Global News

formerly known as IFHRO

International Federation of Health Information Management Associations

A Non-Governmental Organization in official relations with the World Health Organization (WHO)

The Link for Health Records/Information Management around the World

Issue No 12, January 2013

- IFHIMA Presidents Message Margaret Skurka - Health Information Management Training in Ethiopia Sheila Carlon - Health Information Managers Association of Nigeria (HIMAN) Adeleke Ibrahim Taiwo - AMRO-Kenya is rejoining IFHIMA - Transition from Medical Record Practitioners to Health Information Technology Professionals: Iranian Perspective Mehrdad Farzandipour, Zahra Meidani, Maryam Nazadi - Future Health Systems - Young Researcher Award - Proud moment, India Miss.Divya K Bhati - Indonesia Pilot Test ICD-10 Morbidity Coding Gemela Hatta - ICD-11 Revision Robert Jakob, Dr. Bedirhan stn - Report on the General Assembly of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) Yukiko Yokobori - The special Relation of HIM - between Canada and Korea Joon H. Hong - The Transition from Health Information Management to eHealth Information Management to Support eHealth and the Patient - Centred Approach Lorraine Nicholson FHRIM - Advancing eHealth in Europe: Empowering Patients, Supporting Health Professionals - A Conference held in Brussels on 28th November 2012 Lorraine Nicholson - Calendar of events - Publishing information 2 4 5 6

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IFHIMA Presidents Message January 2013

sembly, and the opening session. We will discuss and provide information on our 3 strategic directions including: Membership Advocacy for the Profession and Organization Knowledge Domain including o HIM Education and Competencies o The Electronic Health Record o Data Quality Management and o Updated position papers. IFHIMA Board members have been busy representing the organization to various meetings throughout the world. Yukiko Yokobori recently attended the General Assembly of the International Medical Informatics Association meeting in Beijing. Lorraine Nicholson, Past President, traveled to Nigeria and delivered several presentations to the Health Information Managers Association of Nigeria (HIMAN). HIMAN sponsored this trip for Lorraine, as past president of IFHIMA, to attend and present at their meeting. Nigeria has rejoined IFHIMA. Welcome again Nigeria! Lorraine is also doing extensive work promoting IFHIMA throughout Africa and we hope to see many delegates from African nations in Montreal. I was invited to speak at the Chinese National Medical Record Management Conference in Guiyang, China in September. I also delivered a presentation to coding staff and many HIM students at a hospital in Beijing. It was an excellent trip sponsored by the Chinese Association. I also traveled to Brasilia, Brazil to attend the annual meeting of the WHO-FIC, representing IFHIMA. Specifically, I am a member of the Education and Implementation Committee (EIC) with Yukiko Yokobori and Joon Hong. Yukiko and I attended the meeting in Brazil, but Joon was unable to attend this year. Joon has been very busy working on the Morbidity Coding Exam

Margaret Skurka MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA President of IFHIMA Email: mskurk@iun.edu

Greetings to all of you reading this issue of the Global News. As the president of IFHIMA, Im happy to communicate again with you. We are currently only 4 months away from the 17th Congress of IFHIMA, to be held in Montreal, Canada on May 13-15, 2013. I hope youve registered for the Congress and are making plans for your travel and accommodations. The Canadian HIM Association is planning an excellent meeting and youll find information about it all over the web site. https://www.echima.ca IFHIMA has had a busy year in 2012. The Executive Board met face to face in Braunschweig, Germany in conjunction with the German HIM meeting in September. We had a full agenda, and full attendance by every board member. Highlights included a lengthy discussion on details of the upcoming Congress as well as work on the HIM Africa Initiative coordinated by Lorraine Nicholson, and full reports from all the Regional Directors on the Executive Board. We also always do a financial review. We engaged in a Strategic Planning discussion for the next 3 years and developed a document outlining our focus. This will be distributed throughout the meeting in Montreal, including at the General As-

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Project with Carol Lewis. Reports will be given in Montreal. There is good work being done promoting quality ICD and ICF coding throughout the world. Thanks to all of you who participated in our first on line IFHIMA Member Questionnaire. All board members contributed to the development of the questionnaire and with the help of AHIMA, Darley Petersen our Membership Chair, and Julie Wolter, our Webmaster, the survey was posted and distributed. 107 of you participated and gave us valuable feedback. We will publish the results this spring, once the board has digested the information and made some decisions based on the content. All of our board members are busy promoting HIM in their respective regions. A big thank you goes out also to Angelika, Marci, Joon, Stuart, and Sallyanne. Angelika Haendel assumes the presidency of IFHIMA at the conclusion of the meeting in Montreal. Marci MacDonald is representing The Americas and is very involved in the planning of the Congress in her country. Joon Hong has been working with Indonesia as they just completed a pilot test for morbidity coding in that country. Over 100 individuals sat for that exam. Great work Indonesia!! Stuart Green represents Europe on the Board and has also taken on an active role as Chair of IFHIMA Europe

and their work throughout various countries. Sallyanne Wissmann represents the Western Pacific and is also President of the Australian HIM association. She traveled to the US in September and attended the AHIMA Annual Convention in Chicago. She had great opportunities to meet with AHIMA leadership and contributed so much to the international presence at that meeting. Angelika Haendel also attended that meeting, and we held an International Reception there for international attendees and also held an IFHIMA business meeting during the conference. Thanks to all of you for any contribution of time and talent to IFHIMA. We are successful only because of the volunteer efforts of so many. I am looking forward to hearing from you or seeing you in Montreal. Follow us on Facebook also. Best regards, Margaret
Margaret A. Skurka, MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA President, IFHIMA 2010-2013 Professor and Director, HIM Programs College of Health and Human Services Indiana University Northwest 3400 Broadway Gary, Indiana 46408 UNITED STATES

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Health Information Managment Training in Ethiopia

coincidentally I was leaving for Ethiopia the following week. During that visit we finalized an action plan to set the program plan in place, develop the curriculum with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and write all of the coursework for delivery. I returned several times during 2008 and 2009. The program was launched formally in 2010 and in 2012; the first graduates completed the Health Information Technician (HIT) Program (at the Community College level). Since this profession did not exist in the country prior to this initiative and there were no in country experts I taught the nursing faculty about Health Information Management (HIM); coding, making charts, filing, etc. The nurses actually loved the courses and the content and were excited to teach it. The picture accompanying this article is Teshome Wakijira (Program Coordinator), Dr. Yodit (Project Manager) and presenting Certificates of Completion of the HIM Training to the Nursing Professors in 2010. The next steps in this program are to refine the curriculum as the Ministry of Education now wants all two year college curriculum to be taught in an integrated fashion and to develop a national organization like AHIMA for Ethiopia with a link to IFHIMA for students and program graduates to belong to and use for a resource in the field.

