AHIMA Conference 2014 Highlights

TOPICS:

Posted By: Roberta Mullin October 7, 2014

It’s not all fun & games, but shh! let me pretend

By Joy Rios, Managing Partner at Practice Transformation
Twitter: @askjoyrios

It’s not a bad gig – spending a few days with healthcare movers and shakers in a beautiful setting. This year’s AHIMA conference was held in sunny San Diego where attendees were just steps away from harbor and city skyline views.

In fact, from this perspective, it almost felt like a tropical getaway.

It’s always fun getting to put faces to names that I only see online. On Sunday, before the opening reception, a group of seasoned and newbie Twitterers got to shake hands at the “official” AHIMA Tweet-Up. I wasn’t sure if we should live-tweet the encounter, but Brad Justus was on it:

The Himagine crew, (formerly Kforce) aka the largest coding company in the U.S., threw a party at the top of the Hyatt with spectacular views. Thanks for the invite!

Eric Topol, Jeff Arnold and Karen DeSalvo graced us with their presence. We were wowed by the ultimate wearable device that helps people walk again, by Ekso Bionics.

Even Rob Lowe and KC & the Sunshine Band showed up to support this cohort of Health Information Management rockstars.

While attendees participated in the string of events and amassed continuing education units, I had the opportunity to sit down with some amazing folks. Many thanks to those below for taking some time out of their hectic schedules to record an  with me. This year’s audios will be released on Monday over at HealthcareNOWradio.com. Here’s a rundown of who you’ll hear:

  • Don Asmonga, VP Standards & Government Affairs, Privacy Analytics discussing the important topic of de-identifying patient information for research and other healthcare services
  • Mac McMillan of CynergisTek, talking about data breaches and the importance of vigilance in protecting patient health information
  • Summer Scott Humphreys, Executive Consultant for Beacon Partners, talking about how healthcare organizations can capitalize on the ICD-10 delay
  • Bonnie Cassidy, of Nuance Communications and past president of AHIMA, along with colleague Dr. Nick Van Terheyden discussing how the HIM role is changing and the importance of clinical documentation integrity
  • Rene Novoa of DriveSavers, sharing how they recover data even after all hope is lost
  • Cole Hooper of MedeAnalytics, discussing how Revenue Integrity helps identify gaps in care
  • Rob Rhodes, of Iatric Systems, talking about how patient privacy is important to a hospital’s current and future plans
  • Chris Silveira of Gardian Analytics, explaining how behavior analytics can help prevent and address data breaches
  • Jim Bailey, President of BACTES (a Sharecare company), speaking to the vision of patient-managed health records, the future of integrated devices, and population management through the Real Age test
  • Gavin Krumenacker, VP HIE Solutions and Business Development for MRO Corp, speaking about provider strategies for the Transitions of Care objective in Meaningful Use Stage 2
  • Mario Hyland, President of Aegis, discussing the importance for continuous interoperability testing
  • Dr. Jon Elion of Chartwise, sharing his thoughts on the ICD-10 delay and who often ends his presentations with a song. While he debuted a new song at this year’s AHIMA, there’s no online link to it (yet!), so here’s a performance from 2013.