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 President’s Message
Margaret Skurka
2
- Health Information Management Training in Ethiopia
Sheila Carlon
4
- Health Information Managers’ Association of Nigeria (HIMAN)
Adeleke Ibrahim Taiwo
5
- AMRO-Kenya is rejoining IFHIMA
6
- Transition from Medical Record Practitioners to Health Information Technology
Professionals: Iranian Perspective
Mehrdad Farzandipour, Zahra Meidani, Maryam Nazadi
7
- Future Health Systems - Young Researcher Award - Proud moment, India
Miss.Divya K Bhati
10
- Indonesia Pilot Test – ICD-10 Morbidity Coding
Gemela Hatta
11
- ICD-11 Revision
Robert Jakob, Dr. Bedirhan Üstün
13
- Report on the General Assembly of the International
Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)
Yukiko Yokobori
14
- The special Relation of HIM - between Canada and Korea
Joon H. Hong
16
- The Transition from Health Information Management to eHealth Information
Management to Support eHealth and the Patient - Centred Approach
Lorraine Nicholson FHRIM
18
- Advancing eHealth in Europe: Empowering Patients, Supporting Health
Professionals - A Conference held in Brussels on 28th November 2012
Lorraine Nicholson
23
- Calendar of events
28
- Publishing information
29
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
sembly, and the opening session. We will
discuss and provide information on our 3
strategic directions including:
IFHIMA President’s Message
January 2013
 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
Margaret Skurka
MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA
President of IFHIMA
Email: [email protected]
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.
Greetings to all of you reading this issue of
the Global News.
As the president of IFHIMA, I’m happy to
communicate again with you. We are currently only 4 ½ months away from the 17th
Congress of IFHIMA, to be held in Montreal, Canada on May 13-15, 2013. I hope
you’ve registered for the Congress and are
making plans for your travel and accommodations. The Canadian HIM Association
is planning an excellent meeting and you’ll
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.
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
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-
2
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Follow us on Facebook also.
Best regards,
Margaret
Margaret A. Skurka, MS, RHIA, CCS, FAHIMA
President, IFHIMA 2010-2013
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
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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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
coincidentally I was leaving for Ethiopia
the following week.
Health Information Managment
Training in Ethiopia
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).
Sheila Carlon, Ph.D., RHIA, CHPS
HSA Division Director
Regis University
3333 Regis Blvd.
Denver, CO 80221, USA
[email protected]
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.
In 2008 the Ministry of Health and a NonGovernmental Organization (NGO) along
with Tulane University’s 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.
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.
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
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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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 also elected the following
new officers:
The Conference returned the following:
8. Felicia Sekooni AHR, PGDE, MBA,
M.Sc.as Chair, Career Development
1.
Wole Ajayi B.Sc., MLS, FHIMAN as the
National President
2.
Kayode Adepoju B.Sc., MMP, FHIMAN
as the National Secretary
3.
Seye Ogundele B.Sc., BBA, MHIM,
RHIM as National Financial Secretary
4.
Razaaq Adio B.Sc., MHIM, RHIM as the
National Publicity Secretary
5.
Georgina Aloysius B.Sc., RHIM as Assistant National Secretary
6. Garba Babale B.Sc., RN, MILR, MHP,
FHIMAN as National Vice President.
7. Adebayo Oluwatoki AHR, MHIM as National Treasurer
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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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
Welcome to Kenya 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 Montréal, Canada on
Sunday May 12th, 2013.
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
Lorraine Nicholson
Immediate Past President of IFHIMA
[email protected]
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
6
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
programs increased. Growth has continued and by the year 2000 nearly 18 universities offered associate, baccalaureate,
and masters degrees.
Transition from Medical Record
Practitioners to Health Information
Technology Professionals:
Iranian Perspective
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
Mehrdad
Farzandipour
Farzandipour
agement” was approved in 1998. At that
Assistant
Professor,
Department
Associate
Assistant
Professor,
Professor,
Department
Department
ofof of Assistant Professor, Department of
time, the Iran University of Medical SciHealth
Information
Management/
Health Information Management/
Health
Health
Information
Information
Management/
Management/
ences was a pioneer training HIM profesTechnology,
Kashan
University
Technology,
Technology,
Kashan
Kashan
University
University
ofof of Technology, Kashan University of
sionals at the Master and PhD level. ToMedical
Sciences,
Kashan,
Iran.
Medical Sciences. Kashan, Iran
Medical
Medical
Sciences.
Sciences,
Kashan,
Kashan,
Iran.
Iran.
email: [email protected]
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
Maryam Nazadi Niasar
Bachelor of Health Information Technology,
Department of Health Information Management/Technology, Kashan University of
Medical Sciences. Kashan, Iran
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.
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
IMRA is committed to advancing the HIM
profession by:
7

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
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
of Health Information Technology at the
Ministry of Health and Medical Education
is revising HIM education to prepare for a
PhD program.
medical record practitionesr throughout the country

Representing the unique role of HIM
to the medical community
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
HIM profession in its second wave
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.
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
HIM Education: A global Consideration
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
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:
8
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013

