Welcome to the first week of November and welcome to Health Information & Technology Week. It's an annual event put on by AHIMA and its northern counterpart, the Canadian Health Information Management Association, and, yes, it predates the higher-profile National Health IT Week, sponsored by HIMSS. In fact, this year's edition is the 20th annual.
HI&T Week is all about raising awareness for health information management, and highlighting the work of thousands of HIM professionals from coast to coast, says Angela Dinh, AHIMA's manager of professional practice resources. AHIMA has developed a series of articles and quizzes supporting the event for professionals and the general public alike.
The slogan for the 2009 edition is "Precision in Practice, Excellence in Care," and AHIMA and CHIMA are encouraging their members to reach out to the general public in their communities by holding patient safety seminars, setting up HI&T Week displays in hospital lobbies, contacting guidance counselors at high schools to promote the profession and seeking local media coverage. "Some facilities will throw HI&T Week carnivals," Dinh tells FierceHealthIT. "People get very creative."
For more information:
- visit AHIMA's HI&T Week website [1]
Related Articles:
Blumenthal: Conversion to EMR will create 50,000 new HIM jobs [2]
Many more HIT pros needed as EMRs roll out [3]
Links:
[1] http://www.ahima.org/hitweek/
[2] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/blumenthal-conversion-emr-will-create-50-000-new-him-jobs/2009-10-12
[3] http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/many-more-hit-pros-needed-as-emrs-roll-out/2008-04-21