Grab a Seat in the AHDI Lounge!

AHDI is proud to announce the launch of its new blog, the AHDI Lounge.In addition to our News & Information Blog, AHDI has created a new exchange blog for members and industry colleagues to blog and discuss issues, trends, and challenges facing both the industry and the association.The AHDI executive staff, board of directors, and HOD Speaker will be blogging in the Lounge with the hope of engaging members in thoughtful dialogue and information exchange. We will also feature guest bloggers, including blogging AHDI members who wish to participate. News feeds, Flickr photo streams, and AHDI videos will be prominently featured on our new blog. The AHDI Lounge has a bold, dynamic look and feel. We know you’re going to love it. So pull up a chair, hang out with us in the Lounge, and let’s talk about how we can work together to position our workforce for the future! Find The Lounge at www.ahdilounge.blogspot.com.

Power of 10 Campaign

Attendees at ACE 2009 were the first to hear about AHDI’s new Power of 10, a year-long campaign to raise $10 from 10,000 MTs by 2010. Why? To support the association’s advocacy efforts in Washington, DC, where AHDI and MTIA are working hard to make sure all healthcare documentation professionals have a role in the future of the EHR. Our lobbying firm, along with our government relations staff, is making sure our sector is well represented in important meetings and discussions being held by our nation’s legislators and policymakers on healthcare reform, criteria and standards for EHR systems, and workforce development in allied health. All Power of 10 funds go directly to this effort. Thank you to all in attendance who stepped up to be the first to contribute to this important initiative—helping us raise nearly $2000 toward this goal. If you did not get a chance to contribute, you can donate to the Power of 10 campaign online or by mail. Make sure your funds are clearly marked for this campaign, and as a reminder, donations to this campaign are not tax deductable as charitable contributions.

ACE 2009—Nashville, Tennessee

If you weren’t able to attend AHDI’s 31st Annual Convention and Exposition in Nashville last week, you missed out on a powerful event packed with relevant educational sessions, dynamic keynote speakers, and valuable networking events. This year the dialogue and exchange around EHR adoption, "meaningful use," the Health Story Project, the need to preserve physician narrative in the future of health data capture, and the importance of promoting the role of the knowledge worker in quality assurance—all provided attendees and exhibitors with a critical opportunity to stay in the stream of important information. Here is just a peek at some of the key messages and events you missed:

• Event: Launch of the Power of 10 Campaign
• Message: Medical Transcription is a proven accelerator for EHR adoption and is a "shovel ready" solution to healthcare providers having trouble purchasing expensive EHR systems
• Message: The Dictation/Transcription process is a preferred method for physicians documenting the healthcare encounter
• Message: Medical transcription is a "green" job and this technology-enabled knowledge workforce is capable of assisting with the migration to greater EHR adoption
• Event: Dr. Jonathan Perlin, Chair of the HIT Standards Committee, in a meeting with members of the AHDI and MTIA Board of Directors, declaring value in the AHDI and MTIA promoting uniformly structured and coded narrative reports to better describe the healthcare encounter (Health Story Project)
• Event: AHDI leaders sharing successful best practices in promoting credentialing, education approval, alliance building, career fairs, and membership development.
• Message: AHDI’s work with the Dewey Square Group (DSG), a lobbying firm based in Washington, DC, has improved AHDI’s access to key government decision-makers and made the organization’s advocacy efforts more impactful. Since beginning its work with DSG, AHDI has been able to secure a meeting with the Senior Advisor to the National Coordinator for Health IT. In addition, the important Health IT Policy Committee recently cited dictation-transcription as a specific function that could be included in EHR certification criteria.
• Message: CCHIT, the approval body for EHR systems, does not require narrative dictation as an option for data entry. Discussion around this reality lead to agreement around promoting The Health Story Project as well as other specific actions to take through our advocacy efforts.

AHDI Honors High-Integrity Industry Contributors

AHDI held its first annual Integrity Awards last week at the 31st Annual Convention & Expo (ACE) in Nashville, Tennessee. The association revamped its awards program in 2009, choosing to focus on contributions made by individuals and corporations that better align with the association’s focus on integrity. Winners of this year’s awards were honored at a red carpet awards show event on Saturday night, and each truly represents the kind of innovative thinking and best practices the association hopes to showcase for the sector. Congratulations to all of the following Integrity Awards winners:

• Excellence in Credentialing Award—Tammy Moore, CMT, AHDI-F
• Advocate of the Year—Laura Bryan, CMT, AHDI-F
• Rising Star (Student Essay Contest) Award—Kim Boyce
• Innovation Through Technology Award—Scott Faulkner, InterFix
• Membership Impact Award—Pennsylvania Association for Healthcare Documentation Integrity
• Employer of the Year—Amphion Medical Solutions
• Member of the Year—Dianna Hall, CMT, AHDI-F
• Lifetime Achievement Award—Bob Harvey, TRS/TRS Institute
• Distinguished Service Award—Scott Edelstein, JD, Squire, Sanders & Dempsey