Digital Health: Come Along and Ride on a Fantastic Voyage

 

Have you ever seen the old movie Fantastic Voyage?  In this 1966 cinematic gem, doctors are miniaturized and shot into a person’s body where they find whatever ails the patient and fixes it pronto with a minimum of fuss and muss (except for the evil doctor who meets a grisly death at the hands of…um I mean….the membrane  of a white blood cell…cue evil doctor laugh). 

Over the last forty years, there have been some amazing breakthroughs in medical science, yet the medical world has yet to figure out how to miniaturize doctors, nurses and personal trainers.  Although disappointing to the science geeks among us, they have managed to miniaturize our medical records.  Perhaps miniaturize is the wrong word—my tech brethren would remind me (in a superior tone) that in fact, the word I’m looking for is digitized.  Like our music, movies, YouTube videos of kittens being cute, and photographs, our entire lives can be tracked by a digital reader or laptop.

If you believe that digital health records are one of those new fangled ideas that will rise and fall quickly, you are horribly wrong.  Think about those hippies who are still clutching their  eight-track cartridges, desperately waiting for the day when their El Camino and 3-Dog Night fan club membership will be back in style (if you have no idea what I’m referencing, I have officially proved my point!). 

As scary as all of this is, I’m relieved that we are starting a program at PIT that will teach people how to work in this brave new medical world.  According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for people with an Associate’s Degree in Digital Health Records will increase by over 20% in the next few years (bls.gov).  For people who love computers and have a serious interest in healthcare, yet find bodily fluids icky, this is the greatest career opportunity to come around in a long time.  I hope to see one of my students the next time I am dragged kicking and screaming for a physical at my doctor’s office.  If it’s going to be a brave new world, I want some familiar faces to keep me company. 

For more information about our Digital Health Records program, please call 1-800-422-0025 or email our Allied Health Program Manager Charlene Chapman at cchapman@pit.edu

 

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