I'M BACK, AND HAPPY TO BE HERE!!!

It has been a while since I have posted here, but I hope you have been keeping up to date on things going on with the association and profession through the bimonthly BOD Blast and HOD Blast. The Board of Directors have also been holding regular Fireside chats where members are free to ask any questions they have about the Association. This has been a wonderful opportunity for members to get direct answers and to discuss issues of concern with the Board. Things are still “movin’ and shakin’”!!!!

AHDI ANNUAL CONVENTION AND EXPO 2008
This year's Annual Convention and Expo in Orlando was packed full of information, networking opportunities, and planning for the future of the profession. As always, there was a lot of excitement in the air!! We had a total of 827 attendees/exhibitors with 213 first timers! Great numbers, right? For those of you who were not there, this was another great one, and we hope to see you in Nashville next year!

Financially, AHDI is in the black again this year. The association has been able to reduce a lot of travel and operational expenses with our CEO now in Washington, DC, and the use of our webinar technology for meetings. We continue to make gains, but as we all are aware, membership has been down which affects our dues revenue. AHDI continues to look for ways to cut costs and increase non-dues revenue. The new BOS 3rd edition is out and available for purchase and has already helped provided additional revenue .

Credentialing has also been up thanks to the fantastic success of the Credentialing Cup which is a benefit financially for the association as well as for the profession! If you are not credentialed, now is the time to do it!! The 2nd phase of the Credentialing Cup is underway and will last until December 31, so join a study group (if you do not have one in your area, the Online Association has one that you can join), be eligible for discounts on testing and some awesome prizes! We are moving more and more towards mandatory credentialing or licensing of some type for MTs to be able to practice, so get ahead of the game! :0)

Gary David, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology at Bentley College in Waltham, Massachusetts, conducted the first study ever on medical transcription, and reported on his initial findings. Everyone was so impressed with Dr. David that he was bestowed with an honorary membership for his ongoing research into our profession. This is the first scholarly research on medical transcription, what it is, how it is done, why it is important, etc. More information here.

Laura Bryan, CMT, AHDI-F, presented on CDA4CDT (Clinical Documentation Architecture for Common Document Types). The effort here is to standardize documentation. As we all have seen more time is often spent with learning and adhering to account specifics that vary from author to author. More information here.

This year AHDI worked with “Dress for Success.” “The mission of Dress for Success is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and the career development tools to help women thrive in work and in life.” Over 350 clothing items were donated. Their goal for 2008 is to clothe 500 women. For more information about this organization, visit http://www.dressforsuccess.org/. Even if you were not at ACE or could not take any extra clothing in your suitcase, you can still contribute at http://www.dressforsuccess.org/supportdfs.aspx. One of the recurring questions I have been asked is what benefits have we seen with our partnership with MTIA. I am happy to report that we are really beginning to see the fruits of our labor! Currently we have 650 credentialed MTs. One of the benefits we have seen from our partnership is in advocating for credentialed professionals. AHDI has been advocating to employers the importance of having a credentialed workforce, and to help in that task, MTIA recently released a position paper supporting “CMT Credentialed Preferred” or “Required” in job advertisements. More information here.

We had so many awesome speakers it would take forever to describe them all here, but one of the highlights was Discovery Health Channel’s own Dr. G, or Jan C. Garavaglia, M.D., (aka "Dr. G") the chief medical examiner for the District Nine (Orange-Osceola) Medical Examiner's Office in Florida. She was scheduled for a 90-minute presentation, complete with slides, stories, etc., but she spent about a half-hour before the presentation signing autographs and talking with the members, went over on her presentation by about 20 minutes, and still stayed and talked with the members and signed more autographs afterwards! She was awesome, and she gave out such a wealth of information. For example… I may be the only one in the dark ages here… but did you know that a “coroner” and a “medical examiner” are not the same thing? I did not know that! For more information on Dr. G and to benefit from her experiences, visit her website at http://health.discovery.com/fansites/drg/bio/bio.html. Plan on a couple of hours because she has a lot of information you will not want to miss!

Also, along with the speakers, we really DID have some fun! Wednesday night was the Welcome Reception and this year, since it was our 30-year anniversary, we had the theme of the 70s, and were encouraged to dress in the spirit of the 70s. Some elaborate costuming went on! We also had the grand finale Saturday night, and who other than the 70s Beatles (well, not really, but almost!) were there and played all the early songs of the Beatles. If you did not know better, you’d swear they were the real thing! They all dressed like the early Beatles, talked like them, and “Paul” was even left-handed! It was awesome. They were called “Brit Beat,” and for more information, pictures, etc., go to their website at http://www.britbeat.com/theband.htm. You’ll be absolutely amazed! Also, for pictures of the entire convention, please do not miss them at http://www.flickr.com/photos/29591485@N03/sets/72157606747278732/show/. You’ll have a lot of fun just looking at them!