Sheila Carlon, Ph.D., RHIA, CHPS HSA Division Director Regis University 3333 Regis Blvd. Denver, CO 80221, USA SCarlon@regis.edu In 2008 the Ministry of Health and a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) along with Tulane Universitys Global Health Director, Dr. Wuleta Lemma, initiated an ambitious project to launch the field of Health Information Technology into the country of Ethiopia. They recognized this need while doing some epidemiological studies in rural areas and noted the lack of organized medical information about the people they saw and could not find the documentation upon subsequent visits. Dr. Lemma, who trained in the US, decided to enlist the help of AHIMA as she was familiar with the medical records systems in the US. When she contacted AHIMA, she found that I was already working in Ethiopia at a rural hospital! So she contacted me and

Health Science Teachers receiving HIT Training Certificates 4

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Health Information Managers Association of Nigeria (HIMAN) 2012 ELECTION

Adeleke Ibrahim Taiwo, Federal Medical Centre, Bida, Nigeria

I have the Presidential mandate to announce the result of our election conducted during the recent HIMAN Annual National Conference held between 27th and 30th August 2012 at the National Sickle Cell Foundation, Surulere, Lagos. The Conference returned the following: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Wole Ajayi B.Sc., MLS, FHIMAN as the National President Kayode Adepoju B.Sc., MMP, FHIMAN as the National Secretary Seye Ogundele B.Sc., BBA, MHIM, RHIM as National Financial Secretary Razaaq Adio B.Sc., MHIM, RHIM as the National Publicity Secretary Georgina Aloysius B.Sc., RHIM as Assistant National Secretary

The Conference also elected the following new officers: 6. Garba Babale B.Sc., RN, MILR, MHP, FHIMAN as National Vice President. 7. Adebayo Oluwatoki AHR, MHIM as National Treasurer 8. Felicia Sekooni AHR, PGDE, MBA, M.Sc.as Chair, Career Development The Conference also appointed: 9. Rosemary Attiogbey as the Ex Officio We also wish to announce the appointment of our erstwhile National Vice President Alhaj Muhammad Mamikupa Ibrahim AHR as the first substantive Registrar of the Health Records Officers Registration Board of Nigeria.

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Welcome to Kenya

IFHIMA is delighted to announce that the Association of Medical Records Officers of Kenya (AMRO-Kenya) is rejoining IFHIMA after an absence of a few years and we extend a very warm welcome to the National Chairman, Mr. Livingstone Muyonga, his Executive Committee and all members of the Association. Other members of the Executive Committee are as follows: National Chairman: Mr. Livingstone Muyonga Vice National Chairman: Ms. Yvvone Achieng Secretary General & CEO: Mr. Philip Wambua Musina Vice Secretary: Mr. David Kiminta Treasurer: Mr. Tom Gacuku National Organizing Secretary: Ms. Nancy Deya

Kenya has been involved with the Federation for many years having become a national member in 1980 and Mr. Robert Wamalwa was a former Regional IFHIMA Director for Africa 2007 2010. IFHIMA is very pleased to welcome AMRO-Kenya back into the IFHIMA Family of Nations and we look forward to formally welcoming the Kenyan National Director to the 17th General Assembly of the Federation in Montral, Canada on Sunday May 12th, 2013. Lorraine Nicholson Immediate Past President of IFHIMA l.nicholson@zen.co.uk

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Transition from Medical Record Practitioners to Health Information Technology Professionals: Iranian Perspective

programs increased. Growth has continued and by the year 2000 nearly 18 universities offered associate, baccalaureate, and masters degrees. At that time, associate and baccalaureate programs were provided under the heading of medical record and for masters programs they were called medical record education.

The improvement of Medical education amplified HIM professionals endeavors and a PhD level of medical record programs entitled Health Information ManMehrdad Farzandipour Zahra Meidani Mehrdad Farzandipour Mehrdad Farzandipour agement was approved in 1998. At that Assistant Professor, Department Associate Professor, Department ofof of Assistant Professor, Department of Assistant Professor, Department time, the Iran University of Medical SciHealth Information Management/ Health Information Management/ Health Information Management/ Health Information Management/ ences was a pioneer training HIM profesTechnology, Kashan University Technology, Kashan University ofof of Technology, Kashan University of Technology, Kashan University sionals at the Master and PhD level. ToMedical Sciences, Kashan, Medical Sciences. Kashan, Iran Medical Sciences. Kashan, Iran.Iran. Medical Sciences, Kashan, Iran. email: meydani-za@kaums.ac.ir day, the masters programs in medical record education are offered in Kashan, Shiraz, Esfahan, Tehran and, Tabriz Universities of Medical Sciences. A PhD in HIM is also provided at the Medical Universities of Tehran and Shahid Beheshti.1-2 Formation of Iranian Medical Record Association The Iranian Medical Record Association (IMRA) was founded in 1991 to exert a leadership role in the effective management of health data and medical records. The IMRA board of directors includes the president, vice president, consultant, secretary and treasurer. IMRA is committed to advancing the HIM profession by: Formulation of medical record policies and standards Compiling the HIM Body of Knowledge Providing professional development opportunities to members through the organization of conferences, publication of the Bulletin of IMRA, organization of meetings, etc. Communicating effectively with members, healthcare policy makers and

Maryam Nazadi Niasar

Bachelor of Health Information Technology, Department of Health Information Management/Technology, Kashan University of Medical Sciences. Kashan, Iran

Early History of Medical Record Education in Iran The Health Information Management (HIM) profession in Iran was created to collect and preserve information related to patient care. The first schools for the education of HIM profession were approved in 1971 in Tehran. It was a two year associate degree program and established in the Institute of Hospital Sciences. Graduated students could complete a two year course subsequently and got their bachelors degree. Parallel with the formation of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education previously called the Ministry of Health, numerous Medical Universities throughout the country launched and schools offering formal educational
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medical record practitionesr throughout the country Representing the unique role of HIM to the medical community

of Health Information Technology at the Ministry of Health and Medical Education is revising HIM education to prepare for a PhD program.

Due to the paradigm shift that occurred in HIM education in Iran and to keep pace with other HIM leader organizations including IFHIMA, AHIMA, CHIMA, HIMAA, etc IMRA was renamed the Iranian Health Information Management Association (IHIMA) in 2011.3

Filling the Knowledge Gap: Transition from Medical Record to Health Information Technology As previously mentioned, medical record education programs were replaced with health information technology programs. In order to fill the existing knowledge gap between former medical record practitioners and those who are going to take leadership role in Health Information Technology we conducted an educational needs assessment survey in Kashan.4 In the transition of traditional health care systems towards electronic systems, computer and information system capabilities were the cause of most dilemmas for medical records staff; the findings of the study revealed that the introductory training in the use of software for admissions to hospital including scheduling and reporting systems and hospital information system accounts were the first priority for admission clerks. Statistics staff listed training in the use of statistical software as their first priority to improve their performance. In order to identify knowledge, skills, and abilities that employees will need to fill existing knowledge gap, Kashan University of Medical Sciences intends to conduct a national survey among hospitals medical record staff. We need to apply an assessment survey in order to learn about the issues and challenges that medical record staff faces to help us to design an effective educational campaign in Iran.

