Welcome to AHIMA & YOU, our new monthly member newsletter. We’re excited to deliver content that will help advance your career and connect you with our health information (HI) community and with AHIMA. We listened to member feedback: you want information that is timely, relevant, trusted, and useful. Please let us know if we’re delivering on this promise and, if not, tell us how we can (MemberRelationsService@ahima.org).
Unlocking Healthcare's Future: Embrace Interoperability for a Healthier Tomorrow
Jennifer Mueller, MBA, RHIA, SHIMSS, FACHE, FAHIMA
AHIMA Board President/Chair
HI professionals are healthcare’s unsung heroes, “orchestrating the intricate symphony of data that fuels modern medical practice,” writes Jennifer Mueller, MBA, RHIA, SHIMMS, in her president/chair’s message. The healthcare data symphony remains out of tune, however, in the absence of interoperability. Mueller describes the imperative of achieving interoperability to harness the power of data to achieve streamlined, patient-centric care. She stresses the critical role HI professionals are playing in advancing this objective and calls on the HI community to drive progress on this essential component of health system transformation.
Member Spotlight
Career Advice: Embrace Discomfort
Daniel Utech, MBA, RHIA, CHPS
Manager, IT Business Partners & Application System Teams Parkland, Dallas, TX
The path to achieving a fulfilling career in HI doesn’t have to be a straight one. Daniel Utech, MBA, RHIA, CHPS, incoming member of the AHIMA Board of Directors, shares his career journey and discusses how he stayed receptive to new opportunities, even if they were outside of his comfort zone. Diverse experiences ignited his passion for the HI profession. Ongoing experience has enabled him to collaborate with leaders across organizations to ensure that accurate and high-quality information supports sound clinical and business decision-making. Active involvement in his Component Association (CA), AHIMA, and the tight-knit HI community continues to enrich his life. Read more, including advice Utech shares “to be bold, talk to strangers, ask even if the answer could be ‘no,’ and embrace discomfort.”
Empowering HI Professionals in a Skills-Based Economy
Healthcare leaders are under pressure to hire professionals with specialized knowledge to fill specific, high-skill roles. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the demand for HI technologists alone is expected to grow 17 percent and medical and health service managers 28 percent from 2021 to 2031. As hiring managers shift to a skills-based hiring approach, it’s more important than ever for professionals to spotlight their expertise.
Introducing AHIMA Microcredentials. AHIMA has developed a new way for HI professionals to formally confirm and validate your specialized skills and competence in a focused area. Microcredentials provide a cost- and time-effective way to stand out in this competitive job market. We have six microcredentials available now—such as Risk Adjustment Coding and Release of Information—with more coming soon. Our goal is to empower you to reach new heights in your career. Read more about microcredentials in the AHIMA Journal.
Making Data More Useable – A New AHIMA-Sequoia Initiative
A new initiative three years in the making will focus on improving the usability of data received by end users in healthcare. AHIMA and our partners in the Sequoia Project will lead the Data Usability Taking Root Movement to take the next step in the evolution of HI exchange by ensuring that data being exchanged is complete and useful. Guidance developed by the collaborative will make it easier to harness the power in data to improve outcomes, reduce clinician burden, and increase interoperability across technologies. Read about this multi-organizational effort at the forefront of the next big data advancement in this exclusive Journal of AHIMA article, available only to members.
Use the AHIMA Naming Policy to Improve Patient Matching
In the absence of a national patient-identification strategy, an important way to improve patient matching is through the development and widespread adoption of standards for data elements. In July, AHIMA unveiled our updated Naming Policy Framework—an expanded demographic data-element framework that provides everything you need to know about matching persons in HI technology. The new policy features best practices to improve standardization and operational procedures and is designed to evolve over time to keep pace with the rapidly changing healthcare ecosystem. To learn more about how HI professionals can assume a leadership role to improve patient matching in your organization, read this members-only Journal of AHIMA article.
AHIMA Announces Distinguished Member Award Winner
The AHIMA Triumph Distinguished Member Award—our highest honor—celebrates the professional who has made significant contributions to the HI field during their career. We congratulate Claire Dixon-Lee, PhD, RHIA, CPH, FAHIMA, for her outstanding achievement in the HI field and many years of voluntary leadership at AHIMA. The national Triumph Awards honor remarkable AHIMA members who have made a difference in the HI profession and work to advance our mission of empowering people to impact health®. Dixon-Lee and our other award winners will be recognized during the AHIMA23 Conference. Please join us for the celebration at AHIMA23.
Get to Know Your Component Association
Together, AHIMA and your local CA are powerful HI educators, advocates, conveners, and career advisors. Our CAs can help you with professional development opportunities, resources on HI and national healthcare issues, and connections to a community of passionate and informed professionals—all in your local area. Find your CA website at AHIMA.org.
We are assembling hiring managers and career counselors from across the country to meet with you at the AHIMA23 Conference. Drop by the Career Center where HI career experts will offer resume reviews, mock interviews, LinkedIn profile consultations, and career guidance—all free for conference attendees. Plus, our Career Fair will connect you with hiring managers currently seeking HI professionals for open positions.
The Career Fair will be held October 8-9 and the Career Center will be open for the duration of the conference. Join us at AHIMA23.
Views expressed in articles contributed to AHIMA e-newsletters are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the policies and opinions of the association or staff. Articles are not to be construed as endorsing any particular product or service. Products, services, and educational institutions advertised in AHIMA e-newsletters do not imply endorsement by the association.
