For those who do not know, I’m a healthcare IT leader. Recently people in healthcare IT and those looking to move into the field have asked me how I originally learned about the industry and how I keep up-to-date. This led to several conversations with colleagues about not only healthcare IT but other industries. Even our son, who is in performing arts, is having the same conversations with his professors.
How does one initially learn about an industry? How does one stay sharp within an industry?
As Ray Kroc famously said, “When you're green, you're growing. When you're ripe, you rot.”
After all these conversations, regardless of industry, I determined there are three ways we “stay green”:
Reading
Listening
Engaging
Reading
When we read magazines, online publications, white papers, blogs, LinkedIn posts and more, we learn from the best. We also learn from the hidden talent in our communities. We need to read HBR, CIO.com and Wired, of course. We also need to read less known but credible sources. I recently read an insightful LinkedIn article from a certified ITIL expert about how we should revisit our technology incident response processes due to Covid-19. The article gave good food for thought and steps an IT leader could take back to his or her team to stimulate discussion.
For healthcare IT news, some of the sources I enjoy are:
Most of the people to whom I spoke use news aggregators. I have come to love Feedly but I know many people like Google and other services. The important thing here is not the tool but the ability to bring a variety of sources into one place to allow a quick view of information.
Making reading part of your work-day startup or work-day shut down routine is important. Even setting aside 15 minutes a day within your routine to scan your news aggregator will help you stay connected with breaking stories. Most leaders with whom I visited had at least 15 minutes a day dedicated to reviewing the news with small breaks throughout the day to take in additional stories.
Listening
Although we are not on the run as much as we were in 2019, many of us still like to get out and move. Some of us even are commuting again. Listening to audio and watching videos continues to be a favorite way to quickly absorb content. Why?
On demand - We can take it wherever we are. We can listen on a walk; during lunch; while we wait for our kid to get done with soccer….anywhere.
Auditory and visual learners - About 65% of us are visual learners and 30% are auditory. Of course, no one is 100% any one learning style, but because we are so heavy with visual and auditory learning, being able to take video-based learning and podcasts on the go means we are more likely to retain the information than the PDF we downloaded to read.
For healthcare IT, some of my favorite sources for webinars and podcasts include:
https://www.himss.org/ and https://chimecentral.org/ (Memberships required)
https://www.isc2.org/ (The healthcare security certification and training is very good - membership required)
https://www.brighttalk.com/ - can be a bit of a mixed bag but it is free
There are SO many podcasts….healthsystemCIO.com and WSJ Tech News Briefing….just to name two
Engaging
Engaging with other professionals is probably one of the most important and most overlooked ways to stay up to date. We often only network with those in our company. This gives us a very narrow view of technology. I know it is challenging for those of us in technology to reach out to someone in the same position at another organization and ask for “virtual coffee” to visit about their telemedicine implementation or their recent bid for firewalls, but we need to try. This is how we will learn what other organizations are doing, why they are making certain choices and the options which we might not have considered.
LinkedIn makes connecting very easy. Asking someone for an informational interview about a specific topic is almost as nerve-wracking as asking someone on a first date. We need to try though so we can learn and grow. On the opposite side, if you are asked by someone in your position at another company for a visit like this, please accept. Asking is hard. You will surprise yourself what you will learn from these visits.
In the end, keeping “green” so we continue to grow in our profession, new or current, is about engaging with a variety of content sources and formats. If we only read or only watch webinars, we are missing out on a chance at mining the wealth of knowledge in the world.
What are some of your favorite sources of continual learning about your industry? I hope you will connect with me on LinkedIn and share. By sharing, we will all grow.
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