Rita Bowen, AHIMA President, noted that AHIMA is "eager to join the international conversation in Europe as part of the commitment to help solve our part of what the World Health Organization calls the global shortage of health workers. We want to develop the health information management professional, but just as important, we want to develop as well the health information management practice as a way to add real value to health organisations and the communities and countries those organisations serve. In order to achieve this vision, AHIMA will continue to work within the stakeholder community in a shared effort to collaborate, to learn and to promote an accelerated development of the types of standards that advance the practice of health information management throughout the world."
Alan Dowling, AHIMA Chief Executive Officer, summarised the successful activities and involvement of the Brussels-based AHIMA Global Services Office since its creation in July 2009, including multiple stakeholder contacts and beginning of the participation as partner in the European Commission funded project "Transatlantic Observatory for Meeting Global Health Policy Changes through ICT Enabled Solutions" (Argos e-Health). "AHIMA sees and understands this unique time in which we find ourselves and once-in-a-lifetime opportunities this time presents. We are proud to be involved, eager to be of value and committed to be a partner in worldwide change and worldwide change for the better" he concluded.
Keynote speaker Ilias Iakovidis, acting Head of ICT for Health Unit from the European Commission's Directorate General for Information Society and Media, presented the latest developments of the EU e-Health agenda and emphasised the outmost importance of appropriately trained and skilled healthcare professionals. From this angle, he added that "AHIMA's role is essential in gathering at the same table the various stakeholders challenged by the evolution of health information in the electronic era in terms of data quality as well as technical interoperability." Jacob Hofdijk, President of the European Federation of Medical Informatics (EFMI), noted the wide cooperation opportunities between EFMI and AHIMA, based on a common vision for the advancement of e-Health and the promotion of high standards of health information and medical informatics professionals.
Following the event, AHIMA is committed to continue its collaborative efforts and develop long-lasting relationships with European and international stakeholders, as a means of further advancing the health information management profession through a global community of learning and practice.
About AHIMA
Representing more than 53,000 specially educated Health Information Management professionals in the United States and around the world, the American Health Information Management Association is committed to promoting and advocating for high quality research, best practices and effective standards in health information and to actively contributing to the development and advancement of health information professionals worldwide. AHIMA's enduring goal is quality healthcare through quality information. www.ahima.org