HIM profession in its second wave Through the advances in information technology and the emergence of the new post graduate informatics discipline in terms of medical informatics a paradigm shift occurred in medical record education in Iran during 2008.4 Being responsive to the needs of the HIM profession in the digital environment requires a more highly qualified and developed HIM workforce. This will be achieved through concentrated training and education in information technology. To enter the HIM profession into its second wave, medical record education went through an enormous transformation and now HIM education is provided under headings of Health Information Technology (HIT) at both baccalaureate and masters degree levels, and the existing diploma course was eventually phased out. HIT Courses focus more on computer hardware, software, information systems development and evaluation and the use the computers to fulfil HIM traditional roles.4 HIT education preparation considers core subjects around health information technology, medical informatics and health information management and promises to prepare HIM professionals for the electronic environment.4 Currently, the Board

HIM Education: A global Consideration Assistant professor Meidani in her study revealed that the HIM curriculum suffered from numerous challenges and drawbacks to highlight the necessity for a wellorganized global educational campaign:

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Information management was limited to the hospital setting and did not cover public health and personal health dimension of information management.6-10 The HIM curriculum focused on basic computing and capabilities for information processing sciences in comparison with newly emerging informatics disciplines. 6-10 Squeezing a diverse field of practices into one curriculum does not ensure HIM professionals expansion of knowledge that is needed to equip them with specific skills and competencies. HIM education concentrates on fact-transfer and information-recall which is the lowest level of training (e.g., introduction to consumer health informatics).6-10

Therefore, HIM professionals must expand their role through progression to the Master's level education and they must stay up to date with developments in information systems and medical computing. In a transformation of this magnitude, partnership with the International Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA), and national associations including the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA), health information related societies e.g. Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS), academia and key government will play a critical role in transforming HIM education.11

References 1. Hajavi A, Sarbaz M, Moradi N. Medical record (3, 4).Tehran; Computer world electronic publishing and information. 2002. 2. Ghazi saeedi M, Davarpanah A, Safdari R. Health information management. Tehran; Iran National Library, 2005. 3. Iranian Health Information Management Association (IHIMA). Available at: ihima.gov.ir 4. Health Information Technology Curriculum. Iran Ministry of Health and Medical Education; Deputy of Ministry for Education. Available at: dme.behdasht.gov.ir/ 5. The University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Master of Health Informatics and Information Management. 2011. Available at www.uthsc.edu/allied/him/masters (last accessed November 2011). 6. La Trobe University. Master of Health Information Management. 2011. Available at www.latrobe.edu.au/handbook/2012/postgraduate/healthsciences (last accessed November 2011). 7. Curtin University of Technology. Master of Health Information Management.2011. Available at http://student.handbook.curtin.edu.au/courses/31/313455.html (last accessed November 2011).

8. University of Illinois at Chicago. Health Informatics and Health Information Management. 2011. Available at http://healthinformatics.uic.edu/health- informatics/healthinformatics-degree-course (last accessed November 2011). 9. The College of St. Scholastica. Master of Science in Health Information Management. 2011. Available at www.css.edu/academics/catalog/graduate-catalog/graduatecurriculum/school-of-health-sciences (last accessed November 2011). 10. Temple University College of Health Professions and Social Work. Health informatics/health information management. 2011. Available at http://chpsw.temple.edu/him (last accessed November 2011). 11. Meidani Z, Sadoughi F, Ahmadi M, Maleki MR, Zohoor A, Saddik B. National health information infrastructure model: a milestone for health information management education realignment. Telemed J E Health. 2012 Jul; 18(6):475-83.

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Future Health Systems Young Researcher Award Proud moment, India

FHS grant award: FHS offers grants for research proposals submitted by junior staff of partner institutions or students. Awards made to junior staff have a value of US$5,000US$10,000 with 3-6 awards. Proud moment: grant award: Young Researcher

Divya K Bhati Research scholar -Institute of Health Management Research,IIHMR,India divya.bhati@rediffmail.com Background Future Health Systems (FHS) is a research consortium working to improve access, affordability and quality of health services for the poor. FHS is a partnership of leading research institutes from across the globe working in low-income countries (Bangladesh, Uganda), middle-income countries (China, India) and fragile states (Afghanistan) to build resilient health systems for the future, funded mainly by the UK Department of International Development (DFID). John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH), USA being the leading management of FHS works with other partners such as China National Health Development Research Center, or CNHDRC, (formerly known as the China Health Economics Institute), ICDDR,B (Bangladesh), Institute of Development studies (UK), IIHMR (India), Makerere University (Uganda) and UOI (Nigeria). The main theme of FHS is child health, communities, complex adaptive systems, health markets, informal providers, Malaria, Maternal health, policy processes and research methods.

This year out of 20 rich proposals submitted by four countries a total four proposals were awarded. Three were from IIHMR, India and one from Makerere University (Uganda). Achieving the second position, it was a proud moment for me and IIHMR to be part of the winning team. Each of us received the grant ($10,000) to carry out the research as planned. Research study: The research will mainly focus on the girl child health rights and its violation in the different arid zones of Rajasthan and also the impact of climatic conditions will be assessed with respect to availability, accessibility, affordability and quality of healthcare facilities received by the girl child. Covering four arid zones of Rajasthan, the study plan is for 16 months. This time period will also cover dissemination work for the betterment of girl child health in the rural Rajasthan. The research grant allocated would be utilized for the activities as decided in the budget planning. So, I am looking forward to this great challenge.

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Indonesia Pilot Test ICD-10 Morbidity Coding

Gemala Hatta (Indonesias Director to IFHIMA) g_hatta@yahoo.com On the 24th of November 2012 Indonesia conducted the pilot International Morbidity Coding Examination for 105 coders and thus became the 6th country after Korea, Japan, Jamaica, Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and Sweden to do so. he total numbers in Jakarta (Indonesia) was the highest amongst other countries. Examinees came from many island provinces in this archipelago country. The pilot test was seen as a way of promoting the importance of disease classification and accurate coding in Indonesia and was the reason why the Center of Health Information Management under Surya Institute, established in 2012 and PORMIKI (the Indonesian Professional on Medical Record and Health Information Organization, established in 1989) were interested in conducting it. The pilot test received international and national support. The WHO-FIC Education Committee had developed the pilot test and since June 2012 Joon Hong has communicated with me and been so very helpful in answering my questions. In response to my message to her, Sue Walker reported that those colleagues attending the WHO-FIC meeting in Brazil were pleased to learn of what we were doing in Indonesia.

