There's great demand for limited mobile health expertise, so seize the opportunity


In nine years of covering health IT, I've been asked exactly twice to moderate conference sessions. And one of those was for a group of fellow healthcare journalists--most of whom didn't and likely still don't understand health IT.

In the next five weeks, I'll be speaking twice. I'm presenting a keynote address April 21 for "@Hand: Mobile Technologies in Academia & Medicine, at the University of Maryland-Baltimore's Health Sciences and Human Services Library. Then, at the beginning of May, I'll be moderating a panel on wireless and mobile health technologies at the International Performance Management Institute's Healthcare IT Institute.

While I'm flattered to be chosen, especially for the keynote in Baltimore, I think this sudden rush of activity has more to do with the booming interest in mobile healthcare than it does with me. Events featuring mobile and wireless health are sprouting up all over the globe. This past winter's Consumer Electronics Show had, for the first time, a healthcare track. The recent CTIA Wireless 2010 extravaganza featured a healthcare pavilion on the show floor.

Indeed, mobile health technologies are becoming mainstream, and there's a huge amount of demand for the limited amount of expertise in this field. My being asked to speak twice in a span of two weeks is evidence of that. I'm sure many of you have your own stories illustrating the tremendous growth in mobile healthcare. And as the country slowly, painfully emerges from the deepest recession in decades, isn't it great to be so busy?

I do hope that you're not too busy to check out and become a fan of FierceHealthIT's new Facebook page. You'll get news as it breaks, plus you can interact with other readers of FierceHealthIT, FierceMobileHealthcare and FierceEMR. We've also got a new Twitter feed, @FierceHealthIT, just for our health IT publications. - Neil