American Health Information Management Association

The American Health Information Management Association is the premier association for health information management (HIM) professionals. Its 54,000 members are dedicated to the effective management of personal health information needed to deliver quality healthcare to the public. Founded in 1928 to improve the quality of medical records, AHIMA is committed to advancing the HIM profession in an increasingly electronic and global environment through leadership in advocacy, education, certification, and lifelong learning. For more information see www.ahima.org and http://campus.ahima.org/

Challenge

To ensure that its members meet professional standards of excellence, AHIMA issues credentials in health information management and health information privacy and security. Members earn credentials through a combination of education, experience, and national standardized exams. Following their initial certification, AHIMA members must maintain their professional credentials by completing a number of professional development courses. AHIMA has developed an extensive catalog of continuing education and professional development programs, which are available for purchase to members and nonmembers via the AHIMA Web site.

AHIMA’s first attempt at managing learners was a simple system developed and supported by a local provider which AHIMA quickly outgrew. They then made the decision to invest in an e-Learning platform solution that would enable them to centrally manage their learners’ training needs. Another important requirement was the ability to quickly convert content into learning objects, as they worked with content from a variety of sources.

Solution

Following an extensive review of e-Learning vendors, TopClass was chosen as AHIMA’s e-Learning platform. Today, the TopClass solution provides webbased training administration management, including course cataloging, registration, enrollment, administration of user groups, and Instructor Led Training management. In addition, the interface supports extensive customization to allow seamless integration to match the “look and feel” of corporate intranets, extranets, and training portals.

TopClass Publisher allows trainers to quickly and easily convert existing training content into Learning Objects using a familiar and intuitive Windows user interface. Course Content is stored in a Learning Object library for scalable course management and easy editing, making it easy to assemble, reuse, and update courses.

TopClass complies with the leading industry standards and can also integrate tightly with complementary applications to create custom “best-of-breed” solutions. In AHIMA, TopClass was integrated with the existing Membership Database, iMIS, and this was achieved using the TopClass XML Toolkit. AHIMA also uses Flash, Dreamweaver, NAVIGATION, and other software tools to build interactivity in the course content within TopClass Publisher.

AHIMA has extended the use of TopClass to train its own employees. Employees access a range of courses from IT training to soft skills, such as, time management and customer service skills.

AHIMA has also customized TopClass to develop an e-HIM® Virtual Lab that provides colleges and universities with virtual access to a full array of core HIM technologies and the supporting tools and resources to allow them to successfully and effectively integrate these technologies into individual courses and lessons. The Lab allows students to use the technologies they encounter in the workplace, in an environment that closely simulates real world application of those technologies. The e-HIM® lab integrates with TopClass and AHIMA’s virtualization solution.

Results

• AHIMA’s TopClass solution consistently scores highly with students for ease of use and ease of navigation.
• TopClass Publisher has enabled external subject matter experts to rapidly develop content as learning objects.
• AHIMA has reduced its training costs and significantly improved its offering to its students.
• AHIMA’s e-HIM Virtual Lab project illustrates how TopClass has been able to adapt to the organization’s changing requirements.

Quote

“The main benefit that TopClass has given us is the ability to rapidly develop and convert content. The Learning Object architecture allows us to reuse and update course components, saving us time and money, and most importantly, enabling us to give the best service to our students.”

Yin Kean, Director Distance Education, AHIMA