In September 2012, I visited Dr. Jane Soepardi the Head of Health Data Center of our MOH and explained WHO classification system, the importance of ICPC (International Classification of Primary Care), and ICD- 10. That meeting impressed her and was followed with a much bigger meeting on the 9th of October 2012, attended by her colleagues two Directors of MOH: Dr. Chairul Nasution, the Director of Referral Health Care (2000 hospitals under his authority) and Dr. Dedy Kuswenda, Director of Basic Health Care (7000 primary health care centers under his authority). The MOH also invited a lady doctor and staff from the WHO Office in Jakarta, a doctor from National Institute on Health Research and Development, several officials from Health Data Center who initiated the meeting. Also joining the meeting were many staff representing their divisions in the MOH and Gunarto from PORMIKI. During the meeting, I also mentioned the up-coming pilot test (PT) on ICD-10 morbidity conducted by WHOFIC-IFHIMA. The 9th of October 2012 meeting with around 25 persons was a fruitful one. Many new faces had not known before about WHO classification system. The WHO doctor said she never heard before about ICD 10 morbidity Pilot Test (PT) conducted by WHO-FIC-IFHIMA. It was true, PT was a new thing for her and also to other MOH officials. To get a deeper conversation, the week after, on the 15th of October 2012, I met for around 30 minutes with Dr. Supriyantoro, the Director General of Health Services, in his MOHs office accompanied by the Director of Medical Technician and Nursing (MTN). The DG was pleased with what would be done a month later. He even suggested it is better if the WHO-FICIFHIMA does a collaboration project with our MOH. The suggestion is a good point. I think developing countries should be

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treated differently and helped to put practices into reality. A brochure on PT and trainings (see cover at the end of this paper) was prepared and sent to hospitals in Indonesia. The brochure announced the pilot test on the 24th of November and two separate classes 19th to 22nd November on medical terminology and ICD-10 on line electronic version. On the 23rd of November 2012 the training participants went for a recreational visit to a herbal plantation used for herbal cosmetics. Pilot test will always be very important to all MOHs whose coders in their countries take part in PTs and especially to us (HIM practitioners). With the great opportunity to join Pilot Test, coders learn the very important lesson in joining international exam. Thus Pilot Test is really good opportunity to evaluate and improve their coding

competence, primarily for their own sake and also for the benefit of their health institutions. The test is very important for us in knowing the level of the coders capability. I was so thankful being helped by those authorities who understand the importance of good implementation of classification system in Indonesia. Thank you to WHO-FIC-IFHIMA for supporting us and making the Indonesia Pilot Test a reality. May 2013 be a fruitful year!

105 Indonesian Examinees on Pilot Test ICD 10 morbidity WHO-FIC-IFHIMA - conducted in 8 classes Jakarta, Indonesia - 24th of November

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Published in mdi; Forum der Medizin_Dokumentation und Medizin_Informatik Germany, issue 3_2012 Page 85

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Report on the General Assembly of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)

As a proxy of IFHIMA, I participated in the voting at the General Assembly. 2. Impressions of the meeting The General Assembly ran smoothly in line with the agenda. Some of the items that were discussed and my impressions are as follows: Accreditation ceremony for IMIA-accredited programs

Yukiko Yokobori Director Southeast Asia yokobori@jha-e.com October 23, 2012 Crowne Plaza Beijing Sun Palace Participating Member Countries: 18 countries (Switzerland, Brazil, Germany, UK, USA, Japan, Taiwan, China, Thailand, Italy, Canada, South Africa, Australia, the Netherlands, South Korea, Greece, Chile, Iran, and others); a total of around 35 participants. 1. IFHIMAs accomplishments I met with the IMIA President, Past President, President-Elect, and IMIA CEO, and presented each with the IFHIMA brochure and my IFHIMA business card. The President said he hoped to see further collaboration between IFHIMA and IMIA. I also had opportunities to interact with various national members present at the IMIA General Assembly, in particular exchanging information with some of the national members who were also members of the WHOFIC Network and with those representing Japan.

Certificates of IMIAs accreditation were conferred upon the representatives, present at the GA, of a masters program in Finland (the only health informatics program in Finland) and a vocational program in Chile. (IMIAs accreditation is valid for five years, after which it can be renewed.) Accredited programs may carry an authoritative label of Accredited by the International Medical Informatics Association. As the accreditation has significant promotional value for the entities managing the accredited programs, I think there are great benefits to be had from the accreditation for both the accredited programs and IMIA.

Dr. Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr., President-elect

Task Force on developing the History of

International Medical Informatics

IMIA is promoting activities to write IMIAs history using a wiki format. The task force asked the GA for information on their respective countries and reliable contacts. It plans to complete the task by 2016 or 2017 in time for the 50th anniversary of IMIA.

Prof. Dr. Antoine Geissbuhler, IMIA President 14

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IFHIMA has the History of IFHIMA project. The use of wiki is an interesting idea that may merit consideration by IFHIMA. It would allow editing by multiple writers, especially for articles on, for instance, relations between IFHIMA and its member countries.

IMIA operates on an ample budget and has as many as 58 member societies (basically, one Member Society from each country). There were apparently many more organizations willing to join IMIA. A ceremony was conducted during the GA to present plaques to new members. I had the impression that this kind of presentation not only shows respect for each member society, but also reinforces IMIAs standing within each society.

Prof. Reinhold Haux, Past President

Strategic plan updating As the IFHIMA Executive Board is aware, IMIA will be requesting comments on its strategic plan in the next few months from all members. The comments will go to the IMIA Board for discussion, and the updated strategic plan will be presented before the IMIA GA in 2013 for approval. As IFHIMA is trying out similar approaches for the restructuring of our strategic plan, I would be interested in following up on the outcomes of the updating of IMIAs strategic plan. Summary The IMIA General Assembly was held a day before the opening of the conference of the Asia Pacific Association for Medical Informatics (APAMI), the regional member of IMIA representing the Asia-Pacific region. Unfortunately, my schedule did not allow me to attend this conference.
Dr. Peter J. Murray, CEO

Although it was the first time for me to attend an informatics meeting, I came away with a positive impression of IMIA steadily promoting a range of projects on very good finances. The boundaries of health information management (HIM) vary depending on countries and even among hospitals within a country. Rather than adopt a competing view of informatics versus HIM, I think it is important to further promote cooperation between the two. I am convinced that both sides do recognize the importance of HIM work in the future years to come. I also realize the need for IFHIMA to have a common international definition on HIM work.

Members of IMIA General Assembly

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The Special Relation of HIM between Canada and Korea

