What is healthcare IT?
Healthcare IT combines information technology with medical services to improve patient outcomes, streamline operations, and secure health data. If you’re building a health tech product or scaling a medical services platform, you need IT professionals who understand both code and clinical workflows.
The numbers tell the story: the global IT health care market reached $480.49 billion in 2025 and will hit $961.26 billion by 2030. This explosive 14.9% annual growth means competition for qualified developers is intensifying.
Three major shifts reshaping IT healthcare
The healthcare IT industry has evolved dramatically since 2020. Here’s what changed and why it is relevant for your hiring strategy:
1. AI moved from experiment to essential
Healthcare AI reached $37.98 billion in 2025 and will hit $928.18 billion by 2035. 66% of physicians now use health AI tools, up from just 38% in 2023, according to DemandSage’s research. Depending on your product, your IT team may need experience integrating AI models into healthcare workflows. Note that deep machine learning expertise is critical only for companies developing AI-native solutions from scratch.
2. Cybersecurity became mission-critical
Healthcare data breaches in 2025 affected over 57 million people, with the average breach costing $10.22 million, according to DeepStrike analysis. Even a single security lapse can result in significant financial, regulatory, and reputational consequences.
3. Telemedicine became standard care
The global telemedicine market reached $160.13 billion in 2025, growing at an annual rate of 17.55%. Remote patient monitoring, virtual consultations, and digital therapeutics require:
- Developers who understand real-time data streaming.
- Video infrastructure.
- HIPAA-compliant architectures.
Most in-demand skills within the health IT industry
When hiring for IT in the healthcare industry, focus on these technical competencies. 👇
Core technical requirements
Python for medical applications: Python dominates healthcare AI and data processing. Your developers need experience with scikit-learn, TensorFlow, and pandas for medical datasets. Electronic health records generate terabytes of data requiring efficient processing pipelines.
Cloud infrastructure expertise: AWS and Azure power most healthcare platforms. Your team requires DevOps engineers who can architect HIPAA-compliant cloud environments with proper data segregation and access controls.
Database management: Experience with PostgreSQL and MongoDB is important, as health systems generate massive datasets. One mid-sized hospital produces terabytes or petabytes annually. Your database engineers require optimization skills to handle complex medical queries.
Emerging specializations that command premiums
Federated learning: It is an emerging approach that allows AI models to be trained on distributed patient data without centralizing records. While still largely experimental for most healthcare companies, expertise in this area is a valuable, future-facing specialization for privacy-focused health tech projects.
Natural language processing: AI-generated operative reports achieve 87.3% accuracy compared to 72.8% for surgeon-written reports. As a result, NLP developers who can parse clinical notes and extract structured data are in high demand.
Telemedicine platform development: Building secure video infrastructure, real-time vital sign monitoring, and asynchronous consultation tools requires specialized skills. Developers with experience in WebRTC, WebSockets, and low-latency streaming are highly sought after.
Common IT health care hiring challenges
Typical issues hiring health care IT talent are:
- Verifying healthcare domain knowledge.
- Assessing security mindset.
- Navigating international hiring compliance.
- Building collaborative remote teams.
Challenge 1: Verifying healthcare domain knowledge
The issue: Many developers claim “healthcare experience” after one medical app project. You need professionals who understand clinical validation, patient safety protocols, and regulatory requirements.
The solution: During technical screens, explore candidates’ experience with healthcare data standards and system design. For example, ask how they would approach integrating prescription management across multiple hospital locations or how they handle PHI securely. Strong candidates may leverage vendor APIs or abstractions rather than recalling every protocol detail. Listen for practical experience in data synchronization, audit logging, and real-world integration, rather than rote memorization of HL7 v2 versus FHIR.
Challenge 2: Assessing security mindset
The issue: Healthcare data breaches cost $7.42 million per incident on average, the highest of any industry. One developer’s security lapse can expose millions of patient records.
The solution: Present candidates with a code sample containing intentional security flaws (missing encryption, improper access controls, inadequate logging). Ask them to identify issues and suggest fixes. Strong healthcare IT developers spot missing audit trails, unencrypted PHI, and authentication weaknesses immediately.
Challenge 3: Navigating international hiring compliance
The issue: Hiring remote European talent involves contracts, tax obligations, and labor laws that vary by country. For example, the B2B contractor model in Poland operates differently from that in Romania.
The solution: Partner with an employer of record (EOR) or specialized recruitment agency experienced in European healthcare IT hiring. They handle compliance, payroll, and legal requirements while you focus on technical fit.
Challenge 4: Building collaborative remote teams
The issue: Healthcare IT projects require collaboration between developers and non-technical stakeholders, such as physicians and administrators. Remote settings amplify communication challenges.
The solution: Include scenario-based interviews where candidates explain complex technical concepts to non-technical audiences. Ask, “How would you explain API rate limiting to a hospital COO?” or “Walk me through how you’d onboard a physician to a new EHR system.” Their answers reveal communication skills critical for healthcare IT success.
Healthcare IT industry trends affecting your recruitment
Interoperability standards maturation
The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation, which entered into force in 2025, aims to enable secure, cross-border sharing of health data across the EU. Though EHDS doesn’t mandate technologies, developers skilled in FHIR, HL7, and cross-border data governance will be in demand for compliant systems.
Patient-generated health data integration
Wearables and home monitoring devices generate continuous patient data. Your developers require experience integrating Apple HealthKit, Google Fit, and medical device APIs. Building dashboards that synthesize data from multiple sources requires specialized frontend and data visualization skills.
How to evaluate health care IT candidates effectively
Technical assessment framework
Level 1: Healthcare domain screening (30 minutes)
Ask candidates to explain:
- The difference between HL7 v2, HL7 v3, and FHIR.
