end lifecycle of the data, and how it is being used by the caregiver, and how it impacts the health of patients of the system.

On the other hand, for the caregivers, they gain an understanding of how the data is collected and stored and what factors can affect the findings. This kind of “cross-pollination” of the workforce helps everyone involved the science and the humanity of healthcare understand that both sides are important and interdependent.