One of the biggest mistakes you can make in an informatics project is to assume that your Architect is “just a programmer.”
It is easy to fall into a search for “hard” technical skills when looking for technical talent: Do you know SQL? Are you Microsoft certified? Can you code a machine learning algorithm in Python?
These are important skills, to be sure. However, just like radiologists are all different and that clinical knowledge is only one of many facets, potential gaps in technological capabilities is also important.
The Architect also needs to know the data infrastructure of the organization. In a large healthcare organization, she also needs a good rapport with the other experts in the organization.
The Architect often knows solutions without knowing that there exists a problem. More than just the programming and technical hard skills, the Architect can be counted on to mobilize the necessary resources.
Knowing your informatics Architect’s specialization and corresponding limitations can save you months of work.
