Information Technology in Environment & Health
If you are interested in information technology careers, two fields that merit special attention are the environment and health care.
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Environment Information Technology
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The main component of environmental IT is the geographic information system (GIS). As stated on the GIS.com website, a GIS is a sophisticated mapping system that uses computer hardware and software to capture and analyze geographic data. The GIS can then identify trends and patterns to help business, government, environmental groups and others. For example, GIS is used to map the locations of earthquake shaking hazards, which is key for creating effective building codes. Another use of GIS is to map how crime patterns change in a city over time, which provides police with a better understanding of where to assign officers. GIS is also the system used by meteorologists to map hurricanes in order to predict their path.
Health Information Technology
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The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, or ARRA, included over $25 billion dedicated to health information technology. Medicine is moving away from paper charts and moving toward electronic medical records (EMR). Workers in health IT are in high demand at physician offices, hospitals, pharmacies and other health care locations. These jobs can range from setting up and maintaining the EMR hardware and software in a doctor's office to servicing a more sophisticated system in a hospital to writing software for companies that sell EMRs. The U.S. Department of Labor predicts these types of jobs will grow by 20 percent between 2008 and 2018.
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Training
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With both types of IT, training can take many forms, from full bachelor's degrees to short certification programs to online tutorials. The GIS.com website has listings of training courses, as does the GIS Lounge website. The American Medical Informatics Association website has a full listing of training resources. In addition, as part of the ARRA bill of 2009, over 70 community colleges across the country received federal funds to establish non-degree health IT training programs that can be completed in six months or less. The full list of these community colleges can be found on the website of the Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology (ONCHIT).
Job Opportunities
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Listings for GIS jobs can be found at the GIS.com website. Health IT jobs can be found on the USA Jobs website and the AMIA website.
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