Changing Roles of Health Information Managers: An Education Perspective (Commentary‪)‬

When first asked to write a perspective paper on the educational implications of the changing roles of Health information Managers' I thought to myself, well yes, in my years of service there have been many changes to the roles of Health Information Managers (HIMs), but then again some things have stayed the same. In this country at least, we still create and manage patient/client health records but compared with last century we now have records in more formats and in more places. I am unconvinced that health information is any simpler or less complex. In fact, I suspect the converse to be true. We still collect information about the health of people (individually and collectively) but in comparison with the last century, a considerably greater volume of data are collected and stored. Let us consider the professional title, Health Information Manager, and the changes that have occurred in that role across even just the past 20 years. In 'Health' we have seen, and continue to see, changes in clinical practice, professional accountabilities and treatment technologies (including drugs, treatment protocols and devices). We have seen the emergence of new diseases, new clinical specialities and sub-specialities and the demise of many 'old' treatments and protocols. Much of the change in the practice and delivery of health is driven by evidence from research and the desire to understand and cure disease. Yet, the basic processes and outcomes for health care remain similar; sick people seek help within the system and the system aims to provide this within limited resources. And so, has it not always been the role of the HIM in the 'system' to enable information management to support the work of the 'health system'?