What is Allied Health? & Fastest Growing Allied Health Careers

People who love to help others can choose to become allied health professionals. Over time, allied health services have gained momentum. The need for these professionals is increasing day by day.

Now, as people have become more conscious about their health, there are more and more requirements for this professionals.

In this article, you will get to know all about allied healths and what are the fastest-growing allied health careers. So, if you are further interested, then keep on reading the article.

What is Allied Health?

Many of you may be still confused about what Allied Health is. So let’s look at its definition:

Allied health professions are health care professions different from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, clinical psychology, and optometry. They provide various types of support services in relation to health care, they also provide therapeutic, diagnostic, and technical services, all related to the healthcare sector.

For people who wish to work in the healthcare segment of the country, being a doctor, nurse, pharmacy, etc. is not the only an option left for you. You can choose your career in allied health and help people around you.

Allied Professionals apply their expertise, knowledge, and experience to prevent disease transmission. They also diagnose, treat & rehabilitate people of all specialties and ages. These professionals work with a team of technical staff & support staff. Their main focus of work is to diagnose, rehabilitate and treat patients. They also help patients to maintain & restore optimal physical, sensory, psychological, cognitive, and social functions.

There are various skills that are required for allied health professionals. As Allied Health has various professions grouped under it, some of them are:-

Physiotherapists
Orthoptists
Dietitians
Paramedics
Chiropodists / Podiatrists
Radiographers
Prosthetists / Orthotists Diagnostic & Therapeutic
Diagnostic Medical Sonographers
Arts therapists
Music therapists
Drama therapists
Occupational therapists
Speech & Language Therapists

According to the profession, an Allied Health Professional need to have various skills, some of them are medical terminology, basic life support, understanding of human relations, counseling skills, interpersonal communication skills, acronyms and spelling, computer literacy, database management and electronic dictation, proficiency in word processing, and interviewing skills.

Fastest Growing Allied Health Careers

There are various career options in this industry. There are many careers that are growing faster in the allied health sector. So, let’s look at some of the following fastest-growing allied health careers:-

1. Speech-Language Therapist

Speech and language therapists are also known as speech and language pathologists. The main work of a speech & language therapist is to analyze those people who have problems related to communication and swallowing. After analyzing, they diagnose the problem and treat patients.

They also help people to avert issues associated with these problems. This field is growing very fast. It is growing faster than it was expected. The growth rate of this career in Allied Health is somewhere between 17 percent to 18 percent in the years 2016 to 2026.

2. Diagnostic Medical Sonographers

Diagnostic Medical Sonographers are commonly known as Ultrasound Technicians. I hope that everyone is familiar with what an ultrasound technician is. These technicians use a special medical device which is known as Ultrasound, which helps these sonographers to take images of the organs of a patient.

This is a common and first step in diagnosing a disease. These diagnostic medical sonographers play a key role in diagnosing the problem of a patient. Also, the growth rate of this career in allied health care is projected to grow 14 percent from 2020 to 2030.

3. Physician Assistant

Physician assistants are professionals who offer medical services under the guidance of licensed health professionals. Physician assistants are trained specially to look after the diagnostic services, supervise preventative health and therapeutics. In short, the main work of a physician assistant is to work under and along with doctors in diagnosing, treating and helping patients as best as possible.

It is one of the biggest and fastest-growing professions in the allied healthcare sector. According to reports, The expected growth rate of this allied health care is projected to grow 31 percent between 2018 to 2028.

4. Healthcare Office Assistant

Healthcare office assistants work in an office environment. Healthcare administration and services might be a good fit for those who want to work as receptionists, coders, office managers, in the field of office management, etc.

depending on an individual’s interests. Building up a career as a healthcare office assistant in an allied health profession, involves working in medical administration and performing various tasks such as working with patients, data entry till appointment setting, working with patients’ insurance companies for services, and many more.

There are various other opportunities in this field. The growth rate of this allied medical health care is projected to be around 15 percent between 2020 to 2030.

5. Occupational Therapist

It is another one of those careers of allied health which is growing very fastly. Occupational Therapists help people who have pain, illness, injury, or even a disability who find difficulty in performing day-to-day tasks with the help of various therapeutic techniques. An occupational therapist focuses on the activities and movements required by an individual to perform tasks.

For example- an occupational therapist may help his or her patient learn how to bathe and get dressed without taking help from others, eat without help from others, etc. The growth rate projected for this career is somewhere around 17 percent from the year 2020 to 2030.

6. Dietitians and Nutritionists

As more and more people have become conscious about their health, they prefer to eat healthily and in order to eat healthily and stay fit, they go to dieticians & nutritionists. Both fields are different. The main aim of nutritionists is that they promote good health by means of eating healthy food. On the other hand, dietitians help people to improve their health and provide food and nutrition information.

They can supervise food service programs for various organizations, such as hospitals, schools, MNCs, etc. They can even run their own clinics or work with other dietitians and nutritionists. The growth rate of this career in allied health is projected around 11 percent by the year 2028.