What does it take to become a HealthIT Standards Expert?

As I think back to what it takes to become an expert in Health IT standards, I ponder.

• Is 10,000 hours of study and implementation the answer?  No.  You can do it faster.
• Is a really good memory the answer? No.  It helps, but I don't expect you to remember the HL7 root OID (2.16.840.1.113883 -- and yes, I wrote that from memory).  I do expect you to write it down somewhere.
• Is passion the answer? Maybe, but it isn't sufficient by itself.
• Is intelligence the answer? It helps, but again, isn't sufficient by itself.
• Do you have to like the subject?  No.  I hate V2, but I'm still an expert.
• Is persistence the answer?  Again, it helps, but still isn't enough.

What defines an expert?  An expert is someone with a high degree of skill or knowledge, an authority on the topic.  At least according to one reference standard.

There's a missing piece to all of this, and that's the willingness to share.  As an expert, one has
both a willingness to shares their knowledge to help solve others problems, AND a strong desire to acquires new knowledge when they cannot help.

If you have those two key things, it still doesn't make you an expert, but if you have those and time, you will eventually become one.

   Keith