BUSI505_Discussion_Board_Forum_1.docx

Discussion Board Forum 1

Michael L. Gregory

Liberty University

Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Business Administration

March 2021

Discussion: The U.S. Healthcare System and Health Informatics

Advancement in Technology and the Evolution of Health Informatics

Shi and Singh (2019) define a system as a set of interrelated, interdependent mechanisms that are designed to achieve a set of common goals. The main outcome criteria for evaluating a health care delivery system are access, cost, and quality (Shi & Singh, 2019). This criteria implies that the two main objectives of a health delivery system are to 1) enable all citizens to receive health care services when required and 2) deliver those health services in an affordable fashion that meets predefined standards of quality. In order to meet these objectives, the United States has become a world leader in medical research and innovation, providing patients with some of the best health care in the world. However, medical research and patient care requires volumes of large, complex, and linkable data, often referred to as ‘big data’ (Dongxiao, Li, Li, & Liang, 2017). In the 1980s, American physicians, scientists, and engineers began studying how computer applications could be used in medical care, coining the term ‘medical informatics’ which has been replaced by health informatics today (Shanholtzer & Ozanich, 2016). In its infancy, health care informatics was a narrow and specialized field, due to the prevalence of paper records (Shanholtzer & Ozanich, 2016).Yet due to the development of the internet of things (IOT) and sensor networks, there has been a rapid growth over the past two decades of medical and healthcare big data, necessitating the evolution of healthcare informatics from a concept to a fully realized discipline (Dongxiao, Li, Li, & Liang, 2017). Shanholtzer and Ozanich (2016) suggest that the best way to track the timeline for the development of health informatics is to follow the adoption of electronic health records (EHRs). In 2009 the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act was passed, authorizing expenditures of roughly $20 billion to promote the adoption and use of HER technologies that would be connected through a national health information network, thus boosting EHR adoption (Braunstein, 2014). Indeed, since 2005 there has been a significant increase in the adoption and use of e-health systems in North America, with surveys estimating that the U.S. adoption of basic EHR systems to be near 40%, and adoption rates more than doubling from 2008 to 2012 (Gibson, Dixon, & Abrams, 2016).

The Formation of Professional Organizations and Educational Programs

Health Information Management (HIM) dates its origins to the 1928 formation of the Association of Record Librarians of North American (ARLNA), under the patronages of the American College of Surgeons (ACS) (Gibson, Dixon, & Abrams, 2016). The ARLNA was developed as a means of to standardize medical education and hospital practice to improve and evaluate the quality of patient care, and took steps to institute a quarterly journal, form a committee to develop a standardized course of study for medical record librarians, and set standards for registration and certification of the organization’s members (Gibson, Dixon, & Abrams, 2016). This organization would subsequently change its name several times before it became known as the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) in 1991 (Gibson, Dixon, & Abrams, 2016). Interestingly, AHIMA produces one of our two textbooks. Another organization, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) was established in 1961 to promote the continual improvement of hospital management systems through organized programs of research, education, and professional practice. To that end, HIMSS has developed a 7-stage model for EHR adoption and tracks the adoption rates of hospitals (Braunstein, 2014).

The United States has two separate organizations, one to accredit HIM and HI programs (the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Health Information Management Education (CAHIIM)) and one to certify individuals (AHIMA’s Commission on Certification for Health Informatics and Information Management (CCHIIM)). In addition to the CAHIIM, there are several other organizations that accredit health information (HI) programs or individuals. HIMSS offers certifications for HI professionals but, unlike the CAHIIM, it does not accredit academic programs. Furthermore, the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) has established competency criteria for HI professionals, which IMIA has applied as the basis for accreditation of HI programs throughout various countries.

Both the AHIMA and HIMSS offer professional certifications for individual professionals working in healthcare informatics professions (Shanholtzer & Ozanich, 2016). In fact, I joined both organizations several years ago and encourage you all to also do so, as they offer a wealth of resources and joining the organizations provides you with a discount on the cost for obtaining these certifications. Additionally, both have lower member fees for students, so now would be the time to join since we can all access these lower rates. These organizations, as well as others, demonstrate that health informatics is an extensive discipline that requires study and continual review to stay proficient in this ever changing field. HIMSS is more health information technology based, while AHIMA is focused more on health information management. Both areas have certifications and require continual education to maintain certification status, due to the ever changing environment of health care informatics.

References

Braunstein, M. L. (2014). Contemporary Health Informatics. Chicago, IL: American Health Information Management Association.

Dongxiao, G., Li, J., Li, X., & Liang, C. (2017, February). Visualizing the knowledge structure and evolution of big data research in healthcare informatics. International Journal of Medical Informatics, 98, 22-32. doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2016.11.006

Gibson, C., Dixon, B. E., & Abrams, K. (2016). Convergent evolution of health information management and health informatics A perspective on the future of information professionals in health care. Applied Clinical Informatics, 6(1), 163-184. doi:10.4338/ACI-2014-09-RA-0077

Shanholtzer, M. B., & Ozanich, G. W. (2016). Health Information Management and Technology. New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

Shi, L., & Singh, D. (2019). Essentials of the U.S. health care system — with access (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.