Caroline Dagenais was invited as a guest speaker, on November 8th in order to discuss the importance of Information Technology in her field. She went through different subjects from how technology enabled the hospital to operate like a business company to her own career stream.
What I found particularly interesting and surprising is the way she was hired to be manager of a department she didn’t know anything about, and what is even more astonishing is that she was the youngest employee among all of them. After second thought, I realized that it actually made perfect sense given that at the time not many people knew that much about IT, and who else than the young people are ready to learn and master IT in a short time span? The answer is no one. And this emphasizes the fact that IT is highly influenced by young entrepreneurs and workers because there is no age restriction for success in Information Technology.
Also, when she went through the different jobs in each department of the Royal Victoria Hospital, I realized that mostly all of them, if not all, required a minimum mastery in information technology. Information Technology became so predominant that the cell phone usage is now allowed during work time in the hospital. Of course, it is quite of a risk, but can we really push things forward without taking risks? Once again the answer is no, and there is no better way to gain a sustainable competitive advantage than through technology. By all means these risks should be identified and managed correctly.
According to me, the most important point she raised in her lecture, and which I completely agree with, is that anyone, even the most unaware on this matter, can get involved in it. A part of her job was to find ways to make people use IT at its full extent but what really makes it possible is that designers strive to make IT as much user friendly as possible. For example