AHIMA Preview

AHIMA Covers Hot HIM Topics in Miami

By Heather Hogstrom

AHIMA’s 90th Annual Convention and Exhibit will take place September 22–27 in Miami. Attendees can kick off the convention by attending the Clinical Coding Meeting; Privacy, Cybersecurity, and Information Governance Institute; VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity) Leadership Workshop, or other preconvention workshops. Or attendees can begin with Sunday night’s Welcome Reception on the exhibit floor. The exhibit hall, which will be open through Tuesday, will be filled with products and services from nearly 200 vendors.

Featuring the theme “Inspiring Leadership, Influencing Change,” AHIMA has a variety of speakers lined up to motivate attendees. This year the popular Point/Counterpoint Session on Healthcare will feature Donna Brazile, former chair of the Democratic National Committee, and Karl Rove, former deputy chief of staff and senior advisor to President George W. Bush. Other speakers include former Cleveland Clinic president and CEO Delos Cosgrove, MD; communications expert Victoria Labalme; legal analyst Nancy Grace; and news anchor Elizabeth Vargas.

However, some attendees may prefer to skip Tuesday’s general session in order to spend a few hours offsite at the University of Miami Hospital Educational Site Visit.

AHIMA will offer plenty of professional practice roundtables, town halls, and educational sessions from which to choose. The educational tracks cover alternative settings/postacute care, auditing, CDI/clinical validation, CDI/outpatient, CDI/physician engagement, coding operations, coding practice, data analytics, EHRs/lessons learned, hot topics, informatics, information governance, innovation, international, leadership, payment reform, physician practice, privacy and security/cybersecurity, quality measures, revenue cycle, and workforce development.

This year’s hot topics include the following:

• the opioid epidemic (“Harnessing Claims Data to Bring Structure and Coherence to Opioid Trends and Treatment”);
• implementing gender identity in EHRs (“Gender Identity at NIH: An Organizational and IT Effort”);
• patient identification and patient matching (“A National Patient ID Is Not the Answer”);
• compliance with the 21st Century Cures legislation (“HIM Call to Action: 21st Century Cures”); and
• new sources of electronic information (“The Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Other New Things: Integrating Innovative Sources of Electronic Information Into Information Governance Frameworks”).

Download the AHIMA Events app from iTunes or Google Play and install the 2018 conference information for features such as schedules, resources, and maps. The app’s Locate Me feature even allows users to get directions from where they are to the booth or room they’re looking for. The social media feature compiles the latest AHIMA Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram posts. Social media users can also follow the convention on its Facebook page and with the hashtag #AHIMACON18.

Attendees won’t want to forget to pack some white clothes for the Appreciation Celebration, which will be a Miami Beach White party. Party-goers in all-white outfits can enjoy Cuban/South Beach food, dance, and even take salsa lessons.

For more information or to register, visit www.ahima.org/convention.

— Heather Hogstrom is an editorial assistant at For The Record, which will be exhibiting at booth 1221.