6.     Could you sketch out the project management skills that hospital-based HI professionals should be bringing to their work?  What would the soft and hard skills be?  Would you include clinical skills, industrial and management engineering? 

There is a need to attract the 'best and brightest' technology and informatics talent to healthcare.  These people should not be just from a technology background, they should be clinicians, technicians, administrators, finance, HR, industrial / management / functional experts and other disciplines. 

With regard to their skills and attributes. They should have a comfort with technology and must clearly understand being able to manage the 'big picture' of  large projects or programs.  They have to have the discipline of being realistic and of keeping fair and accurate assessments of the projects and to be a realistic judge of the projects results and outcomes.  They must clearly understand how to assess risk and and to manage risks and issues in an effective away.  They must be able to have a big picture yet be able to deal with the most minute details. 

The people that take these roles must have great presentation, communications, management and people skills.  They must be able to motivate and to convey bad news, and work smart to get things back on track when the direction is not what it should be.  This is why I said the healthcare industry must attract the 'best and brightest'.  It is a tall order to have all these skills in addition to being and expert in their own clinical or functional discipline.