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A Message from the President IFHRO President’s Message April 2010 Serving as President of IFHRO is a great privilege and also a real honour – it brings opportunities for the individual but also great responsibilities to ensure that IFHRO grows and thrives and continues to serve its members around the world as it has done for over 60 years. It is hard to believe that I became President in May 2007 – time has gone by so quickly! I have been a member of IFHRO since 1984 and during that time I have seen many changes in and challenges for our profession. IFHRO and the Health Information Management profession are currently facing many challenges including the implementation of Electronic Health Records. HIM professionals will need new skills and knowledge in this era of enormous change and the challenges that it brings and we know that education of HIM professionals around the world is of crucial importance. IFHRO is playing its part in this process by reviewing and updating its existing Education Modules together with the development of a new module on the Electronic Health Record and an Educator’s Manual both of which will be formally launched at the congress in Milan. There will be a special Educator’s Forum on the day before the congress begins (Monday 15th November 2010) and I hope that those of you who are Educators or who have an interest in the education of HIM professionals will attend this event. Details about this pre-conference event will be posted on the congress website as soon as possible. Please watch the congress website for details of how to register (see below). The IFHRO Executive Committee continues to work industriously and fruitfully. We held our annual face-to-face meeting for 2010 on 25th and 26th February at the AHIMA Global Services Office in Brussels. AHIMA generously sponsored our meeting by providing a meeting room and lunches and a dinner for which IFHRO is most appreciative. During the afternoon of Friday 26th February we had a detailed and very productive planning session related to the scientific programme for the 16th IFHRO Congress to be held in Milan 15th – 19th November 2010. This meeting was attended by Dr Leonardo La Pietra, President of the Italian Association, AIDOS/IMERA, which is hosting the congress, and Laura Manenti from the Congress Secretariat. Sandy Fuller, AHIMA’s Chief Operating Officer, was also invited to the meeting together with Rita Bowen, President of AHIMA, and Nele Devolder from AHIMA’s Global Services Office. IFHRO’s grateful thanks are extended to AHIMA and its representatives for the Association’s warm and generous hospitality for our meeting and for its continuing support for IFHRO. On the Saturday 27th February the European Regional Team met in Brussels to discuss and agree a work programme for the next twelve months and to receive an update on the congress from Dr La Pietra. The Team will next meet during the congress in Milan. Prior to the meetings in Brussels, Margaret Skurka, Marci MacDonald and I attended a two and a half-day meeting of the WHO-FIC Education Committee held at Deutches Institut fur Medizinische Dokumentation und Information (DIMDI) in Cologne. The meeting was Co-Chaired my Marjorie Greenberg and Cassia Buchalla, Co-Chairs of the Committee. Amongst the items discussed were the web-based training tools for ICD 10 and ICF (International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health), the International Training and Certification Programme for Underlying Cause of Death (Mortality) Coders and what future work will be done to support Morbidity Coders, the 2010 WHO-FIC Network Meeting to be held in Toronto, Canada October 16 -22, 2010 and the IFHRO Congress in Milan in November 2010. It was a very interesting and productive meeting and it made me realise what a lot of work has been done since the establishment of the WHO-FIC-IFHRO Joint Collaboration in 2004. IFHRO values the Joint Collaboration and extends grateful thanks to Margaret Skurka, President Elect of IFHRO, and Sue Walker, Director, National Centre for Health Information Research and Training, Australia for their skills as Co-Chairs of the Collaboration, to Marjorie Greenberg and Cassia Maria Buchalla, Co-Chairs, WHO-FIC Education Committee, to Dr. Bedirhan Üstün, Coordinator; Classifications, Terminologies, Standards at the World Health Organization and to Dr Robert Jakob, Medical Officer Classifications and Terminologies (CAT) and IFHRO’s Designated Technical Officer at WHO. I also extend IFHRO’s sincere thanks to all other contributors from around the world for their continuing support for this important collaboration. There will be opportunities to see the new web-based training tools for ICD-10 and ICF during the congress in Milan in November 2010. Looking forward to the 16th IFHRO International Congress - the website is live http://www.ifhro2010.it/Home_en.html Conference delegates can now register on line and speakers can also submit their abstracts online. There is general information about the congress on the website including deadlines and an outline of the scientific programme. There is also information for sponsors and exhibitors, preliminary details of the scientific programme, information about hotels, the congress venue and contact information. Just a reminder of the main conference topics:
Please consider presenting a paper and sharing your knowledge and experiences with colleagues from around the world. The IFHRO General Assembly will also be held on 15th November 2010 during which the new Executive Committee for the 2010 - 2013 term of office will be elected and the venue for the 17th IFHRO Congress in 2013 will be chosen. Observers are very welcome to attend the Assembly. The Congress in Milan will provide a superb opportunity for health records/health information management professionals from countries around the world to meet and strengthen their commitment to their profession; participate in educational activities, professional networking, information exchange and a range of social activities. This opportunity only comes around every three years, so I urge each one of you to make the effort to attend and be part of this very special event - I know that it will provide you with an unforgettable personal and professional development experience. I know that many of you, as recipients of this IFHRO message, are already associate members of the Federation and I invite all readers to consider supporting IFHRO and its continuing activities by joining the Federation as an associate member. Associate member dues are very modest at US$30 per year. Please find the application form for associate membership at http://www.ifhro.org/membership.php I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the IFHRO Congress in Milan in November. With my very best wishes,
Lorraine Nicholson
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