I asked a question to a group of IIPs a month or so ago, “What title do you use?”.  There are quite a few, but nothing written in stone.  They all seem to revolve around Imaging, such as Specialist, Administrator, Analyst …  They all fit but one in particular has spiked some ire in the tech UN-savvy world.  That title being Imaging Informatics Manager or IIM.

To the average nontechnical person, the word Manager, means something completely different.  In our world, it makes very good sense.  We manage an assorted number of systems including PACS, RIS, Voice Recognition, CPACS, CVIS, VNA, just to name a few.  We integrate, test, and push upstream and down.  These Managers of people often say WHO do you manage?  Really?  Who?  These people tend to understand the term system manager.  Is it really a leap to understand IIM?

Well, it really is.  I’ve seen it first hand.  I’ve seen Radiology Managers throw all kinds of employees under the guidance of the IIM.  In one case, front desk staff, since they use a cd burner for sending images outside the hospital or to the cloud.  In another, transportation staff, since they use a computer to tell their coordinator where they currently are in the hospital.  I jest not.  These are true examples.

Now, I’m not saying that we don’t manage people.  Most of us have plenty of staff, or wished we did, to assist in supporting all the systems that fall under the imaging title.  True systems such as MUSE, Powerscribe, or iSite.  These systems are our ‘meat and potatoes’ so to speak.  No one person can handle all of those systems, unless you’re working a clinic, 9 to 5, M-F and no Holidays. Right?

We IIM are a different breed.  We have an innate desire for pressure.  We can never fail, nor can we, without a written letter from the engineer that dreamed up and created one of our systems, tell an irate end-user that it’s operator error.  So, knowing all this, be careful of your current manager and prospective new managers, when searching for a title that is really just a label on our name tags.