AHIMA Building A Global Health Workforce Council

Worldwide Academic Curricula Standardto Guide Educational Programming, Workforce Training in HIM, HI and HIT

The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the AHIMA Foundation, with the International Federation for Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA) and other stakeholders, are convening a Global HealthWorkforce Council (GHWC) of 13 appointed members from 12 different countries that will work to advance a global workforce curricula standard.

The GHWC met for the first time in-person today at AHIMA’s Chicago offices and will work through Wednesday. The emphasis will be on ensuring the curricula standard is internationally applicable, flexible and consistent, and provides a basis for the profession to be recognized by governments, higher education leaders and employers in any country.

“The curricula standard will guide educational programming and workforce training, and contribute to an increase in the quality and number of highly trained professionals around the world with expertise in health information management (HIM), health informatics (HI) and health information technology (HIT),” said AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA.

A draft of the workforce curricula will be distributed for comment later this year. Country-level workgroups will bring stakeholders together to review and provide feedback on the global curricula standards and competencies.

“The standard will be developed through an open and transparent process that seeks input and consensus from country-level workgroups and stakeholders,” said William Rudman, PhD, RHIA, co-chair of the GHWC, executive director of the AHIMA Foundation and AHIMA vice president of education visioning. “We are thrilled that the GHWC appointed members are leaders from around the globe with accomplishments, experience and influence in the fields of healthcare, education, governments and associations with HIM, technology and informatics expertise.”

Rudman’s co-chair is Marci MacDonald, CHIM, who oversees three clinical information services departments for Halton Healthcare Services in Montreal. She is the president-elect for IFHIMA, which is working on implementing worldwide coding standards with the World Health Organization. She will assume the presidency at the 18th IFHIMA Congress in Tokyo, Japan in 2016.

The GHWC structure includes two chairs; six regional representatives – one from each IFHIMA/World Health Organization (WHO) regions: Africa, Americas, Eastern Mediterranean, Europe, South East Asia and Western Pacific; and five at-large representatives from Germany, Japan,  India, United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

In addition to the two chairs, Rudman and McDonald, the Council consists of the following members:

• Adio Rasaq Adetona, chief health information officer, National Hospital Abuja, Nigeria
• Lincoln A Moura, Jr., EE, MsC, DIC, PhD, president, International Medical  Informatics Association, senior manager at Accenture, Brasilia/Sao Paulo
• Hussein Ali Y AlBishi, CHIM, HIM & clinical coding specialist, Ministry of Health, Council of Health Services, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
• Claudia Pagliari, BSc, PhD, FRCPE, Program Director, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland
• Sabu Karakka Mandapam, M. App.Sc, PhD, associate dean and professor of HIM School of Allied Health Sciences, Manipal University, Bangalore, India
• Sue Walker, MHIthSc, GradDip (PubHlth), BAppSC (MRA), course coordinator BHIM, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
• Rachelle Blake, PA, MHA, CEO/president, Omni Micro Systems/Omni Med Solutions, Berlin
• Angelika Haendel, MA, president, IFHIMA, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Berlin
• Yukiko Yokobori, Head of the Distant Training Division, Japan Hospital Association, Tokyo
• Fatima Abdulla Haydar Al Baloushi, Bachelor of Health Information Management, operations director, COO Office, Al Ain Hospital, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates
• Francis Paul Kirubagaran, BSc, BMRSc, MHA, DCSc, head of medical records, Qatar Orthopaedic Sports Medicine Hospital, Doha, Qatar

The Council’s IT Advisor is Mary Cleary, Bachelor of Education, Master of Education, Higher Diploma in Information Technology, deputy chief executive, Irish Computer Society/ICS Skills.

AHIMA’s work on this initiative is made possible by a grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.

About AHIMA
The American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) represents more than 71,000 educated health information management and health informatics professionals in the United States and around the world. AHIMA is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. For more information, visit www.ahima.org

About the AHIMA Foundation
Created in 1962, the AHIMA Foundation is a 501(c)(3) affiliate of AHIMA. The Foundation improves lives by supporting leadership in health information governance and informatics through research, education and life-long learning. Its role is to envision the future direction and needs of the field—and to respond with research, strategies, education and information that keeps HIM on the forefront. The Foundation will continue to focus its overall vision of “Better Health Information for All.” For more information, visit www.ahimafoundation.org.