AHIMA’s mission is empowering people to impact health^®. What distinctive expertise and experience do you have to contribute to AHIMA’s mission?

To empower someone means to “make someone stronger and more confident, especially in controlling their life and claiming their rights.” What could be more central to the human ability to control their own life than their health status and access to healthcare? Or that of their loved ones? As an individual member, I have used my professional knowledge to help others take control of their health: helping them to express their concerns to their treatment team, to understand their insurance coverage and their financial exposure, and to provide feedback when service expectations fall short to help our systems improve. As a human being, I have experience with the healthcare ecosystem starting from a very early age. I have to hope that everything I went through starting with my childhood was a higher force, wielding and shaping me much as metal is forged through fire, so I could use that experience to improve healthcare and help others. That I am still here, after everything, by more than mere chance. As Health Information professionals serving in volunteer capacities, we use our professional expertise to advise legislators in service of patients claiming the right to ownership over their own health information: whether via Patient Portal or Health Information Exchange. Where useful, we also should not shy away from sharing our personal experiences. I help drive home the personal connection to these policy decisions through the powerful art of storytelling, and I look forward to the opportunity to tell my own story wherever it helps advance our agenda of improving individuals’ health journeys through access to information, privacy and equity; ensuring the quality and integrity of health information, and advancing healthcare transformation.