Overview
HIM Reimagined (HIMR) is an AHIMA Leadership initiative to build a framework to transform health information management (HIM) and position professionals for the future.
HIMR is intended to advance the HIM profession and professional. It offers long-term and phased implementation strategies to ensure the profession is equipped both academically and professionally to advance individuals and HIM to greater levels of relevance while keeping pace with changes in the industry and beyond.
The recommendations proposed in HIMR are bold and ambitious and at the same time hold promise for future advancement of the HIM profession. Educators, students, and practitioners are all part of the HIMR plan. The focus is not only on what AHIMA must do to transform the HIM profession, but also on personal responsibility for achieving the transformation goal.
HIMR provides guidance on moving HIM competencies beyond the academic arena and into the profession, to prepare for and secure future HIM jobs. View the HIMR infographic to see how HIMR starts with you!
HIMR empowers HIM professionals to seize the opportunities advancing technology offers those who improve their skills to match the industry’s future needs. See the HIM Career Map to identify emerging career paths.
The HIMR white paper is the result of the hard work, commitment, and forward thinking of a team of passionate and dedicated HIM professionals who spent hundreds of hours assessing the current and projected future landscape of the healthcare industry and higher education systems. HIMR is, by design, future-focused and likely does not reflect what many readers are currently observing in their workplace settings. The recommendations in this document are bold and ambitious, and at the same time hold promise for future advancement of the HIM profession. Because of the significant nature of these recommendations, a 10-year, phased implementation plan starting in 2017 is proposed.
HIMR is geared to move both individuals and the profession forward. Transformation starts with you!
Made Possible In Part By
Whitepaper Recommendations
HIMR Recommendation 1: Advanced Degrees
Increase the number of AHIMA members who hold relevant graduate degrees, (e.g., HIM, Health Informatics, MBA, MD, MEd, MPH) to 20 percent of total membership within 10 years.
- Increase funding of academic scholarships to foster access to higher levels of HIM education to members.
- Increase the number of faculty qualified to teach HIM and related graduate education.
- Implement graduate-level health informatics curriculum competencies to improve the value of and increase demand for health informatics graduate education. These competencies have been developed and will be adopted by schools to assist in supporting this goal.
HIMR Recommendation 2: Research
In collaboration with other health and health-related organizations, in the public and private sectors, build a mechanism to ensure availability of research that supports health informatics and information management.
- Provide competitive research grants on an annual basis aimed at promoting health informatics and information management practice.
- Provide dissertation scholarships to health information management and health informatics professionals conducting research in doctoral programs.
- Focus on research to support the value of HIM skills and the need for data analytics to manage data for strategic, fiscal, and population health purposes.
HIMR Recommendation 3: HIM Specialization
Increase the opportunities for specialization across all levels of the HIM academic spectrum through curricula revision, while retaining a broad foundation in health information management and analytics.
- Curriculum revisions to support specialization at the associate level (timeline: new curriculum available for use by August 2019 or earlier, although required implementation date will likely be 2021 or later).
- Broader HIM core at baccalaureate level
- Condensed core at Master’s Health Informatics and Health Information Management with specialization opportunities at program level.
HIMR Recommendation 4: RHIA & RHIT Credentials
RHIA credential is recognized as the standard for HIM generalist practice and the RHIT (+Specialty) as the technical level of practice.
- Transition the RHIT credential to a specialty focused associate level over a multi-year, multi-phased approach.
- Ensure clear pathways exist between associate and baccalaureate HIM programs to encourage existing HIM professionals and new entrants to the HIM profession to earn a baccalaureate degree and a RHIA credential.
- Align certification processes with industry and education needs.