Hello Members,
This year’s HIMAA Annual General Meeting (AGM) was held on the 26 October 2021 online. During the meeting I shared with members that the last 12 months had been another difficult year. Despite the challenges, HIMAA has stabilised operationally and has positioned the Association in a financially strong position. We were able to report a record profit last financial year of $365k, the highest ever.
Although we received government assistance through JobKeeper payments, similar to many businesses across Australia, it was through sound financial management that we were able to post the record profit. We will look at deploying our additional financial reserves to support our modernising strategy and supporting members with enhanced services.
We welcomed Jae Redden as our new CEO who has not wasted time in optimising our operations and started the journey in implementing our modernising strategy for the Association.
Strategic Plan 2022 – 2024
The HIMAA Strategic Plan for the next three years has the vision “to ensure health information management is seen as a valued and valuable health profession”. Our future strategy will leverage HIMAA’s reputation, capabilities and unity around a common purpose whilst positioning ourselves for growth.
To do that we will:
- ensure the future sustainability of the Health Information Management profession and HIMAA
- assist the broader healthcare ecosystem to understand, leverage and optimise the value of health information
- develop partnerships that recognise future health information management needs and competencies
- embrace digital health and new technologies.
The Board has compiled the Strategic Plan to take into account the current environment, opportunities and threats that we face as an Association and the HIM profession that we serve. The full strategy plan can be found here.
Life Membership – Alex Toth
HIMAA Life Membership is bestowed on members who have demonstrated significant contributions to the Association and the profession. The recipients are held in high regard by the Association, the membership and their colleagues. This year I was delighted to announce at the AGM that Alex Toth has been awarded HIMAA Life Membership.
Alex has served a considerable period of time on the National Board, Queensland State Branch and National Committees, including chairing the Accreditation Council.
Alex was a well-respected university lecturer at La Trobe and has contributed to the professional careers of a large number of HIMs. In both of her stints at La Trobe University, as a Tutor in 1990-1991 and Lecturer in 2002-2005, Alex was a dynamic and excellent communicator and educator.
Alex has been an advocate of our profession, on a local, state and national level. She is an inspiring leader and a professional mentor with proven ability to develop, grow, train and support Health Information Management teams.
National Conference
The Conference was an overwhelming success after the team had to pivot from an in person to a virtual format within two months. The theme of this year’s Conference was Health Information Management: The intersection of health care and data science. Once again it was a fantastic four days of learning, networking, collaborating with old friends and making new connections.
After listening to our presenters, and chatting with attendees and sponsors during the Conference, I felt very much energised and optimistic about the future of our profession and the industry. It is wonderful that we have a community that is passionate about the critically important work that we do and are eager to share their experiences for the benefit of the larger group.
We look forward to being in person in Adelaide for the 2022 National Conference. A big thankyou to the committee that delivered the successful conference: Jae Redden, Joan Henderson, Carla Read, Brooke Macpherson, Dwayne Richards, Grant Duffill, Catherine Garvey, Kathleen Rogers and Lyn Williams.
This is the last report for the year. I wish you and your family a well-earned break and that you take the time to refresh. See you in 2022.
Sincerely,
Cheens Lee
President
