LinkedIn Joins Key Northeast Ohio Stakeholders to Analyze Vital Health IT Talent Data
Project is a tactic within HIT in the CLE Regional Talent Initiative
Release Date: 07.20.2017
CLEVELAND – LinkedIn, which operates the world’s largest professional network on the Internet with more than 500 million members in over 200 countries and territories, has teamed up with BioEnterprise, the City of Cleveland, Cleveland State University and Cuyahoga County to provide data, analysis, and market research on the talent flows of software developers, data scientists, data analysts and other computer science positions within the Northeast Ohio health IT sector. Supported by the Cleveland Foundation, the analysis will ultimately inform policy, educational curriculum, community programming and other talent alignment strategies within this regional growth sector.
The bioscience cluster is a primary growth engine reviving the Northeast Ohio economy. Within the bioscience cluster, the health IT industry is flourishing, creating hundreds of new jobs each year. However, an acute shortage of qualified local talent is a major barrier to growth.
“One of the critical limiting factors to growth in Northeast Ohio’s bioscience industry today is the availability of health IT talent,” explained Aram Nerpouni, BioEnterprise President and CEO. “Thriving health IT companies are hindered by the dearth of software developers and data scientists. The LinkedIn project should provide meaningful data and analysis to inform how we address this challenge.”
With the support of the Cleveland Foundation, BioEnterprise launched HIT in the CLE in 2015 to address the regional computer science and data science talent gap. The Initiative aims to grow and diversify the Northeast Ohio health IT talent pipeline to support a vibrant health IT industry.
“We felt it was crucial to partner with BioEnterprise to begin addressing the demand-supply gap in health IT and to deeply engage businesses to expand the talent pipeline,” said Shilpa Kedar, Cleveland Foundation Program Director for Economic Development. “LinkedIn’s involvement with HIT in the CLE is a tremendous win for the region and we anticipate that this work will prove to be extraordinarily beneficial.”
The LinkedIn project is an important tactic within the larger HIT in the CLE talent strategy. The effort aspires to provide insights into the education and experience of people currently employed in the regional health IT sector, pathways for securing regional health IT positions, and institutions from which the local sector most successfully attracts qualified talent. The insights discovered through the analysis may surface gaps and barriers in the local health IT talent pipeline and help inform strategy for addressing these important talent issues.
“At LinkedIn, our vision is to create economic opportunity for every worker,” said LinkedIn U.S. Head of Policy Nicole Isaac. “We’re excited to use the Economic Graph – a digital map of the global economy that when complete will include every member of the global workforce and their skills, all open jobs, all employers, and all educational institutions – to provide the City of Cleveland with a more holistic view of the computer science and data science skills local employers need, the skills its workers have and the disconnect between the two. The City can use those insights to create a stronger IT talent pipeline, and grow its IT industry.”
“Making our workforce a competitive advantage, which includes understanding our gaps as well as opportunities is a crucial strategic focus,” said Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish. “We know that the strength of our healthcare is a great advantage and we believe that the bioscience cluster will drive a lot of our job growth in the coming years. LinkedIn’s contribution to help inform and accelerate that growth is a welcome addition to the HIT in the CLE effort.”
Data provided by BioEnterprise and LinkedIn will be pulled throughout the summer. Ongoing analysis will take place through the summer and findings are expected in the fall.
“Cleveland is a City with a growing health research and information technology economy from the unseen power of the 100 gig fiber network along the Health-Tech Corridor and the health care research institutions within our community,” said Mayor Frank G. Jackson. “I welcome the opportunity for the City of Cleveland to collaborate with LinkedIn to provide research and data on the talent that is relocating to Cleveland and drawing talent to join the workforce here.”
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About BioEnterprise
BioEnterprise is a business formation, recruitment, and acceleration effort designed to support the growth of bioscience companies. Located in Cleveland, BioEnterprise provides management counsel and support services to health IT, medical device, and biopharmaceutical companies.
BioEnterprise founders are Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland Clinic, and University Hospitals. Additional technology partners include the NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland State University, and BioOhio. The initiative comprises the collective activities of BioEnterprise and its partners’ commercialization offices: The Case Office of Technology Transfer, Cleveland Clinic Innovations, and University Hospitals Cleveland – Center for Clinical Research. The combined efforts of these groups has created, recruited, and accelerated more than 300 companies in 15 years. For more information: www.BioEnterprise.com.
About HIT in the CLE
Convened by BioEnterprise and supported by The Cleveland Foundation, HIT in the CLE aims to grow and diversify the Northeast Ohio health IT talent pipeline to support a growing and robust biomedical and health IT industry. This unique collaboration involves Northeast Ohio’s premier health IT companies and educational institutions, CoverMyMeds, Hyland Software, IBM Watson Health, OnShift, Pandata, PartsSource, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland State University, Cleveland Municipal School District, Cuyahoga Community College, John Carroll University, Kent State University, North Olmsted High School, North Royalton School District, Rocky River High School and WeCanCodeIT.
Since 2015, the collaboration has facilitated access to relevant computer science curricula for roughly 9,500 Cuyahoga County high school students, enabled over 100 post-secondary student engagements with or visits to regional health IT companies, and hosted approximately 100 high school students in an inaugural data science competition. For more information: www.hitinthecle.com.
About the Cleveland Foundation
Established in 1914, the Cleveland Foundation is the world’s first community foundation and one of the largest today, with assets of $2.13 billion and 2016 grants of $93.6 million. Through the generosity of donors, the foundation improves the lives of residents of Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties by building community endowment, addressing needs through grantmaking and providing leadership on vital issues. The foundation tackles the community’s priority areas – education and youth development, neighborhoods, health and human services, arts and culture, economic development and purposeful aging – and responds to the community’s needs. For more information on the Cleveland Foundation, visit www.ClevelandFoundation.org.
About Cuyahoga County
Cuyahoga County is home to world-renowned healthcare facilities, including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals and the MetroHealth System. It is also home to 1.2 million people and is comprised of 59 unique and distinctive communities, with Cleveland as its nucleus. The county is the economic center of Northeast Ohio and
has a booming biotechnology and biomedical industry. There are over 700 bioscience-related companies within its borders. The healthcare and biomedical industry together employ over 230,000 individuals. For more information: http://www.cuyahogacounty.us/.
About the City of Cleveland
The City of Cleveland is committed to improving the quality of life for its residents by strengthening neighborhoods, delivering superior services, embracing diversity and making Cleveland a desirable, safe city in which to live, work, play, and do business. For more information on the City of Cleveland, visit online at www.city.cleveland.oh.us, Twitter at @cityofcleveland or Facebook at www.facebook.com/cityofcleveland.