In many ways, careers in information technology are necessary to help other professional services and business sectors streamline their operations to maximize success and output. Beyond deciphering technical jargon, professionals in this field provide the litmus test for developing best practices in other industries. In healthcare, the efforts of these computer-savvy specialists may actually save lives.

Today the Health and Human Services national coordinator for health information technology, Dr David Blumenthal, announced plans to make $80 million in grants available to develop educational programs aimed at strengthening the health IT workforce.

A total of $70 million will be provided for community college training programs, assisting students pursuing a degree in IT, while $10 million will be used to develop educational materials in support of the new programs.

"Ensuring the adoption of electronic health records, information exchange among healthcare providers and public health authorities and [as well as] redesign of workflows within healthcare settings all depend on having a qualified pool of workers," Blumenthal commented.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics determined that the employment of computer scientists science and database administrators administration is expected to grow by 37% until at least 2016, which is about 28% more growth faster than the average for all occupations over the same time period.