Question

Explain Grace Whiting Myer’s contributions to the field of HIM.

Answer 1

Grace Whiting Myer was librarian at the Treadwell Medical Library at Massachusetts General Hospital in 1897. Her role was to manage the medical records of the hospital. While working to manage the medical records she felt the need for more accurate and organised way of managing medical records.

With a vision to improve patient records and documentation she founded American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). Ms. Grace whiting Myer believed that the a more advanced system in the collection and organization of health information will assist medical professionals to improve public health. AHIMA works to transform medical records into electronic data, developing health information management professionals, conducting new researchers health information management and enabling public to manage their own health records.

Grace Whiting Myer understood the need of accurate medical records for safe, high quality, and cost effective patient care. The health information is used for improving health of populations, decision-making, performance improvement, reimbursement, and cost management. She also understood the need for keeping all the data safe and private and not to be shared with anyone except for those authorised. She sensed the need for accurate, reliable, safe and secure method for data collection and organization and thus laid the foundation of health information management.

She integrated the medical records into digital and electronic data and used  health informatics to manage health data and information through the application of IT-based innovations. Thus Myers’s vision led to development of health information management which resulted in developing complete and useful medical records.