You are: The Systems Director

You don’t need a technical degree to break into this field, just the right focus and foundational skills. Begin by:

• Leaning into your strengths and translational experiences: Ever carried a leadership position in any other industry? Ever created and/or led a new workflow, process, or project from beginning to end? Carry the confidence that your project planning and project execution skills are valuable!

• Exploring entry-level certifications such PMP or other related project management certifications. This may be most valuable as an implementation lead, as there are aspects of project management involved. It will also be beneficial to cover other topics such as the CompTIA IT Fundamentals+, CAHIMS (from HIMSS), or Google’s free Data Analytics Certificate.

• Learning how EHR systems work through YouTube tutorials or free demo environments (if available to you). Consider starting with general healthcare workflow courses to build context.

• Consider working up through a clinical operations capacity and find your way to IT. Want to hear a quick success story? You’re sharing the same traits, qualities, and strengths of my most influential mentor: they worked their way through roles ranging from front desk registration, team lead, and practice manager at physician office before they switched to EHR analyst. They continued to grow upward and they are now an Admin Director of an EHR Application today at a prominent Healthcare System!

  • Alternatively a Help Desk entry-level role makes a great first step into the Healthcare IT space. This will allow you to experience first-hand challenges that healthcare staff may face on a daily basis.

• Networking with professionals on LinkedIn or local HIMSS chapters to understand hiring paths and job shadowing opportunities.

Essential Resources:

• The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for getting up to speed faster and smarter - This book focuses on the importance of the first 90 days of a new role. Missteps in that timeframe can jeopardize or even derail your success.

  • Hardcover version

  • Kindle Version

• The Digital Doctor: Hope, Hype, and Harm at the Dawn of Medicine’s Computer Age. - This book is a compilation of compelling stories and hard-hitting analyses of physicians that provide insight into the challenges of technology in the healthcare sector. (links below)

  • Paperback version

  • Kindle version

• The Influential Mind - strategies and lessons on how to clearly communicate vision and align multiple disciplines; something you will likely need to get familiar with.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

Your clinical experience is a powerful asset. Here’s how to build on it and pivot into a technical role:

• Lean into your strengths and translational experiences. Stand out to your IT/informatics department by suggesting optimizations to workflows, or volunteer to be a subject matter expert or “super user.” If you believe your leader will be supportive, share your interest in this next phase of your career. Disclaimer, not all leaders are created equal so sharing such information will not always yield the same result for everyone, but it can make an impactful difference!

• Target roles that bridge clinical and IT skills, like Clinical Informaticist, Epic Trainer, or Clinical Analyst, or in your case Project Management. These positions highly value your hands-on care experience.

• If you want to jump into leadership within healthcare IT more quickly, consider building up your resume with a clinical leadership role when possible. Leadership experience is leadership experience.

• Volunteer to help with build as a clinician builder. Some organizations have adopted this practice and the trend is growing. Keep your clinician duties while building entry-level changes in your EHR such as Note Templates, Order Sets, and more. This will make you visible to your organization’s IT team and potentially get you some EHR-specific training sponsored and paid for.

• Consider specialized training in systems like Epic (through an employer or consulting firm), or certifications in Health Informatics (e.g., AMIA 10x10, or CAHIMS).

• Document your process improvement contributions from the bedside — such as helping optimize documentation workflows, reducing charting time, or using clinical technology effectively. Keep a log of hours spent on the projects you’ve led, as well as stats on the impact of the project.

• Leverage mentorship or job shadowing with your organization’s IT or informatics department to understand real-world applications.

Essential Resources:

Success isn’t only about understanding technology, it’s about improving systems. These two books introduce you to the foundational thinking behind workflow optimization, process improvement, and reducing inefficiencies.

• Unlocking Lean Six Sigma

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

• The Toyota Way

  • Hardcover Version

  • Kindle Version

For aspiring leaders:

• The Phoenix Project - a great book to build up on strategy and leadership skills, as your ideal role will require you to align people, processes, and systems.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

Recommendation to all clinicians:

• The Influential Mind - strategies and lessons on how to clearly communicate vision and align multiple disciplines; something you will likely need to get familiar with.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

Already in the field and ready to level up? Focus your next steps on deepening your expertise and broadening your impact:

• Master a specialty area such as FHIR/API integration, population health analytics, or automation through RPA tools like UiPath.

• Earn advanced certifications like CPHIMS, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt or Black Belt, PMP, or specialized vendor credentials (e.g., Epic Cogito, Willow, or Beaker).

• Build your portfolio with projects that demonstrate measurable impact: from optimizing a system to reducing user errors or increasing reporting efficiency. Stats, percentages, and impact make a compelling story that can pave the way to your career growth.

  • Bonus tip - interested in pursuing your PMP certification? Start logging your project management hours ASAP! As part of the certification, you must complete a certain amount of hours and they count even before you take the course.

• Get involved in strategic initiatives within your organization or volunteer for pilot programs to showcase leadership potential or “architect” potential.

• Explore other tracks or roles. Leadership is almost always the “next logical step” once you’re at a senior analyst or administrator level, and given your strengths, it may likely be yours as well. However, keep an eye out for “architect” roles in your field. They have been emerging a bit more lately and they combine aspects of leadership and build without as much “people managing.” Don’t shy away from leadership roles though; roles like team leads, managers, and directors still require a “Builder” mindset, but at a higher level. You’ll be shaping broader systems, strategies, and team processes.

Essential Resources:

• Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters - self-explanatory title

  • Hardcover Version

  • Kindle Version

• The Phoenix Project - a great book to build up on strategy and leadership skills, as your ideal role will require you to align people, processes, and systems.

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

These two books introduce you to the foundational thinking behind workflow optimization, process improvement, and reducing inefficiencies.

• Unlocking Lean Six Sigma

  • Paperback Version

  • Kindle Version

• The Toyota Way

  • Hardcover Version

  • Kindle Version