ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals features easy-to-read articles that cover a broad spectrum of HIM issues. Acting as a sounding board for the debate of critical professional issues, ADVANCE encourages readers to discuss the issues important to every health information professional. With features including coding and transcription columns, readers are sure to stay abreast of changes happening in the industry.

Editorial Advisory Board
ADVANCE for Health Information Professionals Presents People Who Make Our Subscribers Think of Us as an 'Expert in the Field.'

Our 2009 Editorial Advisory Board and Industry Council consist of a group of individuals with decades of experience in a wide array of health information settings. An ad in ADVANCE brings you an audience of health information professionals who receive the latest news straight from the experts.

Fred Crawford, RHIA, MEd, is the manager of health information management at Bryn Mawr (PA) Rehab Hospital. He is also an adjunct professor in the health information technology (HIT) program at Community College of Philadelphia. In addition, he is a past-chairperson for the Physical Medicine and Rehab Section of AHIMA.

Claire Dixon-Lee, PhD, RHIA, FAHIMA, is vice president for education and accreditation, AHIMA, and executive director, CAHIIM. She is an adjunct associate professor at the University of Illinois-Chicago, School of Public Health and a past-president of AHIMA.

Carolyn Dulai, BA, CTR, is one of the liaisons to ADVANCE from the NCRA. She worked for the State of Michigan Cancer Surveillance System for 19 years editing the state's cancer registry. She recently retired from that position and is doing volunteer work in the cancer registry field.

Steve Dunkle is the president and CEO of Proveros Inc. He is a past-president and board member of the Medical Transcription Industry Association (MTIA), an independent consultant to the AHDI as well as serving as Chair of their Vendor Affiliate Program and is a member of the Transcription Futures Group of AAMT and AHIMA. Steve has in excess of 20 years experience in health care technology, medical transcription and related services industry. 

Carole Eberle, BS, CTR, RHIA, is a liaison to ADVANCE from NCRA. She has been employed in the cancer registry field for almost 24 years and has worked locally (in hospitals), regionally (for state cancer reporting programs) and nationally (for the National Cancer Data Base and for the National Cancer Institute). She is currently working for the Wisconsin Cancer Reporting System. She has also served on the board of the NCRA two different times. 

Perry Ellie, MA, RHIA,  FAHIMA, is president of H.I.M. Recruiters, a past member to the AHIMA Board of Directors (BOD), a past-president of Florida HIMA and a current member of St. Petersburg College HIM Program Advisory Board.

Brad Ericson, MPC, CPC, CPC-ORTHO, is director of publications for the American Academy of Professional Coders (AAPC). Prior to serving AAPC, he wrote, edited and developed CPT®-related books at Medicode and St. Anthony's Publishing and managed all CPT® and HCPCS Level II code books for Ingenix. A medical writer/editor with 29 years experience and a certified coder, he has also worked for large insurers and hospitals and taught at the university level.

Brenda J. Hurley, CMT, AHDI-F, is director of operations for SoftScript, Santa Monica, CA. She served 12 years on the board of directors for AHDI, and twice as its president, in 1988 and 1995. She is the 2009 AHDI Speaker of the House. Hurley is also the chair of ASTM E31.15, Health Information Capture and Documentation, and secretary of the E31 Healthcare Informatics executive committee; ASTM is an international organization established to develop industry-related standards.

Glenn Krauss, RHIA, CCS, CCS-P, is revenue systems coordinator at Mercy Health System in Janesville, WI. He has more than 14 years of experience in the health care industry in numerous health care systems in various staff positions such as practicing coder, hospital management representative and consultant. He also has extensive experience in teaching physiology, surgical procedures, the rationale of therapeutic treatments with ICD-9-CM and CPT coding, and complex medical and billing issues to help with both quality issues and reimbursement.

Elaine O'Bleness, MBA, RHIA, CPHQ, is director of HIM at North Colorado Medical Center, Greeley, CO. She is also an affiliation faculty member at Regis University, where she teaches coding and health care reimbursement.

Daniel J. Pothen, MS, RHIA, CPHIMS, CCS, CCS-P, CHC, is director, clinical informatics and health information services at Mission Hospital and CHOC at Mission, Mission Viejo, CA. He has previously held positions as coding manager, regulatory consultant at a large accounting firm and database administrator. He also serves at Cypress College as a member of the HIT program advisory board.

Lea M. Sims, CMT, AHDI-F, is the director of communications & publications for AHDI and has been working for the association since 2004. In that role, she oversees all internal and external association messaging and communications, including coordination of association print and electronic publications; drafting of key association position papers, press releases and standards; creative and strategic direction of campaigns and advocacy programs; direction of the AHDI Leadership Institute; and coordination of best practices initiatives. She is the author and managing editor of The Book of Style for Medical Transcription, 3^rd edition, and The Book of Style Student Workbook, 2^nd edition, and editor of the CMT and RMT review guides published with Stedman's. She is the AHDI project coordinator for Benchmark KB, the state-of-the-art subscription web service developed in partnership with InterFix, LLC, to deliver a repository of MT tools and research resources via a single user interface. Lea has a bachelor of arts in education (English) and a minor in linguistics from the University of North Florida and has been a medical transcriptionist for 21 years.

Valerie J. M. Watzlaf, PhD, FAHIMA, RHIA, is an associate professor, department of Health Information Management at the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Pittsburgh. She was awarded the 2001 Research Award from AHIMA and was recently awarded the designation of Fellow of the AHIMA.