CHICAGO – October 15, 2020 – Thursday was the second day of the AHIMA20 Virtual Conference and featured the session Achieving and Maintaining A 1% Duplicate Error Rate, which was based on the new AHIMA white paper, A Realistic Approach to Achieving a 1% Duplicate Record Error Rate. Presenters at the session reviewed the white paper and discussed the importance of accurately matching patients with their health information. They also outlined how health systems can reduce their duplicate error rate to 1 percent and how to foster a culture of organizational governance, leadership, data collection, and data integrity.

Frontiers Health, a European company that recently announced a collaboration with AHIMA, hosted a session Thursday titled The Rapid Rise of TeleHealth as a Result of COVID-19. Presenters discussed how the pandemic has reshaped healthcare, with people meeting virtually with providers in ways they never would have a year ago. They also talked about how technologies like wearables can not only help treat patients but prevent issues ranging from depression to malnutrition before they become an acute problem.

AHIMA CEO Wylecia Wiggs Harris, PhD, CAE, delivered the keynote address at Thursday’s general session. She discussed how so much has changed in the past several months, especially in the healthcare sector.

“We have been called to look beyond the current moment and to see and embrace the possibilities of the future that we must help shape,” Harris said. “Yes, 2020 has thrown us some curveballs. Yet, our challenge and our opportunity is to rally behind our enduring purpose and do whatever is necessary to ensure excellence in the management of health information for the benefit of patients and providers – even in the midst of a global pandemic.”

Winners of AHIMA’s Grace Award and Triumph Awards were also celebrated at Thursday’s general session.

AHIMA20 will conclude on Friday with dozens more education sessions, a speech from 2021 AHIMA President/Chair Katherine Lusk, MHSM, RHIA, FAHIMA, and a keynote address from Leana Wen, M.D., M.Sc., FAAEM. Dr. Wen is a visiting professor of health policy and management at the George Washington University School of Public Health. She is also a medical analyst for CNN and a contributing columnist for the Washington Post, and is the former health commissioner of the city of Baltimore.

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About AHIMA
AHIMA is a global nonprofit association of health information (HI) professionals. AHIMA represents professionals who work with health data for more than one billion patient visits each year. AHIMA’s mission of empowering people to impact health drives our members and credentialed HI professionals to ensure that health information is accurate, complete, and available to patients and providers. Our leaders work at the intersection of healthcare, technology, and business, and are found in data integrity and information privacy job functions worldwide.