AHIMA Hosts Cross-Border Health Information Management Event

AHIMA held in Brussels its official event entitled a "Snapshot on Cross-border Health Information Management". Stakeholders from Europe and around the world met at the Stanhope hotel to exchange ideas on the international dimension of health information management and its impact on the quality of healthcare. The event focused on the importance of having a skilled workforce to advance health information management and cross-border healthcare in an increasingly electronic and global environment.

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

Most Popular Now

New App may Help Caregivers of People Ge…

A new study by investigators from Mass General Brigham showed that a new app they created can help improve the quality of life for caregivers of patients undergoing bone marrow...

An App to Detect Heart Attacks and Strok…

A potentially lifesaving new smartphone app can help people determine if they are suffering heart attacks or strokes and should seek medical attention, a clinical study suggests. The ECHAS app (Emergency...

Philips Foundation 2024 Annual Report: E…

Marking its tenth anniversary, Philips Foundation released its 2024 Annual Report, highlighting a year in which the Philips Foundation helped provide access to quality healthcare for 46.5 million people around...

New AI Transforms Radiology with Speed, …

A first-of-its-kind generative AI system, developed in-house at Northwestern Medicine, is revolutionizing radiology - boosting productivity, identifying life-threatening conditions in milliseconds and offering a breakthrough solution to the global radiologist...

Scientists Argue for More FDA Oversight …

An agile, transparent, and ethics-driven oversight system is needed for the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to balance innovation with patient safety when it comes to artificial intelligence-driven medical...

New Research Finds Specific Learning Str…

If data used to train artificial intelligence models for medical applications, such as hospitals across the Greater Toronto Area, differs from the real-world data, it could lead to patient harm...

Giving Doctors an AI-Powered Head Start …

Detection of melanoma and a range of other skin diseases will be faster and more accurate with a new artificial intelligence (AI) powered tool that analyses multiple imaging types simultaneously...

Patients say "Yes..ish" to the…

As artificial intelligence (AI) continues to be integrated in healthcare, a new multinational study involving Aarhus University sheds light on how dental patients really feel about its growing role in...

AI Agents for Oncology

Clinical decision-making in oncology is challenging and requires the analysis of various data types - from medical imaging and genetic information to patient records and treatment guidelines. To effectively support...

'AI Scientist' Suggests Combin…

An 'AI scientist', working in collaboration with human scientists, has found that combinations of cheap and safe drugs - used to treat conditions such as high cholesterol and alcohol dependence...

Brains vs. Bytes: Study Compares Diagnos…

A University of Maine study compared how well artificial intelligence (AI) models and human clinicians handled complex or sensitive medical cases. The study published in the Journal of Health Organization...

Start-ups in the Spotlight at MEDICA 202…

17 - 20 November 2025, Düsseldorf, Germany. MEDICA, the leading international trade fair and platform for healthcare innovations, will once again confirm its position as the world's number one hotspot for...