This is HIMAA Matters eNews Online

HIMAA ONLINE

The monthly digital newsletter of the Health Information Management Association of Australia Limited
Volume 9 | Issue 02 | Digital
Catherine Garvey
Catherine Garvey

President - HIMAA

Catherine Garvey
Catherine Garvey

President - HIMAA

President's Report

The Board met on Monday evening 24 April 2023 as part of our scheduled meetings for the year, with full attendance.  As this was the first meeting for our latest Director, Natasha Prasad, we concluded she passed with flying colours, as if she won’t!

Our agenda covered updates on current operations and also on projects which are works-in-progress.  Particular focus has been given in the past month to Education Services and the Education Committee to define how they are ensuring future sustainability for the profession and for HIMAA.

The Board met with members of the Education Committee on 21 April 2023 to

revisit key objectives for the continuing viability and progress of tertiary education, and to discuss HIMAA’s strategic and operational plans to achieve same.  We have some actions to follow-up from this session.

During the Board meeting Lyn Williams, Director of Education Services, provided an update on the challenges confronting Education Services and the advancements they have made. These include, but are not limited to, the winding up of Certificate IV, the Advanced and Diploma coursework, quality assessment of students, and the Aptitude test validation process. 

As a Recognised Training Organisation HIMAA must ensure that both the Board and Education Services meet the requirements of the Australian Skills Quality Authority.

The main challenge for Lyn, like most of us, is the replacement of suitably skilled staff. Anyone interested in pursuing a career with Education Services please contact Lyn. Also, you could share this expression of interest with your colleagues.

At the end of March Jae and I enjoyed the good company of some of our enthusiastic Queensland Branch members.  Not surprisingly, the conversations had a similar theme to our earlier visit to Victoria, namely workforce, shortage of skilled staff, and the value, visibility and recognition of qualified Health Information Management and clinical coding skills within the Health sector.  We were pleased to hear about the work being conducted at the Queensland Department of Health on the support they can offer to progress the workforce discussions, which we will be pursuing.

Kathleen Rogers, Jae and I also had the pleasure of meeting with Sue Walker (Course Co-ordinator) and Prof Michelle Gatton (Professor of Public Health) at Queensland University of Technology to discuss the Degree course and its ongoing security. We were reassured that this tertiary course is anticipated to continue, with a few actions to support the course as an ongoing concern.

I will be reaching out to our other Branch Convenors to organise a local catch-up, getting to learn what is important at Branch level and how HIMAA can influence the conversations and topics of importance in our digital health environment.

Apart from our enthusiasm for the October 2023 Joint 20th IFHIMA Congress and 40th HIMAA National Conference, we are concentrating on the impact of the introduction of ICD-11. We will keep everyone updated with our future direction on this specific topic.

Catherine Garvey

President

catherineg@himaa.org.au

Table of Contents
From the CEO's desk
From the CEO's desk

Jae Redden | CEO, HIMAA

From the CEO's desk

From the CEO's desk

Jae Redden | CEO, HIMAA

Thanks to iMedX delivering the first national webinar on 18 April 2023, Unpacking ICD-10-AM/ACHI/ACS 12th Edition Changes. We had a great turnout and looking forward to the next one 15 June 2023 on sepsis, drug resistance and Covid-19. There are also Branch events running across HIMAA including in NSW and VIC through April and May. Please go to the Calendar to register and to Upcoming Events to view what’s planned.

2023 IFHIMA Congress/HIMAA National Conference Update

We’re pleased to announce the Conference Committee has reworked the Congress program to integrate the proposed Sunday workshops into the main Congress program from Monday – Wednesday. The workshop attendance will not incur an extra cost and will form a part of the full registration entitlements. For those who have already booked, we will refund your workshop fee. The registration fee will also include the Welcome Reception drinks and canapes at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre and a Gala Dinner at the beautiful Brisbane City Hall with the theme, Australiana – a touch of green and gold. ‘Please view the full Congress program here.

We have added two international speakers to our Program with more to be announced.