Joon H. Hong WHO-FIC Education and Implementation Committee, IFHIMA Regional Director jhhong42@hotmail.com Western medicine was first introduced to Korea in 1885 by an American missionary Dr. Allen but the medical record system was not systematized until 1962 when a Canadian missionary doctor began work in Wonjoo Christian Hospital. Dr. Florence J. Murray, born in 1894 in Picton Landing, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, graduated from Dalhousie Medical College in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and came to Korea in 1921 at the age of 27 as a missionary medical doctor. She worked very hard to cure patients in many cities in Korea. She had served as the superintendent of two hospitals and established sanitaria for tuberculosis and leprosy patients, innovative developments in Korea at the time. She experienced many dangerous situations in her activities as a medical doctor and a Christian missionary under the Japanese regime in Korea. After her retirement as a medical doctor, she began to work in the medical record department in Wonjoo Christian Hospital in 1962. She set up the medical record system by making a patient index and morbidity coding by SNDO (Standard Nomenclature of Diseases and Operations) for all the patients and their records since 1959, the year of opening the hospital. She fin-

ished the work in 1964 and moved to Severance Hospital in Seoul as the director of the medical record department in 1965. Severance is a large teaching hospital attached to Yonsei University. She not only set up the medical record system but also started a medical record librarian program at the Yonsei Institute for Medical Technology. She took out all the records since 1952 and did the patient index, disease and procedure coding and indexing. She instituted a unit numbering system and developed many record forms. At the institute she taught medical terminology, anatomy, physiology, and a medical record management (MRM) system that included a unit numbering system, patient index, morbidity coding, medical record control, developing medical record format, etc. That was the first official program teaching MRM in Korea. She sent three of her students to Halifax, Canada to study MRM and to train them to be MRM instructors in Korea. At that time, physicians and nurses wrote medical records in English, the second language for Koreans. She taught correct English to the physicians and nurses and also taught them to make complete and accurate medical records to improve the quality of documentation. Moreover, she conducted MRM workshops nationally to teach the people working in medical record departments/ sections in hospitals. Those workshops were the only chance for people to learn MRM because at that time there was no HIM education program except the Yonsei program which was only a postgraduate program. On her strong suggestion to organize a HIM association, the Korean Medical Record Professionals Association was organized in 1966 and recognized in 1977 as the Korean Medical Record Association (KMRA) by the Korean government.

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She often said to the doctors: if you do not complete medical records accurately within the designated time, you fail to perform your duty as a medical doctor. She also said: the easiest way of measuring the quality of a hospital is to evaluate its medical record department. She strongly advised the superintendent of Severance Hospital to organize a medical record committee and she held committee meetings regularly to discuss important issues regarding medical records of the hospital. Thus Dr. Murray laid the foundation stone of HIM in Korea. After she set up the MRM system and an education program at Severance Hospital and at Yonsei Institute, she completely retired from her work and left Korea in 1969. She contributed greatly as both a medical doctor and a Christian missionary through her life in Korea. The Korean government conferred on her the Distinguished Service Medal twice. In 1985, the Yonsei University alumni donated a Korean pagoda, on the corner of Queen's Park Crescent and Charles Street W. in Toronto, in memory of Dr. Murray and two other missionary doctors from Canada.

Dr. Murray handed over her position to another missionary, Mrs. Rita B. Steeds, who came from Winnipeg, Manitoba to Korea in 1969. She continued the work Dr. Murray had been doing and also taught MRM to the students at Yonsei Institute. As a licensed medical record administrator she developed the MRM system at Severance Hospital and the teaching program at Yonsei Institute. She left Korea in 1973. After she left, three of Dr. Murrays old students who studied MRM in Halifax continued working in MRM in Korea and taught the students at the Yonsei Institute. Dr. Murray and Mrs. Steeds passed away many years ago but the seeds they planted in Korea have born great fruit. We have a large association, the KMRA, with more than 2000 active members. There are more than 60 two or three-year programs and 30 four-year programs teaching HIM in Korea. All of the HIMs in Korea owe our present HIM situation to these two Canadian missionaries who devoted their efforts to the establishment of the HIM education system in our country.

Dr. Florence J. Murray

Mrs. Rita B. Steeds

Dr. Murray wearing Korean traditional costume

Korean pagoda in Toronto

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

The Transition from Health Information Management to eHealth Information Management to Support eHealth and the PatientCentred Approach
Based on a presentation delivered at eHealth Week 2012, Copenhagen on 8th May 2012
(Session Continuity of Care Extended)

Electronic health records: enabling the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists etc.); Telemedicine: physical and psychological treatments at a distance; Consumer health informatics: use of electronic resources on medical topics by healthy individuals or patients; Health knowledge management: e.g. in an overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking (examples include physician resources such as Medscape and MDLinx); Virtual healthcare teams: consisting of healthcare professionals who collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment (for transmural care); mHealth or m-Health: includes the use of mobile devices in collecting aggregate and patient level health data, providing healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vitals, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine); Medical research using Grids: powerful computing and data management capabilities to handle large amounts of heterogeneous data. Healthcare Information Systems: also often refer to software solutions for appointment scheduling, patient data management, work schedule management and other administrative tasks surrounding health.

Lorraine Nicholson Immediate Past President of IFHIMA l.nicholson@zen.co.uk eHealth and the Scope of eHealth eHealth (also written e-health) is a relatively recent term for healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication. eHealth is concerned with promoting, empowering and facilitating health and wellbeing for individuals, families and communities, and the enhancement of professional clinical practice through the use of information management and information and communication technology (ICT). eHealth is not just about technology - it is about finding, using, recording, managing, and transmitting information to support health care delivery; in particular to make decisions about patient care. Computers and other ICT devices are merely the technology that enables this to happen. The term eHealth can encompass a range of services or systems that are at the edge of medicine/ healthcare and information technology, including:

(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EHealth )

The necessity of making the transition Health Information Management (HIM) is the practice of maintenance and care of health records by traditional (paper-based)

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

and electronic means in hospitals, physician's office clinics, GP surgeries, health departments, health insurance companies, and other facilities that provide health care or maintenance of health records. The effective sharing of patient information to facilitate care delivery from multiple providers (an integrated care model) the use of traditional paper-based systems is difficult. eHealth integrated care models require the sharing of data from multiple sources, each holding an electronic record

for the patient. These records must be brought together to eliminate silos of information to facilitate the delivery of high quality, safe and effective care in the patients home environment. Therefore HIM will need to become eHIM to support the Patient-Centred Approach and in order to offer HIM expertise to Health Information Technology (HIT), the profession must train more HIM professionals in both traditional and emerging practice.

The eHealth integrated care model shown in the diagram below illustrates the sharing of data from multiple sources where there is an electronic record for the patient and the necessary connectivity between the different systems is represented by the blue line.

Physiotherapy

Pharmacy

Dentist Optician Specialist Clinics

Chiropody

Voluntary Services

Home Safety
Personal Support

CommunityServices

Community Nurse

Social Care Lei sure

Learning Needs

Health Care

Privatesector support

Housing

GP

Hospital

Care/Nursing Home

Laboratory
DiagramafterP.Hill

(Hofdijk, Jacob, Casemix Advisor, Ministry of Health, Introduction to the Silo Crossing Integrated Care Approach, Presentation at eHealth Week 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8th May 2012 - Session MR18, OC4 Continuity of Care Extended)

Using health IT effectively using this model supports citizens in managing their own health and well-being and it helps them become more active participants in their own care and the services delivered to them. It supports citizens with long-term conditions and improves availability of information for health and social care workers to help them improve the quality of

care provided, it improves safety for citizens taking medication and supports the integration of care for patients with complex health and social care needs. There is a need to develop electronic systems that link multiple health and social care providers, which has resulted in an increased need for interoperable systems. Interoperability requires common data