- How would they design a patient-matching algorithm?
- Trade-offs between SQL and NoSQL for clinical data storage.
Their answers reveal actual healthcare IT experience versus generic software development knowledge.
Level 2: System design (60 minutes)
Present a real-world scenario: “Design a telemedicine platform for a multi-state hospital network with 50,000 daily consultations.” Evaluate their approach to:
- Video infrastructure and scalability.
- HIPAA compliance and data encryption.
- State licensing requirements for providers.
- Audit logging and regulatory reporting.
Strong candidates discuss regulatory constraints before technical architecture, showing they understand healthcare’s unique requirements.
Level 3: Code review (45 minutes)
Share a healthcare IT codebase with intentional issues:
- Missing audit logs for PHI access.
- Unencrypted patient data in transit.
- Inefficient database queries.
- Inadequate error handling in critical paths.
This reveals attention to healthcare-specific requirements and a security mindset.
Non-technical evaluation
Communication with clinical stakeholders: Ask candidates to explain a technical concept as if speaking to a physician. Healthcare IT developers regularly translate between technical and clinical languages.
Problem-solving under constraints: Healthcare systems have unique limitations. Legacy infrastructure, strict validation requirements, and minimal downtime windows. Ask, “You need to migrate a hospital’s patient database with zero downtime. Walk me through your approach.” Listen for risk mitigation strategies and stakeholder communication plans.
Ethical awareness: Patient data misuse has serious consequences. Ask about a time the candidate faced pressure to cut corners on security. Their response reveals professional integrity.
Strategic hiring decisions for building your health IT team
When to hire full-time vs. contractors
Hire full-time when:
- Building core product functionality requiring deep institutional knowledge.
- Working on regulated features needing long-term ownership.
- Creating competitive IP where knowledge retention matters.
- You need 6+ months of continuous work on specific components.
Use contractors when:
- Implementing specific technologies (FHIR server setup, security audit).
- Building proofs-of-concept before full product investment.
- You need immediate expertise that your team lacks.
- Projects have defined endpoints (3–6 months duration).
Specialists vs. generalists
Early stage (pre-series A): Hire full-stack developers with broad technical skills and curiosity about healthcare. Prefer generalists who have worked on at least one healthcare project under supervision or guidance, so they understand compliance and domain constraints. Provide early advisory support (clinical, compliance, or architecture) to ensure MVP decisions scale safely.
Growth stage (series A–B): Add specialists in security, data engineering, and clinical integration. Healthcare applications have unique UX requirements. Interfaces must work for 70-year-old patients and 30-year-old physicians.
Scale stage (series C+): Build dedicated teams for each product area. Hire solutions architects who understand the healthcare IT ecosystem, connecting your platform with EHRs, billing systems, payer networks, and clinical labs.
Next steps to hiring for IT in the healthcare industry
The global healthcare and IT market continues to expand rapidly, creating intense competition for skilled developers. For example, European IT professionals deliver high-value expertise, in-depth domain knowledge, and predictable engagement costs for US and EU businesses.
Start by defining your exact technical requirements. Which health IT industry standards are relevant for your project? What level of clinical workflow understanding do candidates require? Which technologies will your platform integrate with?
Then focus on countries with strong healthcare IT talent. For example, Poland, Romania, and Bulgaria offer balanced combinations of skills and cultural fit for most health care IT companies.
Ready to grow your healthcare IT team, but don’t have the internal HR capacity? DNA325 has been connecting US/EU businesses with pre-vetted IT talent across Europe for 9+ years. We assess candidates for knowledge of ICT in healthcare, security mindset, and regulatory awareness, not just coding skills.
If you’re looking to reduce your time-to-hire while ensuring quality matches, let’s talk.
Frequently asked questions about IT in healthcare
Look for HL7 FHIR certification, Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems (CPHIMS), or HITRUST certification. AWS/Azure cloud certifications combined with healthcare domain knowledge are valuable. However, practical project experience with medical data, EHR integration, or telemedicine platforms often matters more than certifications alone.
With an experienced recruitment partner, well-scoped roles can move from job posting to offer acceptance in 4–6 weeks. This timeline typically includes sourcing (1 week), technical screening (1–2 weeks), client interviews (1–2 weeks), and offer negotiation (1 week). Senior positions, roles in regulated industries, healthcare IT, or AI-heavy functions typically require 6–10+ weeks due to more rigorous domain-expertise verification and a more extensive evaluation.
Engaging European developers with US patient data is possible, but it depends heavily on your system architecture, team roles, and data handling practices. Compliance with HIPAA and GDPR requires more than Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). It also involves carefully designed data flows, strict access controls, zero-trust security principles, and ongoing compliance audits. Legal, security, and data governance teams must be involved to ensure proper safeguards are in place. This goes beyond recruitment or HR considerations.
The terms are interchangeable. “Health IT” and “healthcare IT” both describe information technology applied to medical services. Some organizations prefer “health IT” as a shortened form, while others use “healthcare IT” to emphasize the complete sector. The healthcare IT industry includes both terms without a functional difference.
Implement zero-trust security where remote developers access only specific systems they need. Use VPNs, multi-factor authentication, and comprehensive audit logging. Conduct background checks on all healthcare IT hires. Provide security training covering HIPAA, GDPR, and medical data handling. Review access controls quarterly.
Hire dedicated developers when building core IP or requiring ongoing product development with deep institutional knowledge. Partner with agencies for one-time projects, temporary capacity needs, or highly specialized implementations (like FHIR migration). For most growing healthcare IT companies, a hybrid approach works best: a core team internally, specialized contractors for specific initiatives.
