AHIMA, CHIME join forces for research, education projects

Two major health information technology groups have announced a partnership under which they will work together on research and education and other projects.

The American Health Information Management Association and the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives said in a news release (PDF) they will collaborate on a variety of initiatives including:

• Jointly sponsored webinars featuring AHIMA and CHIME subject matter experts on ICD-10 readiness.
• Information governance and technology in rural and critical access hospitals.
• Research on health IT and management issues.
• Joint presentations on identity management and information governance at the upcoming CHIME 13 Fall CIO Forum (Oct. 8-11) in Scottsdale, Ariz.
• Joint advocacy on information management and health IT issues.

As electronic health records have become commonplace, there is a lot of common ground between the health information management and healthcare IT needs of an organization, said Deborah Green, executive vice president and chief operating officer of AHIMA. “So, we naturally have a lot of common interests and a lot of problems that could be addressed by leveraging the combined expertise.”

The first tangible examples to come from the partnership will be a couple of webinars on ICD-10 and information governance, which are expected to be ready by late August or early September, Green said.

The two organizations will seek to collaborate on related healthcare IT policy issues, said CHIME President and CEO Russell Branzell. If the two groups do not produce a joint policy statement, they'll strive for a consistency of message, he added.

“We want to make sure we're working collaboratively on the front end” of policy development, Branzell said.

Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn