2014 IFHIMA/AHIMA Joint Book Donation Project
Author: Lorraine Nicholson / Membership Chair
In mid-2013 IFHIMA and AHIMA joined forces to deliver a one-time project to provide textbooks to select countries and programmes around the world with the aim of advancing the HIM profession through education and collaboration. The project was enabled through a generous donation of textbooks by AHIMA and transportation costs were jointly funded by AHIMA and IFHIMA. The project was under the initial guidance of AHIMA’s late-President Kathleen Frawley, who had championed education for health information management professionals throughout her distinguished career. Outreach was undertaken in late-2013 to help the IFHIMA Board identify potential recipients so that the project could be initialized.
Delivery of this global project was very complex and planning and execution of the numerous tasks involved has required extensive support from both organizations in addition to the joint funding for international transportation costs. During the shipping phase of the project we tracked the various consignments on-line as they were transported around the world and we were delighted when we received confirmation of safe delivery of the books and witnessed the obvious delight of various people and organizations around the world through the photographs and letters of appreciation that we received! Some photographs accompany this article and I hope that they tell their own stories - a picture is worth a thousand words!!
Both IFHIMA and AHIMA express the hope that the donated books will continue to support teachers, students and operational health information managers and practitioners around the world going forward. There are undoubtedly interesting and challenging times ahead for our profession in order to meet the challenges of Electronic Health Record (EHR) implementation, increasingly demanding service delivery targets and the work needed to improve the quality and quantity of health data and information to enable the delivery of safe and effective healthcare and to support epidemiology and research - education will be a key factor in ensuring that the HIM workforce is well-prepared for what lies ahead!
Funds for this valuable initiative are now exhausted and there are no plans to repeat it due to its cost and complexity. However, AHIMA and other HIM Associations have textbooks and another related publications available for purchase, which are written in English and some other languages depending on where in the world the association is located. This includes the national HIM associations in Australia (HIMAA), Canada (CHIMA), Germany (DVMD), Japan (JHA) and Korea (KMRA). Interested parties are advised to visit the relevant association’s website for details of the publications available and how they may be purchased.
From right to left: Deneice Marshall, President of Barbados Health Information Management Association (BHIMA) and Health Information Management Coordinator/Instructor at Barbados Community College with Cheryl Weekes, Senior Tutor.
A copy of the IFHIMA Newsletter can be access by clicking the pdf below.