The Office of the National Coordinator’s unprecedented commitment for the development of a skilled health IT workforce is essential to the success of the larger goal to improve the quality of care for each individual in our country by transforming the information infrastructure and using electronic health records to advance the delivery of healthcare.  AHIMA applauds the federal government for its foresight and supports the ONC in its pursuit of a comprehensive approach to making this a reality.

While the ONC has not specifically identified AHIMA’s academic infrastructure nor singled us out as de facto awardees of any grant money, we do believe that our academic network is uniquely qualified for this opportunity and certainly up to the challenge.  This network is composed of over 280 programs accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Health Informatics and Information Management Education (CAHIIM) at the masters, bachelors, and associates degree levels, built upon a legacy of dedication to academic education that originated in the 1930s. 

Like the curricula of all professional degrees, health information management has evolved and changed dramatically over the years.  Today’s curriculum incorporates the disciplines of medicine, management, finance, information technology, and law.  Relative specifically to the HITECH workforce initiative, the HIM academic curriculum addresses the following:  computer system components and architecture; communications and internet technologies; databases, data structures, system administration and data modeling; and, data security including risk assessment and contingency planning.  As important, the HIM curriculum provides the context for performing health IT roles, including health services organization and delivery, healthcare data standards, documentation standards, statistics, quality management, privacy and security, ethics, and applied health informatics.
 
It is this academic infrastructure that gives AHIMA our unique advantage in the healthcare IT workforce arena.  Educators at accredited HIM programs possess the knowledge and experience necessary to teach and prepare individuals to fill the estimated 75,000 new healthcare IT positions that will be required over the next four years by delivering the training described in the Community College Consortia Funding Opportunity Announcement.  In addition, this professional academic network has the means to engage interested students to advance their academic achievement through accredited degree programs in health information technology, health information management, and health informatics at the associate, bachelors, and masters levels.
 
The HITECH workforce initiative has shown a very bright spotlight on health information management and health information technology.  AHIMA looks forward enthusiastically to collaborating with new academic and professional partners to reach these goals and in doing so, to improve healthcare in the United States.

Lynette Czarkowski is AHIMA's vice president of HIM products and services.