In the era of digital technology, it is little wonder that hospitals, physicians, and other healthcare workers are increasingly reliant on electronic resources for maintaining patient records, ensuring accurate diagnosis and treatment, and saving money on all the “paperwork” that is involved in patient care. The field of Health Information Management maintains theses health records for the benefit of both doctor and patient.

Health Information Management is found at every stage of the healthcare process. Both patients and doctors may create health records to track treatment, and these records may be analyzed using health informatics to predict chances of recovery, future steps in care, and other critical information. Specialized coding systems and clinical terminologies have been developed to match patient symptoms to diseases, to match diseases to treatments, and to help doctors and hospitals get adequately reimbursed for their services. The aim of all this is to reduce human error and keep the patient on track toward a full recovery.

Since Health Information Management increasingly relies on computer technology and the use of databases and the Internet to share information among healthcare providers, many people have raised concerns over the privacy of individual health records. Many people fear the creation of centralized health record databases, while others point to the widespread adoption of electronic medical records as one of the most important steps in saving money on healthcare. The debate will no doubt continue as the culture tries to adapt to the new privacy concerns raised by developing medical and information technologies.

There is little doubt that Health Information Management will become even more dependent on computerized record-keeping in the future. Already there are many careers in the field, both for those in data entry and those who develop IT systems to maintain and store electronic health records. The role of these people can hardly be underestimated in maintaining an individual’s privacy and in entering information accurately so as to help doctors help their patients.

For more information on Health Information Management, please consult the following:

HIM Coding

• The Alphabet Soup of Coding and Reimbursement — This article from a journal on oncology details issues related to HIM coding and reimbursement.
• ICD-9 Diagnosis Codes — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control hosts this page on developing and maintaining standard diagnosis codes.
• Medicare Provider and Diagnostic Codes — This page from Medicare provides information on its use of HIM coding.
• Medical Records and Health Information Technicians — The state government of Virginia has developed this page on the duties of those who work regularly with HIM coding.
• National Drug Code Directory — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has developed an official list to identify the manufacturer, product, and package side of each and every human drug sold in the United States.

HIM Degrees

• RHIA for Health Information Management - A Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Health Information Management allows experienced health care, business, and IT professionals to transition into the HIM field.
• Advanced Degrees for HIM Professionals - Because Health Information Management is the backbone to the entire health information industry, UIC offers several degree programs to develop HIM professionals.

Clinical Terminologies

• Current Procedural Terminology (CPT) — CPT from the American Medical Association is a widely used system used to report healthcare services and procedures to all manner of insurance programs.
• Logical Observation Identifiers Names and Codes — This is the homepage for a medical information standard that is being developed to deal with laboratory results collection, interpretation, and storage.
• MEDCIN — Medicomp Systems is the creator of MEDCIN, a medical vocabulary and system of standardized terminology that is designed to be used with Electronic Health Record systems and can also be used in concert with other systems of medical codification.
• SNOMED-CT — SNOMED-CT is a health informatics system that is designed to identify and mark medical data at the point of care.
• WHO Family of International Classifications — The World Health Organization is developing this system of international classifications to help standardize the storage, retrieval, analysis, and interpretation of data on an international basis.

Privacy, Security, and Confidentiality

• Health Information Security and Privacy Toolkit — This page has all kinds of information on health information privacy, and it is designed especially to help doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.
• Health Privacy — Here is some good information on medical privacy and confidentiality from the Center for Democracy & Technology.
• HHS: Health Information Privacy — Information on the privacy of personal health data and enforcement of privacy violations is found on this page from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
• HIMSS — There is a variety of privacy-related health information on this page from the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society.
• Medical Privacy in the Electronic Age — This is a fact sheet on the privacy rules found in the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Affordability Act of 1996.

Health Information Exchange

• HL7 — Since 1987, Health Level Seven International (SL7) has worked to develop standards for exchanging, sharing, retrieving, and integrating electronic health information between providers.
• Ending the Document Game — Here is the homepage for a U.S. commission tasked with formulating strategy to enable patients and providers to have ever-present, instant access to healthcare information.
• Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise — This is the website of an initiative to improve the sharing of information between healthcare computer systems.
• Privacy, Security, and the Regional Health Information Organization — Here is link to a report on the challenges faced in exchanging health information and how they may be overcome.
• Telehealth as a System Solution — This article explores how computerized health informatics, including health information exchange software, has the potential to lower healthcare costs.

Healthcare Reimbursement

• Health Savings Accounts — This is official IRS information on tax-advantaged personal healthcare reimbursement accounts.
• ISPOR Health Technology Assessment Group — Here is the homepage of an international task force analyzing healthcare reimbursement that has a particular though not exclusive focus on pharmaceuticals.
• Medical Fee-For-Service Payment — The right hand side of this page has links to Medicare reimbursement descriptions (PPS), a key part of the healthcare reimbursement system in the United States.
• Paradigm Shift in U.S. Healthcare Reimbursement — This article looks at whether there is a paradigm shift coming in the U.S. healthcare reimbursement system.
• RAC Primer — Here is a brief overview of the Recovery Audit Contractor Program designed to help eliminate waste in Medicare.

Personal Health Records

• Barriers to PHR Adoption — This brief article explains the various barriers that currently exist to the adoption of electronic personal health records.
• FHIN: ePHR — For more information on electronic personal health records from this Florida Health Information Network page, click on the Personal Health Record Toolkit menu on the right hand side of the page.
• Implementing Personal Health Records — Here is an article from the America’s Health Insurance Plans website on the role of health insurance plans in encouraging patients to adopt personal health records.
• My PHR — The American Health Information Management Association hosts this site that has information on personal health records and allows users to create their own record.
• Personal Health Records from Medicare — Medicare hosts this page on the various personal health record programs that the service offers to beneficiaries.

Careers in Health Information Management

• Health Information Management Jobs - Sample HIM career opportunities in management, administration, consulting, and education.
• Career Information: Health Information Management — This Australia-based website has some basic information on Health Information Management that applies to HIM career paths worldwide.
• Explore Health Careers — The profile of Health Information Manager as a career choice is given here.
• Health Information Management Careers — Ohio State University’s College of Medicine hosts this page on careers in Health Information Management.
• Health Information Careers.com — The American Health Information Management Association sponsors this page with information on careers in Health Information Management.
• Medical Records and Health Information Technicians — The Bureau of Labor Statistics provides an overview of information on some careers in Health Information.