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

standards and definitions and HL7 and several other organisations have been working diligently in this respect but there is still work to be done. Despite the availability of SNOMED many suppliers are still not using it in the systems that they offer to healthcare provider organisations and there are still some problems in achieving seamless interfaces between different suppliers systems. One of the factors blocking the use of eHealth tools from more widespread acceptance and use is concern about privacy and confidentiality issues relating to data in patient health records, and particularly in respect of the EHR (Electronic Health Record). Each medical and clinical specialty has its own terminology and diagnostic tools and in order to standardise the exchange of information, different coding schemes such as SNOMED may be used in combination with international medical standards. SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms), is a systematically organised computer processable collection of medical terms providing codes, terms, synonyms and definitions covering diseases, findings, procedures, microorganisms, substances, etc. It allows a consistent way to index, store, retrieve, and aggregate clinical data across specialties and sites of care. It also helps in organizing the content of medical/health records, reducing the variability in the way data is captured, encoded and used for clinical care of patients and for research. The primary purpose of SNOMED CT is to support the effective clinical recording of data with the aim of improving patient care and it is available in more than fifty countries around the world.
(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EHealth

seven major factors affecting healthcare: rising costs, an ageing and mobile population, a lack of data standards, growth of technology, shrinking HIM work force, the need for consumer education, and changing public imperatives. All seven remain central, but former task force members single out three in the forefront today: work force, technology, and data standards. (Bloomrosen, Meryl. "eHIM: From Vision to
Reality." Journal of AHIMA 76, no.9 (October 2005): 36-41)

Work force challenges haven't changed since 2003 and, in order to offer HIM expertise to Health Information Technology (HIT), the profession must train more HIM professionals in both traditional and emerging eHIM practice to make them proficient in the use of new electronic systems to help make continuity of care and the delivery of patient-centred health and social care services a reality. Core eHIM competencies need to be identified and education and training aligned with those competencies e.g. the Health Informatics Career Framework underpinned by National Occupational Standards in the UK and the "Framework for HIM Education in an Electronic Environment" in the USA, which articulate entry and exit points for HIM professionals at various academic and operational levels. Education for Citizens - Patient empowerment and chronic disease management Several members of the AHIMA eHIM taskforce suggested a revised vision for eHealth supported by eHIM might therefore be: "The future state of health information is electronic, consumer-centered, comprehensive, longitudinal, accessible, credible, and secure. Ownership of health information is a shared responsibility between the consumer (citizen) and the provider. (Bloomrosen, Meryl. "eHIM: From Vision to Reality." Journal of AHIMA 76, no.9 (October 2005): 36-41)

Workforce Challenges In 2003 the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) established an eHIM taskforce, which identified

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

Well structured electronic health records (EHRs) are an essential component of eHealth delivery. Health and social care consumers and patients (citizens), and where appropriate their carers, need to assume greater responsibility for their own health and care management supported by eHealth technologies. Consumers, patients and carers therefore need to have some basic understanding and knowledge to make the best possible use of these new technologies, which will, in turn, improve the quality of care that they receive thereby improving their quality of life. If citizens are to be actively involved in and take shared responsibility for the health and social care that they receive they will also need to be educated in the use of new technology and also to have increased awareness about their disease or condition. Diabetic patients, for instance, already have a well defined set of terms and actions, which makes standard communication and information exchange easier, whether the exchange is initiated by the patient or the caregiver. Organisations such as Diabetes UK provide diabetics with the facts about diabetes and the information they need to manage the condition from diagnosis to the realities of everyday living. There is also an app (application) for iPhone users to take the daily chore out of logging levels such as blood glucose, carbohydrates and calories and to enable diabetics to share their data with the professionals who are providing care. Medicare in the USA, as another example, offers consumers provider-specific information online about outcomes in treatment for congestive heart failure, acute myocardial infarctions, and pneumonia to help them make informed choices about where they receive treatment and care.

What do eHealth and the PatientCentred Approach mean for patients with complex needs? The effective use of Health IT supports patients (citizens) to manage their own health and well-being, especially those with long-term conditions, and enables them to become more active participants in their own care and the health and social care services provided to them. It also improves availability of information for health and social care workers to improve the safety and quality of care they deliver, improves safety for those taking medication by eliminating errors and supports the integration of care for patients with multiple problems. eHealth and the patientcentred approach will deliver holistic treatment and care for patients with complex needs to provide harmonised health and social care services that meet their individual needs. eHealth services are purely an enabling mechanism, not a replacement for necessary interpersonal interaction between patients and their care providers, to deliver services tailored to an individuals specific needs and a pattern of care delivery that they find most effective in their own surroundings. There is a need to link electronic systems from multiple health and social care providers (using interoperable systems) to support the integrated care approach and interoperability requires the use of common data standards and definitions and a common terminology such as SNOMED CT. Data Sharing and Information Exchange Issues for eHealth and eHIM The appropriate exchange of health information will be the foundation of eHIM practices for the future. There will be new and effective way of exchanging information through interoperable Health Information Exchange (HIE) networks and it will be important to mobilise healthcare information electronically across organiza-

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

tions within a region or community - a standards-based EHR is the foundation on which HIE will be built. The role of the Health Information Manager is the management of Information in Health and the EHR will unite them professionally. With data sharing amongst multiple providers of care there will be privacy concerns regarding patient records, mainly related to confidentiality of data. Standards and definitions must be standardised to ensure that information is shared effectively and securely between providers and standardisation of terminology will be crucial to facilitate effective communication, information exchange and data sharing. There must be a sound infrastructure for data sharing utilising data sharing protocols, codes of practice etc. The Challenge for the Health Information Management Profession The transition from HIM to eHIM is a very big professional issue for all Health Information Managers around the world. Undoubtedly education and support for HIM Professionals will be crucial to enable them to successfully make the transition from Health Information Managers to eHealth Information Managers in order for them to become part of a competent future workforce. Identification of core eHIM competencies is an important first step together with the development of new ways of learning. In order to respond appropriately to the educational challenge HIM educators themselves will need to be able to access advanced education which is focused on eHIM to help them develop new teaching strategies and inform their teaching practices in order to develop new ways of learning for their students. Attracting the right calibre of students through targeted recruitment strategies will also be important to ensure that new teaching practices and new ways of learning achieve their potential in full and produce eHealth Information Managers with

the right skills and knowledge to effectively manage health information going forward. The development of applied and interactive ways of learning to allow students to work with the actual technology that they will encounter in the workplace will ensure that they become proficient in the use of these technologies for example, the Virtual eHIM Learning Laboratory in the USA. eHIM conferences and other educational opportunities must also be developed and delivered to assist existing HIM professionals make the necessary transition from traditional HIM practice to the new ways of working in an electronic environment. Incombination these measures will provide an appropriately educated and skilled eHIM workforce for the future and, as potential patients, each and every one of us will benefit because good health outcomes depend on the availability and use of good quality health information. and finally, what should Health Information Managers be doing on a personal level? Wherever they live and work in the world and regardless of the level of deployment of health IT in their locality, Health Information Managers should embrace the changes to their role rather than resisting them, they should be focused in their professional practices and committed to continuous learning. By taking the initiative and assuming the responsibility for making the requisite personal and professional changes Health Information Managers will successfully make the essential transition to become eHealth Information Managers!
References: 1. (Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EHealth ) 2. Bloomrosen, Meryl. "eHIM: From Vision to Reality." Journal of AHIMA 76, no.9 (October 2005): 36-41 3. Hofdijk, Jacob, Casemix Advisor, Ministry of Health, Introduction to the Silo Crossing Integrated Care Approach, Presentation at eHealth Week 2012, Copenhagen, Denmark, 8th May 2012 - Session MR18, OC4 Continuity of Care Extended.

