Data systems management and experience with advanced analytics are the two top skills C-suite level executives in healthcare must have to succeed, according to a new Black Book survey.
Through insight from 1,515 health industry insiders, Black Book also found that experience with IT is becoming more important than healthcare industry experience. This is the first year the latter trait has not appeared in the top 10, falling to No. 11, according to an announcement.
However, for chief information officers, interpersonal skills were more important than technology skills, the survey found. Tech and data/systems management came in at No. 5 for CIOs, while experience in relationships and team building was No 1. Other important traits for CIOs include good communications skills and deployment and execution experience.
"Every C-suite officer currently being recruited by hospital organizations needs to be, in part, a CIO," Doug Brown, managing partner of Black Book, said in the announcement. "Healthcare is a knowledge-based business and it runs at the speed of software in 2015."
Respondents to a recent College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) survey said they believe senior leadership, change and knowledge management attributes will be as or more important for CIOs by 2020 than they are currently.
"They're really looking for the CIO ... to create strong personal networks, and use those networks effectively," Donna Roach, CIO for Via Christie Heath - Ascension Information Services, said during CHIME's annual conference in Orlando last week.
The rise in need for executives who have data and analytics experience may also mean new roles popping up in the C-suite, including that of chief data officers. The position, while relatively new in the industry, is set to see major growth.
"I think that five to seven years from now, there will be a lot more places that will have a technology expert managing the tech side of things and a data information expert managing the data information side of things," Geisinger Health System Chief Data Officer Nicholas Marko told FierceHealthIT in a July interview. "That sort of dual role of the CIO will become progressively split because it's really managing two domains that are more and more fundamentally dissimilar."
To learn more:
- here's the announcement