Reformer-in-Chief?

CHICAGO, January 12, 2009—Healthcare reform is high on the President-elect Obama administration’s agenda; but to achieve meaningful changes, strong federal leadership is needed on seven distinct health information issues explained in the cover story of this month’s issue of the Journal of AHIMA.

The administration’s firm commitment and support are necessary to improve the accessibility, safety and effectiveness of the national healthcare system. Reformer-in-Chief  discusses why leadership is needed so the seven health information issues on healthcare reform can be achieved: patient privacy and confidentiality; public health education and access to health information; quality improvement; electronic health record adoption; nationwide health information exchange; data standards that support sophisticated exchange of information between electronic systems; and the health information management and technology workforce.

Also discussed is how the first step should be to maintain the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology because ONC is essential to coordinate government strategies, engage the private sector, support consumer-managed personal health records, promote health information exchange, and expand the health information work force. These actions can work in tandem to create a more effective application of health information technology.

Read the complete article in the January issue of the Journal of AHIMA or online at journal.ahima.org.

About AHIMA

The American Health Information Management Association is America’s leading professional society whose mission is to “improve healthcare by advancing best practices and standards for health information management and [serve as] the trusted source for education, research and professional credentialing.” AHIMA represents more than 53,000 specially educated HIM professionals who serve healthcare and the public by managing, analyzing and utilizing data vital for health system management. www.ahima.org