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

Advancing eHealth in Europe: Empowering Patients, Supporting Health Professionals

A Conference held in Brussels on 28th November 2012

try University, Advisor to the Welsh Government, member of the Quality Standards Advisory Committee at the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) and Former Chair of the Telecare Services Association. There were six presentations each followed by an interactive discussion session. The presentations were as follows:

Improving Quality and Access to EHealth for Patients and Healthcare Professionals in Europe - Tapani Piha, head of Unit, European Commission Directorate for Health and Consumer Valcronic: Optimising the Efficiency and Quality of Health Services in Valencia Luis Eduardo Rosado Breton, Health Minister of Valencia Putting the Puzzle Together - Jose Perdomo Lorenzo, Global Managing Director E-Health and Security, Telefonica Digital Continuity of Healthcare in Europe Nicola Bedlington, Executive Director of the European Patient Forum & Birgit Beger, Secretary General, Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) Integrated Solutions in Healthcare an E-Health Plan for Europe - Professor Martin Cowie, Dept. of Clinical Cardiology, Imperial College, London & Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London & Angelo de Rosa, Head of Strategy & Business Development, Medtronic Increasing Confidence and Acceptance of E-Health and Cross-Border Healthcare in Europe - Representative of Gisele Roesems Kerremans, Deputy Head of Unit, ICT for Health, DG Information Society and Media, European Commission The interactive discussion sessions were wide-ranging and interesting and they covered many different initiatives that were

Lorraine Nicholson Immediate Past President IFHIMA & Member of IFHIMA Europe

I attended the Advancing eHealth in Europe; Empowering Patients, Supporting Health Professionals" conference held in Brussels on Wednesday 28th November 2012 to represent IFHIMA and IFHIMA Europe. I was pleased to be awarded a free registration through the Institute of Health Records and Information Management (IHRIM UK) of which I am a member and I extend my thanks to the Institute for this excellent opportunity. The conference was organised by the International Centre for Parliamentary Studies (ICPS) in partnership with Medtronic and Telefonica. The IPCS is based in London in the United Kingdom and it exists to promote effective policy making and good governance through better interaction between Parliaments, Governments and other stakeholders in society. Approximately 40 participants attended from many countries in the European Union together with representatives from the ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) industry. The session was chaired by Malcolm J. Fisk, Co Director of the Age Research Centre at the Health Design and Technology Institute at Coven-

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

highlighted during the presentations. The main initiatives that were discussed together with some background information about each initiative are shown below: The focus of the conference was Advancing e-Health in Europe. The European Commission has been investing in eHealth research for over 20 years. Since 2004, when the first eHealth Action Plan was launched, it has also been developing targeted policy initiatives aimed at fostering widespread adoption of eHealth technologies across the EU. More recently, the Commission launched the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing to bring together the public and private sectors, researchers, health practitioners, patients and carers with the aim of adding two years to the average number of healthy life years in the EU by 2020. In the second half of 2012 the Commission is due to present the eHealth Action Plan 2012 - 2020 to scale-up eHealth for empowerment, efficiency and innovation. The eHealth Task Force On 7th May 2012 at e-Health Week in Copenhagen a high-level group of eHealth experts warned that Europeans would only be able to benefit from the affordable, less intrusive and more personalised healthcare which ICT can bring if agreement is reached on how to use health data. This group, the 'eHealth Task Force', headed by the President of Estonia, Toomas Hendrik Ilves, delivered this and other recommendations for redesigning health in Europe. The eHealth Task Force was established a year ago to advise the Commission on how to unlock the potential of eHealth for safer, better and more efficient healthcare in Europe. The report of the Task Force 'Redesigning health in Europe for 2020' identified five levers for change which are as follows:

1) My data, my decisions 2) Liberate the date 3) Revolutionise health 4) Include everyone The recommendations are 1. A new legal basis for health data in Europe Create a legal framework and space to manage the massive amounts of health-related data and implement safeguards so that citizens can use health applications ("apps") with the confidence that their data will be handled appropriately. 2. Create a beacon group of Member States and regions committed to open data and eHealth The beacon group should include pioneers in eHealth applications. 3. Support health literacy Health data needs to be available in a form that patients can understand and more needs to be done to explain to people how integrating appropriately anonymised data into a central system can improve their healthcare. 4. Use the power of data eHealth applications must be proven to be worthy of users' trust. Only then will users make their data available for feedback on preventive care or for benchmarking and monitoring performance of health systems. 5. Re-orient EU funding and policies Specific eHealth budget lines need to be responsive to enable the development of good ideas into fast prototyping and testing. Transparency should be required from health institutions through their procurement and funding criteria.

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

The Task Force's recommendations will feed into eHealth-related EU initiatives, including the eHealth Network, which is being established according to the provisions of the Directive on Patients' Rights in Cross Border Healthcare, which was passed by Europe in 2011. Member States will be required to adopt the necessary laws, regulations and administrative provisions by 25th October 2013.

form, following an internal consultation with its members. E-Health Governance Initiative (eHGI) The European eHealth Governance Initiative (eHGI) supports cooperation between Member States at Political Governance levels and eHealth Stakeholders. The eHGI ultimately aims to improve the health status of European citizens, the quality and continuity of care and the sustainability of European health systems. Improving eHealth governance, through the coordination of the Member States and the European eHealth policies, will enable the building of an interoperable eHealth structure within the EU. The eHGI will work very closely with the High-Level-eHealthGovernance-Group (State Secretaries and Director Generals) to ensure effective links and synergies between political decisionmaking and the outputs of more technically oriented work. The overall objective of the initiative is to help shape the eHealth political agenda at EU level, with a specific focus on interoperability. Member States aim to achieve interoperability and increase the quality and efficiency of care by strengthening their cooperation at a high political level in order to get support in the deployment of eHealth services across borders. The project is expected to create a European coordination platform, contributing to a single European eHealth area through streamlined policy, uptake, trust, and awareness in the use of ICT in health care sector. An interoperability roadmap, which is a strategy to build eHealth networks within Member States and Europe-wide, is one of the main health policy instruments for decision making in the eHealth domain. The project will also speed up the adoption process of encryption and electronic signatures through building a security and data protection framework, to address identification, the need for authentication and role-based authorization for enhanced

