HIMAA National Office

National Office	HIMAA National Office Staff



National Office
»HIMAA Board of Directors
Bob Blue
Philida Chew
Lyn Williams
Denise Johnston
Ralph La Tella
Andrew Clancy
Rose Wong
Jo Williams
Ragni Lal
Anne Puchner
Irene Yang
Cheryl Smith
Lisa Turner
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The HIMAA National Office
The HIMAA National Office is located in North Ryde in Sydney, Australia. It provides administrative support to all HIMAA Branch and National activities. A number of full and part-time staff provide a range of services, including organising conferences, processing memberships, maintaining the website and clinical coder education. Each person can be contacted by e-mail by clicking on their name. _


Bob Blue Chief Executive Officer Bob has extensive general management and administration experience in the military, public and private sectors. Bob also has experience in Total Quality Management, competency based training, training utilising computer based simulations, and organisational development/change management.

Rose Wong (full-time) Membership & Events Coordinator Rose provides the principal interface between the HIMAA Office and members. Provide support and coordinating HIMAA conferences/events to the organising committee.

HIMAA Education Services Staff

Denise Johnston (full time) Compliance Officer Manages operations within HIMAA to ensure compliance with the Australian Quality Framework. Denise has worked for HIMAA Education Services for 13 years in an administration role and has extensive education administration and project experience.

Cheryl Smith (full time) Administration Officer Education Services Cheryl manages the day to day administration of Education Services.

Lyn Williams (full-time) Training Manager Education Services Lyn manages the delivery of HIMAA's training programs in medical terminology and clinical coding and is the Education Officer for Intermediate and Advanced ICD-10-AM, ACHI and ACS. Lyn holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training (TAA40104). Lyn has extensive experience as a Health Information Manager. From 2002-2007 she was Area HIM for Sydney South West Area Health Service (SSWAHS) as well as NSW Clinical Coding Quality Coordinator from 2005 to 2007. Lyn was also a consultant auditor during the NSW Clinical Coding Audit in 2004. Prior to 2002 Lyn was Area Clinical Coding Coordinator for SSWAHS.

Joanne Williams (part-time) Education Officer Medical Terminology Jo has extensive experience in the development of HIMAA Medical Terminology courses. Jo is a Health Information Manager with several years of experience in the development and delivery of HIMAA education services. Joanne holds a Certificate IV in Workplace Assessment and Training (BSZ40198).

Ragni Lal (full-time) Education Officer Clinical Coding Ragni is a graduate of BAppSc(HIM) from the University of Sydney. Prior to joining HIMAA Education Services, Ragni was Clinical Coding Manager at Liverpool Hospital from 2003-2007. In this role she provided clinical coding education training to new clinical coders as well as ongoing training & development of staff. Ragni has many years of clinical coding experience with complex casemix at tertiary hospital level. She has worked in both the public and the private health sector including a number of management positions within the public sector. Ragni keeps abreast with coding rules by coding at tertiary hospitals on a part-time basis.

Ann Puchner (part-time) Education Officer Medical Terminology and Clinical Coding Ann graduated from the University of Sydney with a BAppSc(HIM) in 1994. Ann also has a Certificate IV - Assessment & Workplace Training Workforce Management Consulting (BSZ98) and a Prince 2 Course Certificate. Since graduation Ann has held a range of hospital based HIM appointments and a number of project appointments with various area health services in the Sydney region.


Corporate Support Staff

Philida Chew Accountant (part-time) Philida manages the HIMAA Accounts Department, financial reporting and consolidation of Branch accounts, budgeting and preparing statutory returns and other legislative requirements.

Ralph La Tella Internet and Information Services Coordinator Ralph is responsible for HIMAA IT services, inhouse support and network administration, database administration, eCommerce systems, all online services, WorkWeb and development of web-based applications for HIMAA as well as producing the e-Newsletter and the online editions of the HIM Journal. Ralph has an Honours degree in HIM and has lectured at the School of HIM at the University of Sydney. Ralph is an Associate Fellow of the Australian College of Health Services Executives and has been involved in the ITC industry since 1979. Ralph holds editorial board positions on a number of Internet-based health informatics Journals and lectures extensively on the uses of PDA/Mobile technologies in medicine and is a recognised expert in PDA technologies in health care. He is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association and the Health Information Management Systems Society. He is currently conducting research into web-based search engine applications in the Australian health care context.

Andrew Clancy (full-time/trainee) Information Technology Support Technician Andrew is responsible for ensuring the technical support within the office as well as assisting with the design and implementation of web applications and the implementation of WorkWeb for the HIMAA web site. Andrew is currently undergoing a TAFE certification in IT.

Irene Yang (part-time) Assistant Accountant Irene provides support to the Accountant in the day to day functions of the Accounts Department.

Lisa Turner (Mon - Fri 9:00am to 2:30pm) Administrative Assistant Lisa provides administrative support to various departments of HIMAA. In particular, Lisa supports the Membership Services Officer in maintaining contact with members.

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