Georgia is leading the way in health IT

Today marked the fifth annual Health IT Leadership Summit, an event that brings together industry leaders in health IT to discuss how they can play a part in driving innovation to enable better healthcare delivery at lower costs to more people.
This event capped out at 1200 attendees, double the number of those who attended last year. More than its rising popularity, the Health IT Leadership Summit is indicative of where Georgia leads in health IT.

The health IT sector in Georgia is one of the strongest in the U.S., due in part to our robust telecommunications infrastructure that includes two of the country's largest fiber optic routes and a diverse presence of HIT companies.

In fact, there are more than 225 HIT companies that employ more than 30,000 Georgians, including nine companies who are on the HCI 100 list.

Georgia's health IT employment rate is 17.2 percent - an employment rate that is growing faster than average and is predicted to grow faster over the next year.

Still, beyond Georgia's ability to attract and retain new health IT business lies another factor: Georgia's ability to keep leading health IT companies that are here, competitive.

On the cusp of the Health IT Leadership Summit, our Department announced that homegrown, Carrollton-based Greenway Health, a leader in health information technology, will expand to Cobb County with a new technology development center, creating 150 jobs.

This announcement underscores Georgia's ability to enable health IT innovation across the state.

As Georgia-based companies such as Airwatch, athenahealth, GE Healthcare, McKesson Technology Solutions and Allscripts continue to advance and innovate; Georgia is equipped to support their needs.

To find out more about health IT in Georgia, visit lifesciences.georgia.org/hit.