People who are interested in healthcare careers may want to consider the rapidly growing field of medical information technology, which is set to receive a boost from the recent economic stimulus legislation. A recent article in the Portland Tribune focuses on an area healthcare IT company and efforts by Oregon congressman David Wu in recent years to secure more funds for the issue. Wu reportedly helped secure some $20 billion in nationwide funding to upgrade medical records, with another $2 billion set aside to train workers for these positions. The report noted that Wu hopes to see 10,000 healthcare IT workers trained with the current stimulus funds, although he also says that some 200,000 such workers will be needed nationwide. "The missing piece is not the technology, it’s the workers who supply the link," Ken Machuca, CEO of Kryptiq Corp., told the newspaper. Machua's company specializes in providing healthcare professionals and pharmacies with easy electronic access to patient medical records. Even before the passage of the stimulus act, the Bureau of Labor Statistics was predicting an 18 percent jump in demand for medical records specialists and health information technicians, in large part due to ongoing efforts to modernize healthcare data.  |