Jennifer Mueller, MBA, RHIA, SHIMSS, FACHE, FAHIMA is the vice president and privacy officer at the Wisconsin Hospital Association Information Center, located in Madison Wisconsin. Prior to starting in this role, Ms. Mueller was the vice president and chief information officer at Watertown Regional Medical Center in Watertown Wisconsin.

She is an active participant in a number of professional organizations on both the national and Wisconsin levels. Nationally, she is a member of and holds Fellow certifications from both the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) and the American College of Healthcare Executives (ACHE).  She has received numerous awards during her career including WHIMA’s Rising Star Award, Motivator Award and the Distinguished member award.

Dr Kidong Park assumed the role of the Director of Data, Strategy and Innovation Group at the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific on 1 May 2022. Dr Park has extensive experience in global health, health policy and management, and strategic planning and evaluation. His international career in public health spans from high level representative roles to technical work on communicable disease control and health system strengthening.

Dr Park is a medical doctor and holds a Masters and PhD in Health Policy and Medicine from Seoul National University College of Medicine.

As usual, please feel free to reach out to me to chat.

Jae Redden

Chief Executive Officer

ceo@himaa.org.au

Member News

Latest news and updates submitted by members. Any member updates, please submit to membership@himaa.org.au.

Privacy Matters

Privacy and Security Community of Practice article   I   Sharon Campbell The OAIC (Office of the Australian Information Commissioner) has their annual Privacy Awareness Week coming up from May 1-7, 2023. The theme this year is ‘Back to Basics’.  A theme that I wholeheartedly support. Our world has changed enormously since the days when phones were attached to our walls!  We can be hacked from anywhere and our most private moments exposed, including potential access to health information.  The internet was launched officially in 1983! With most use being taken up by people in the 1990’s, this system has grown enormously

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HIMAA NSW Branch Professional Development Day

Report on HIMAA NSW Branch Professional Development Day at Gosford District Hospital Wednesday 26 April 2023   Melissa Turnell, Kara Pollard and Kim Osborne, from the NSW Branch Committee, hosted a NSW Branch Seminar in the University of Newcastle Central Coast Clinical School building at Gosford District Hospital. Kerri McGufficke (HIM), A/Director of Health Information Services, Canberra Health Services, ACT, outlined the implementation of the USA sourced software, Epic. The decision to implement Epic was made in July 2020, and the official “go-live” occurred at 6am on Saturday 12 November 2022.  Kerri’s presentation provided significant insight into the governance structure

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Education News

HIM Student under the Spotlight

This is the first in a series of short articles about students studying HIM at the Queensland University of Technology and La Trobe University. Students were asked a series of questions about their studies and what drew them to the HIM degrees. This article is from Katelyn Carr, third year Bachelor of Health Information Management student at the Queensland University of Technology. What are your background and interests and how

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What's on

Stay up to date with the upcoming events and activities across the board at HIMAA

Latest News

HIMAA Research Grant Scheme Outcome

The HIMAA Research Advisory Committee (RAC) aims to contribute to the development and implementation of HIMAA’s strategic plan as it relates to research and to support the funding of health information management related research. The HIMAA Board has made available $5,000 per year to fund at least two research projects. Preference is given to projects that align with the HIMAA Research Priority Areas.  The priority areas have been categorised into three themes: systems and technology, people and processes.  The RAC grant is open once a year in November.  All financial members of HIMAA are welcome to apply. The RAC received a few applications for the 2023 round of the grant.  To ensure the rigour of the review of these applications, a robust and fair process was applied.  An independent review panel made up of three research-active HIMs was formed.  None of the review panel members were involved in any of the applications and there was no conflict of interest.  Each application was reviewed by the three review panel members independently before meeting with the HIMAA Chief Executive Officer and the Board of Director Representative.  The written reviews by the panel members were discussed at this meeting with a final decision reached on grant approvals.  A written report was developed after the meeting and forwarded to the Board of Directors for endorsement. The RAC would like to congratulate Ms Natasha Prasad and Ms Stephanie Gjorgioski on their successful HIMAA Research Grant Scheme applications. Natasha’s project is related to best practice guidelines

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Email: news@himaa.org.au
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