ADVOCACY SUMMIT 2008
At the Advocacy Summit, AHDI spoke to legislators on MT education and the obstacles new students face with predatory programs. We spoke to legislators from several states regarding mandatory credentialing, predatory MT programs, the military spouse program, and the EHR. One of the difficulties facing MT programs has been in Title IV funding. Issues relating to Title IV funding complicate funding for MT education. You can see the Advocacy Summit 2008 Highlight Video.

21st CENTURY SUSTAINABLE STRUCTURE TASK FORCE
The 21st Century Task Force has been formed to look into changes to the structure of the Association and components in order to better serve the needs of our members by streamlining governance, relaxing structure where appropriate, and allowing components more freedom to focus on the goals of the Association instead of governance/structure. The task force presented some of their ideas at a town hall meeting at ACE; however, it is important to realize the task force is still in the brainstorming phase and discussing many different ideas.

HOUSE OF DELEGATES (HOD)
Items voted on before ACE:
Item 1: A graduating nonmember could not become a Postgraduate member of the Association. The current Bylaws proposal allowed a recent graduate to become a Postgraduate member. The purpose is to allow more membership opportunities for the Association. It passed in the HOD.Item 2: This proposal sought to address Knowledge Base and whether or not to allow a choice between Electronic and Student membership . This passed and the committee was given a deadline of the November HOD meeting.

GET OUT THE VOTE!!!
Voting is underway for your national board of directors and speaker-elect of the house of delegates! If you haven’t yet, please visit the AHDI Professional Practices Network (PPN) at http://www.ahdionline.org/smf/index.php in the “AHDI National Election Candidates” section, read about your candidates, ask any pertinent questions you might need answered to make your decisions, and then go to http://www.ahdionline.org/scriptcontent/nationalvote08.cfm and cast your vote! Since we had a record number of attendees at ACE, and a record number of first-timers, and a record number of newly credentialed MTs, let’s try to set another record and have a record turnout for the vote! All professional individual, student, and postgraduate members can vote, so please take advantage of this privilege to choose your leaders.

In closing, I would like to offer you a poem that was shared by Kathy Rockel, CMT, AHDI-F, 2008 Speaker of the House, at the end of the HOD face-to-face meeting at ACE this year… and remember, YOU are the most important member of AHDI!!

You Make A Difference - "To your own self be true." William Shakespeare
You are unique.
There will never be someone else like you.
Don't compare.
Don't undermine your worth
Because you are different, that is why you are special.
Often, people focus on what they wish they were not or what they wish they could be rather than who they really are.
Only you know what is best for you.
You can make a difference regardless of what you are, where you are, what your resources and talents are.
Simple things make a difference.
Little things done well make a difference.
If each grain of sand were to say:
One grain does not make a mountain,
There would be no land.
If each drop of water were to say:
One drop does not make an ocean,
There would be no sea.
If each note of music were to say:
Each note does not make a symphony,
There would be no melody.
If each word were to say:
One word does not make a library,
There would be no book.
If each seed were to say:
One seed does not make a field,
There would be no harvest.
If each of us were to say:
One person does not make the difference,
There would never be love and peace on earth.
You do make the difference.
Know it.
Act on it.
Make the difference.
Today.

Jacque Taylor, AHDI-FSecretary/Director, AHDI
Candidate, Speaker-Elect HOD
Board Partner, Region 1, Student Alliance, Legislative Issues Group, HOD Lead TeamDelegate, HOD (members at large, Region 1)Past-President/Board Partner, Online Association of AHDIMember/Board Partner, Utah-Idaho Regional Association of AHDI
Chair, Minutes Approval Committee
Co-Chair, Component Association Support Team (CAST) and Membership Advisory Council (MAC)
Member, Awards Committee-AHDI and Bylaws Committee-AHDI
Member, MTIA, AHIMA, ASTM, HIMSS
Check out my board partner blog website and BE SURE TO VOTE!!
"All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them." - Walt Disney

Book of Style for Medical Transcription,
3rd Edition - Available Now!
For product information and ordering, click here.