Management advice abounds for healthcare technology leaders

The years ahead will be challenging ones for healthcare chief information officers and chief medical information officers. Their calendars are chock full of deadlines, their to-do lists full. There are mandates, regulations and new technologies to manage.

Advice abounds--and some of it is even good.

Take, for example, the recent column by FierceMobileHealthcare editor Sara Jackson, who offers four mHealth tasks CIOs must take on in 2012.  Her advice: Get cracking on mobile device management; make a final decision on the facility-owned or bring-your-own-device question; teach docs appropriate use of mobile devices and beef up your mobile security measures.

More expert advice comes from John Halamka, MD, MS, CIO of Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School.

Writing on his blog, Life as a Healthcare CIO, Halamka builds on the sage adage "you catch more flies with honey" to create a list of honey-like qualities for CIOs to adopt. They include informal authority, loyalty, and leading and protecting your team.

Good guys, he writes, can finish first.

"I'm sure there are those who equate intimidation with leadership, but for me, uniting people in support of a common cause against a common adversary using trust, loyalty, ethics, hard work, and support wins the day," he writes.

Another article full of good advice says healthcare technology leaders should manage user expectations, secure a seat at the executive table, and respond with agility to crises, new demands, and new technologies. The author notes that "technology" is not on the list for a reason-it is simply a means to an end.

"Although it helps to understand technology, if only to know when a vendor is trying to snow you, in the end, the job of healthcare technology leaders is to help lead the organization," the HealthLeaders Media column concludes.   

To learn more:
- read the Life as a Healthcare CIO blog post
- read the HealthLeaders Media column