Career Opportunities with a Medical Informatics Degree

I'm on the mailing list for the Master of Science in Medical Informatics program offered at Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies. In the most recent e-mail, the subject line said: "Career Opportunities with a Medical Informatics Degree." Seems like a very appropriate topic for this site. Here's a segment from that e-mail:

The Master of Science in Medical Informatics program offered at Northwestern University School of Continuing Studies is a great platform for discovering new and expanded career opportunities.

Graduates with a Master's degree in medical informatics will learn valuable information that would be helpful when seeking careers in the following areas:

• Clinical IT Leadership
• Research
• Education
• Health Care Administration and Management
• Consulting
• Product design and development

Whether your background is in computing, information technology, health care, or the life sciences, this program will build on your expertise and prepare you for the new challenges of the medical informatics field.

The curriculum is designed for a diverse audience of students, including health care professionals such as doctors, clinicians, administrators, educators, and researchers, as well as information technology professionals and other qualified individuals who wish to transition into this growing field.

The online program format is tailored to meet the needs of working professionals. Our flexible scheduling and admissions deadlines help you earn your degree without putting your life on hold.

To learn more about the program at Northwestern University, visit:
http://www.medinformatics.northwestern.edu/

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Soji's List of non-clinical physician jobs

There's a list out there called Soji's list. Who's Soji? If you visit the website, it says: "Chief Soji, MD is not a real person, don't bother looking us up. We are US-trained industry physicians giving just a little back."

What began in April 2008 has grown to a really nice list of non-clinical jobs for physicians. They used to post PDFs of the jobs, but now the website has changed and you have to subscribe to their e-mails to receive the most current list of jobs.

According to the website, 100% of all ad posting fees should be sent directly to Doctors Without Borders, American Red Cross, or a 501c3 medical charity.

Visit: http://www.sojislist.com/

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Medical education: certified CME vs. non-certified promotional education

In the world of medical education, there is a huge difference between certified CME vs. non-certified promotional medical education. Are you familiar with the differences? If you're somewhat rusty and you'd like to gain some expertise in this area, I encourage you to enroll and participate in the National Faculty Education Initiative (NFEI). You won't become an expert overnight, but you can consider this a "basics" course that will outline the differences between certified CME and other types of medical education. 

The National Faculty Education Initiative (NFEI) provides online training on the differences between Certified CME and Promotional Activities, as well as a searchable database of medical education faculty who have completed the program.

The Alliance for CME and Society for Academic Continuing Medical Education (SACME), in collaboration with the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), and endorsed by AHME, are delighted to announce the launch of the National Faculty Education Initiative (NFEI) that provides online training on the differences between Certified CME and Promotional Activities, as well as a searchable database of medical education faculty who have completed the program.

Click here for more information about the National Faculty Education Initiative (NFEI).

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Would you benefit from computer training?

Do you consider yourself to be a technology expert? How strong are your computer skills? Do you feel lost if you're sitting with a group of computer engineers, developers, programmers who start talking about work-related issues? Maybe that's when you fire up your smartphone and jump to CNN Business so that you can see what's going on in the technology sector.  

Even if you don't plan to pursue a career in the health information technology (or informatics) industry, it can still be very beneficial to receive computer training. What should you learn about? How about virtualization technology? What do you know about virtualization technology? I'm not referring to "virtual reality" here. I'm specifically talking about solutions made by companies like VMware. Maybe you're considering some formal Vmware Training.

Virtualization technology is growing rapidly. So is the demand for VMware professionals. What do you know about virtualization? Can you utilize VMware to make your servers more secure and easier to maintain? What exactly is VMware? According to Wikipedia: VMware is a provider of virtualization software. The Company is majority owned by EMC Corporation. VMware's desktop software runs on Microsoft Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. VMware's enterprise software, VMware ESX Server, runs directly on server hardware without requiring an additional underlying operating system.

What's virtualization software? According to Wikipedia: The term "virtualization" was coined in the 1960s, to refer to a virtual machine (sometimes called pseudo machine), a term which itself dates from the experimental IBM M44/44X system. The creation and management of virtual machines has been called platform virtualization, or server virtualization, more recently.

Now, do you feel totally lost, or are you following this discussion so far? Perhaps it's time to enroll in some formal Vmware training courses if you're qualified. Are you qualified? If you're an upper level enterprise network administrator, an IT pro or system admin with a strong desire to learn VMware ESX Server & VMware Infrastructure for use at a professional level organization, then you're probably qualified. If you have basic knowledge of server/network operating system like Windows Server or Linux, or have basic networking skills, then you're probably qualified. 

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Get your resume in front of companies at HIMSS

Are you attending HIMSS? If you're going to be there, then I'm sure you won't have any problems getting your resume out. If you're not attending and you'd like to distribute your CV, perhaps there's a way I could help you with that.

I'll be attending HIMSS (Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society) in a few weeks and I'll have a stack of resumes that I'll be distributing. These are not copies of my own resumes. Rather, they are CVs from physicians who are enrolled in our career coaching/counseling services and who are currently working with a career coach/counselor as they prepare to transition out of clinical medicine. 

If you have a strong interest in the health information technology industry, perhaps you'd like to distribute your resume to various health IT companies attending HIMSS as exhibitors. If you're interested in having me distribute your CV, please contact me ASAP. The first day of HIMSS is March 1.

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