E-Health Action Plan (eHAP) 2012 2020 The eHAP 2012 - 2020 aims to provide a longer term vision for eHealth in Europe by consolidating the actions already contained in the Commissions wider eHealth effort, namely the EU 2020 strategy and its flagship initiatives Digital Agenda for Europe and Innovation Union (the latter encompassing also the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing), the eHealth Governance Initiative, as well as a number of high profile events and activities in support of eHealth. The eHAP 2012 - 2020 focuses on the attainment of four objectives: 1. to increase awareness of the benefits and opportunities of eHealth, and empower citizens, patients and healthcare professionals; 2. to address issues currently impeding eHealth interoperability; 3. to improve legal certainty for health; and 4. to support innovation and research in eHealth and the development of a competitive European and global market. The European Commission launched a public consultation on the second eHealth Action Plan 2012 - 2020, which was being drafted for release at the end of 2012. The consultation took the form of a questionnaire but the European Public Health Alliance (EPHA) took the opportunity to submit a more detailed response in letter

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

security in the health care sector between health care professionals and patients. The eHGI will make a valuable contribution to the EU-wide implementation of EU objectives set out in the Digital Agenda; Directive on the Application of Patients Rights in Cross Border Healthcare and within the European Innovation Partnership on Active and Healthy Ageing. The European Patients Forum (EPF) is a member of the Executive Committee and is co-leader of the Work Package dedicated to Trust and Acceptability the general objective of which is to provide stakeholders' representatives with the means and the opportunities to discuss and identify possible ways to enhance users trust and acceptability of eHealth. The final aim is to make proposals to the representatives of EU Member States representatives and the European Commission on how the needs of users should best be taken into account in the development of European and national eHealth strategies. The eHGI will support the establishment of a European eHealth environment for the benefit of European patients, i.e. support and guidance for implementation, deployment and use of eHealth services throughout national health care systems, increasing patient safety and quality and enabling better use of health care resources. Chain of Trust Project (European Patient's Forum - EPF) The "Chain of Trust" project, which is led by the European Patients Forum (EPF) commenced in January 2011 with the overall objective of assessing the perspective of main end users of telehealth services across the EU to see if and how views have evolved since the initial deployment of telehealth and what barriers there still are to building confidence in and acceptance of this innovative type of services. Ultimately the project will aim to strengthen levels of awareness and trust amongst key stakeholders. The findings

and recommendations will provide a unique tool to inform policy- and decisionmaking at various levels. The Chain of Trust project is co-funded by the Public Health Programme of the European Union managed by the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers (EAHC). The project consortium comprises the following partners:

European Patients Forum (EPF, project leader) Standing Committee of European Doctors (CPME) Pharmaceutical Group of the European Union (PGEU) European Federation of Nurses Associations (EFN) Norwegian Centre for Telemedicine and Integrated Care (NST) Latvian Umbrella Body for Disability Organisations (SUSTENTO).

EPF is the coordinator of this project and the Forum has a strong role in all activities relating to the collection of knowledge on users perspectives on telehealth, with a focus on patients views. The Forum is also leading work relating to awarenessraising of user perspectives both EU-wise and nationally and is in charge of organising the final project conference scheduled for January 2013. For the first time ever, a project will assess the perspective of the main end-users of telehealth services, i.e. patients, doctors, nurses and pharmacists across the EU. In so doing the Chain of Trust project is expected to make a strong contribution in terms of positioning users at the centre of telehealth policy debates and fostering more patient-centered telehealth services in Europe. TeleSCoPE: Telehealth Services Code of Practice for Europe TeleSCoPE directly reports to the European Commission on telemedicine for the

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benefit of patients, healthcare systems and society. The primary objective of TeleSCoPE is to develop a comprehensive Code of Practice for Telehealth Services i.e. relating to that aspect of telemedicine delivered in the home and normally mediated through ICT. The project directly supports EC Action Point (in COM2008:689) to improve confidence in and acceptance of telemedicine. It also contributes to other Action Points to collect good practice on deployment of telemedicine servicesand to address issues for Member States around accreditation, privacy and data protection. The TeleSCoPE project is partially funded by the European Commission's Health programme, which is the European Commission's main instrument for implementing the EU health strategy. The programme aims, through projects and other funded activities, to improve the level of physical and mental health and well-being of EU citizens and to reduce health inequalities throughout the Community. The objectives of the current programme are:

The programme will be launched at Med-e-Tel in Luxembourg 10th -12th April 2013. Med-e-Tel (The International eHealth, Telemedicine and Health ICT Forum for Education, Networking and Business) is an official event of the International Society for Telemedicine & eHealth (ISfTeH), which is an international federation of national member associations, which represent their country's Telemedicine and eHealth stakeholders.
In conclusion The whole day was interesting and very informative. Networking sessions were held during coffee breaks, the lunch break and after the close of the conference. They were an integral part of the conference programme and were very useful and interesting. I came away from the conference with lots of new information and many valuable updates on projects and initiatives that were the subject of presentations during eHealth Week in Copenhagen in May 2012. http://health.parlicentre.eu/

To improve citizens' health security To promote health, including the reduction of health inequalities To generate and disseminate health information and knowledge

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Issue Number 12 January 2013

Calendar of Events
13th 15th May 2013: 17th IFHIMA Congress Montral, Canada http://www.ifhimacongress2013.com/ 28th 30th October 2013-01-18 85th AHIMA Convention and Exhibit Atlanta, Georgia, USA http://www.ahima.org/events/convention/d efault.aspx

Early Bird Registration deadline extended to February 28th, 2013

Now more than ever, it is critical to empower yourself and be a part of the conversation as the role of HIM evolves. CHIMA is very excited to be hosting the upcoming 17th Congress of International Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA) May 1315, 2013, Montral, Qubec, Canada. The IFHIMA Congress brings together health information management and health informatics professionals from around the world. An international attendance of approximately 1,200 delegates is anticipated from approximately 19 countries. This congress promises to engage and inform delegates by mobilizing the HIM voice and identifying global HIM trends in the areas of: Electronic Health Information/Record Emerging Roles and HIM Workforce Transformation Data Quality Privacy, Confidentiality and Access Developing Countries Challenges, Achievements and Opportunities Now is our opportunity to come together and share experiences, best practices and discuss the future of the HIM profession as it continues to evolve with the everchanging health care system. Register online at http://www.ifhimacongress2013.com before February 28th to take advantage of the Early Bird rate.

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Editorial Board: Cameron Barnes, Australia Angelika Haendel, Germany Marci MacDonald, Canada Lorraine Nicholson, UK Darley Petersen, Denmark Margaret Skurka, USA

PS: If you do not wish to receive further IFHIMA/IFHIMA messages or editions of Global News please let us know and we will remove you from the mailing list (petersen.darley@hotmail.com).

Disclaimer:
Contributions to Global News are welcomed from members and non-members of IFHIMA and articles should be typed and sent by e-mail to the Editor, Angelika Haendel Angelika.Haendel@uk-erlangen.de for consideration for publication. Responsibility for referencing in any article rests with the author. Readers should note that opinions expressed in articles in Global News are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the position of IFHIMA.

Global News Advisory Board

Ulli Hoffmann Germany Carol Lewis, USA Phyllis Watson, Australia

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