AHIMA Conference News

AHIMA Conference Honors Past 85 Years, Looks to Future
By Heather Hogstrom

AHIMA’s recent annual conference, held in Atlanta, began with a general session featuring various speakers and award presentations. AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon, MBA, RHIA, CAE, FACHE, FAHIMA, outlined five goals in “Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow — Celebrating Our Past, Embracing Our Future.” She challenged HIM professionals to utilize informatics to transform data into health intelligence, promote leadership by developing leaders across all health care sectors, be recognized as the health care industry experts in information governance, encourage innovation by increasing thought leadership and evidence-based HIM research, and empower customers to optimize their health through management of their personal health information.

Dan Schipfer, vice president and general manager for Cerner, and Patrice Wolfe, senior vice president and general manager for RelayHealth, represented the CommonWell Health Alliance, an independent nonprofit formed by seven HIT vendors to promote universal interoperability. They desire to make health data available no matter where care occurs. Schipfer discussed the challenges of interoperability and health information exchange, and Wolfe followed with the alliance’s solutions. Rather than requiring a central repository, the alliance brokers the transfer of data between providers.

The final speaker was Debi Thomas, MD, a former figure skater and Olympic bronze medalist who joined the medical profession for her next career. In “A Look at HIM Today — A Doctor’s Viewpoint,” she shared her insight and struggles with managing electronic data as a physician. Thomas also discussed the Olympian mentality, describing how she pursued her education while competing in figure skating and won both the US National and World Championship titles during her freshman year of college, proving wrong all those who said it couldn’t be done.

There also were presentations of the Exemplary Service Award, which was given to Marjorie S. Greenberg, MA, and the Triumph Awards, which honored 12 AHIMA members who have made outstanding contributions to HIM.

— Heather Hogstrom is an editorial assistant at For The Record.