Global worker shortages loom in health tech sector
A global shortage of software developers, on top of shortages of nurses and midwives in England, is creating challenges for the health technology industry, the head of a mobile software company headquartered in Belfast said Tuesday.
Colin Reid, CEO of TotalMobile, told attendees of a panel on health technologies that his company seeks to use workflow management software to minimize paperwork for nurses so they can spend more time with patients. TotalMobile provides software to international health care and government markets.
But the shortage of software developers means "we're all chasing a smaller talent pool," Reid said, sitting on a panel with Senate President Therese Murray, D-Plymouth, Massachusetts Technology Collaborative CEO Pamela Goldberg, DuBiotech's Marwan Abdulaziz and Irish Computer Society Deputy CEO Mary Cleary.
Reid's company has shifted gears, seeking to up its profile within Ireland to attract local talent by retaining a public relations firm, providing mentors and a "mobile university" to keep his staff up to date on advances in their field, he said.
"I think the biggest thing I would throw out is this is too important to be left to [the human resources department]," he said. "This is a business issue."
"Females are particularly underrepresented in the IT sector and that's something we're trying to change," Reid added.
The panel was, part of a two-day, fifth annual EU-US eHealth Marketplace and Conference, focused on skilled talent needed to advance health information technology.
Abdulaziz, the executive director of DuBiotech and EnPark, which seeks to boost growth of alternative energy and environmental industries, said that in Dubai, it's easy to attract talent but employee retention is important. "I think the key solution for that is growing your home talent," he said.
Abdulaziz said companies in his area are now working more closely with universities about syllabuses. "Because at the end of the day you want those graduates to work at those companies," he said.
Senate President Murray said an educated and experienced workforce attracts companies to Massachusetts and continues to "fuel the flame of the sector."
"We are all experiencing the same shortage of technical people, middle-skills jobs that are well paid but we don't have enough people trained in them, and it's worldwide, from Dubai to Northern Ireland, to Ireland, to the U.S.," Murray said after the panel. "It's something we all need to concentrate on."
Murray said her five-year-old grandniece, in kindergarten in Dracut, is already learning how to use a computer.
"She's already getting into that, so the earlier you start is the key," Murray said. "The problem is we can do that training for the next 10 years, but where are we going to get the talent now? We need the talent now, and where we do draw and how do we get that talent?"
Cleary, the deputy CEO of the Irish Computer Society, said the concept of the "digital native," someone who grew up surrounded by modern technology and is comfortable with it, is a "little bit of a fallacy."
Cleary said children have "little fear" of new technology compared to adults. "So they have an openness but they're not born with the ability to code," she said. "They still have to learn it."
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