The more data healthcare organizations amass, the more complex the stories therein become, thus the more essential it is to have an effective narrator for that information.
And that reality is changing the careers of health IT and health information management professionals, as well as the departments that employ them, according to an article in the September issue of the Journal of AHIMA.
“As the demand for data expands exponentially, HIM professionals will increasingly be called upon to harness data's power, explain its context, and help to ensure its integrity,” AHIMA notes in Healthcare’s Data Revolution. “Experts say HIM's unique combination of clinical and IT skills makes them ideal leaders in the emerging data revolution.”
Indeed, a raft of new job titles and functions are gaining purchase, including terminology analyst, data reporting analyst, informatics reporting analyst, data governance analyst and data mapping specialist.
[Q&A: Why the U.S. actually needs all those crazy ICD-10 codes.]
AHIMA reports that many HIM professionals are poised to blossom into business analysts or data scientists – explaining that "those interested in data scientist roles typically possess higher-level statistical and IT knowledge to understand data architecture."
Addressing the common perception that the HIM profession "is focused on coding, data entry, record keeping and little more,” AHIMA explains that the practice of lifecycle data management arms HIM professionals nicely for the shift to pay-for-performance and care quality currently underway.
Whereas payers have historically practiced more sophisticated data analytics than providers, that may be changing as well as they, too, embrace payment reform and care-coordination, creating more opportunities for HIMS professionals since data analytics and care quality are tightly aligned.
"In today's unprecedented climate of exponential data growth," AHIMA CEO Lynne Thomas Gordon said in a press release, "HIM professionals are well situated to drive information governance and contribute to sound decision-making through analytics and decision support."
Related articles:
AHIMA's 4 career tips for population health information management