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
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).
References
1. Hajavi A, Sarbaz M, Moradi N. Medical record (3, 4).Tehran;
Computer world electronic publishing and information. 2002.
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).
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/
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).
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).
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.
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).
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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
FHS grant award:
Future Health Systems
Young Researcher Award
Proud moment, India
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
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.
Divya K Bhati
Research scholar -Institute of
Health Management Research,IIHMR,India
[email protected]
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).
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.
The main theme of FHS is child health,
communities, complex adaptive systems,
health markets, informal providers, Malaria, Maternal health, policy processes and
research methods.
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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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.
Indonesia
Pilot Test – ICD-10
Morbidity Coding
Gemala Hatta
(Indonesia’s Director to IFHIMA)
[email protected]
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 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 MOH’s 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
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.
11
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
treated differently and helped to put practices into reality.
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 coder’s capability.
I was so thankful being helped by those
authorities who understand the importance
of good implementation of classification
system in Indonesia.
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.
Thank you to WHO-FIC-IFHIMA for supporting us and making the Indonesia
Pilot Test a reality.
On the 23rd of November 2012 the training
participants went for a recreational visit to
a herbal plantation used for herbal cosmetics.
May 2013 be a fruitful year!
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
.
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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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
Published in „mdi; Forum der Medizin_Dokumentation und Medizin_Informatik“
Germany, issue 3_2012 Page 85
13
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
As a proxy of IFHIMA, I participated in the
voting at the General Assembly.
Report on the General Assembly
of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA)
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
Certificates of IMIA’s accreditation were
conferred upon the representatives, present at the GA, of a master’s program in
Finland (the only health informatics program in Finland) and a vocational program
in Chile. (IMIA’s accreditation is valid for
five years, after which it can be renewed.)
Yukiko Yokobori
Director Southeast Asia
[email protected]
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.
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.
1. IFHIMA’s 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.
Dr. Lincoln de Assis Moura Jr., President-elect
・Task Force on developing the History of
International Medical Informatics
IMIA is promoting activities to write IMIA’s
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
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Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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 IMIA’s 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 IMIA’s strategic plan.
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.
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.
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
15
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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.
The Special Relation of HIM
between Canada and Korea
Joon H. Hong
WHO-FIC Education and
Implementation Committee,
IFHIMA Regional Director
[email protected]
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.
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.
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-
16
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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.
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. Murray’s old
students who studied MRM in Halifax continued working in MRM in Korea and
taught the students at the Yonsei Institute.
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. Florence J. Murray 
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.
Mrs. Rita B. Steeds 
Dr. Murray wearing
Korean traditional costume
17
Korean pagoda in Toronto
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
The Transition from Health Information Management to eHealth
Information Management to Support eHealth and the PatientCentred Approach

Electronic health records: enabling
the communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists etc.);

Telemedicine: physical and psychological treatments at a distance;
Based on a presentation delivered at
eHealth Week 2012, Copenhagen
on 8th May 2012

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.
(Session Continuity of Care Extended)
Lorraine Nicholson
Immediate Past President of IFHIMA
[email protected]
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)
18
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 patient’s 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.
Pharmacy Physiotherapy
Dentist Optician Specialist Clinics
Home Safety Chiropody Community Nurse Voluntary Services Personal Support Health Care Private sector support GP Social
Care Learning Needs Lei‐
sure Housing Care/Nursing Home
Hospital Community Services Laboratory
Diagram after P. 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)
care provided, it improves safety for citizens taking medication and supports the
integration of care for patients with complex health and social care needs.
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
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
19
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
supplier’s 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.
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.
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.
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 Vi-
(Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EHealth
Workforce Challenges
In 2003 the American Health Information
Management Association (AHIMA) established an eHIM taskforce, which identified
sion to Reality." Journal of AHIMA 76, no.9
(October 2005): 36-41)
20
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
Well structured electronic health records
(EHR’s) 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.
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.
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.
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 individual’s 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.
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.
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-
21
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 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.
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.
…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.
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
22
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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:
Advancing eHealth in Europe:
Empowering Patients, Supporting
Health Professionals
A Conference held in Brussels
on 28th November 2012

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
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-
The interactive discussion sessions were
wide-ranging and interesting and they
covered many different initiatives that were
23
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:
1) My data, my decisions
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.
4) Include everyone
2) Liberate the date
3) Revolutionise health
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
24
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.
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 Commission’s 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:
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
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
25
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.
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:
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.

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.
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
TeleSCoPE: Telehealth Services Code
of Practice for Europe
TeleSCoPE directly reports to the European Commission on telemedicine for the
26
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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 services“and to address issues for Member
States around accreditation, privacy and
data protection.
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 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:

To improve citizens' health security

To promote health, including the reduction of health inequalities

To generate and disseminate health
information and knowledge
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/
27
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
Calendar of Events
13th – 15th May 2013:
17th IFHIMA Congress Montréal, 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.
 Electronic Health Information/Record
 Emerging Roles and HIM Workforce
Transformation
CHIMA is very excited to be hosting the
upcoming 17th Congress of International
Federation of Health Information Management Associations (IFHIMA) – May 1315, 2013, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
 Data Quality
 Privacy, Confidentiality and Access
 Developing Countries Challenges,
Achievements and Opportunities
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.
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.
This congress promises to engage and
inform delegates by mobilizing the HIM
voice and identifying global HIM trends in
the areas of:
28
Issue Number 12 ■ January 2013
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
([email protected]).
Editorial Board:
Cameron Barnes, Australia
Angelika Haendel, Germany
Marci MacDonald, Canada
Lorraine Nicholson, UK
Darley Petersen, Denmark
Margaret Skurka, USA
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 [email protected] 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
29