Thank you to
HIMAA for allowing me to attend this worthwhile Summit.
Current issues impacting on the education of the health information management workforce: role of the
HIMAA Education Committee.
In my professional association role, I moved from the state health information management association to the national
HIMAA Board, serving as national President in 1993 to 1995.
This group interviewed representatives from La Trobe University,
HIMAA, rural and metropolitan health services, and some new coders.
The challenge for both the
HIMAA Education Committee and for
HIMAA as a professional organisation is to tackle all of these issues on the many levels involved in order to ensure the continuing strength of the Australian health information management profession, both now and into the future.
NSW Branch of the Health Information Management Association of Australia (
HIMAA) Meeting, Bankstown Sports Club, Sydney, 8 March 2010: Seminar report.
We note the
HIMAA submission to NHHRC emphasises the opportunities for this workforce to support health information initiatives in primary and non-acute health care settings.
She reported that
HIMAA has a very healthy coder education program; that Curtin University (WA) offers an undergraduate health information management degree program by distance education; and that the University of Sydney still offers a Master of Health Informatics degree, a specialist program following on from the undergraduate Bachelor of Health Science.
My partner and I own a diesel pump and injector company, Gemini Diesel, of which I am a Director, I am a Director of PH Prime Care, a Director of Health EWords, and a Director on the
HIMAA Board.
Holding the IFHRO SEAR conference in conjunction with the successful 2009 national conference of the Health Information Management Association of Australia (
HIMAA) was a tremendous achievement and it was evident that IFHRO SEAR participants benefited by friendly association with the
HIMAA members.
During the 2009 meeting, the PHIN voted to become a special interest group of the Health Information Management Association of Australia (
HIMAA), which will give them a solid foundation for future collaborative activities.
I have always fully understood the importance of coding, and in later years strongly supported coder education through
HIMAA. I was successful in making it mandatory that only
HIMAA coder qualifications were acceptable in the AHS, where I was employed.