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Electronic Health Information Management: The Future is Ours to Embrace

As those who have been in the health information management (HIM) field for a number of years know, HIM is and forever will be a dynamic profession. One current trend that will have a major impact on HIM professionals is the transformation from a paper-based medical record to an electronic health record (EHR). In order to keep pace with the transformation and also succeed in the HIM field requires the ability to change and continuously acquire new skills and knowledge. In 2002, the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) identified electronic health information management (e-HIMTM) as one of its strategic focus areas for 2003. The goals for this issue that expand over a number of years are to: • promote the migration from paper to an electronic health information infrastructure • reinvent how institutional and personal health information and records are managed • deliver measurable cost and quality results from improved information management (AHIMA 2003a). To help meet these goals, AHIMA assembled a task force of industry leaders in early 2003. This group reviewed prior and ongoing AHIMA strategic initiatives and held a general brainstorming session on the driving forces in the health care, information management and technology industries. Three work groups were formed in order to develop a vision of the future state of health information and appropriate roles for the HIM professional. Finally, the task force determined vision statements for health information and HIM practice in 2010 and what future roles HIM professionals will have and the competencies HIM professionals will need. They also produced several recommendations for action items for AHIMA that are needed in order to attain these visions. The following represents the task force findings, as well as the ongoing work AHIMA is doing towards meeting the goals of the e-HIMTM initiative.