CHIMA recently welcomed Andrea Lorette, CHIM, as the new information governance community facilitator. In this interview, we asked Andrea what members of the IG community can anticipate.

CHIMA

Congratulations on becoming our new community facilitator for the information governance practice community! Please share a bit about yourself and your background in information and data governance leadership, health information analytics, health business analysis, health information applications, and health information standards (ICD-10-CA, CCI, MIS, etc.).

AL

I have been a health information professional for 25 years, working in organizations across Saskatchewan and British Columbia. I have been a general HIM practitioner in a small hospital, a health information analyst, a manager for coding and analytics, a lead for a new centralized data request management service, and, currently, I am an information governance lead for a regional health authority. I have been fortunate to participate in many interesting projects and initiatives during my career as well. I’ve been part of a regional electronic health record implementation, a single abstracting project, a regionalization of health information services, and launched new programs such as our information governance service.

CHIMA

What are some of your hopes for the community over the next year? What can members of the information governance practice community look forward to?

AL

Facilitating engagement and sharing stories will be a focus for the IG community in the coming year. Although we all have access to virtual communications tools these days, health information professionals are busier than ever and connecting with colleagues can be a challenge. The IG community can be that place to connect.

CHIMA

Our facilitators act as the bridge between a community’s needs and the organization’s operating directions. Can you share how you hope to facilitate meaningful discussions and knowledge sharing within the community?

AL

The semi-annual community meetings are a great way to learn more about the scope of information governance, but I am especially looking forward to the future launch of a virtual community platform and other ways to discuss topics of interest to CHIMA members and our partners.

CHIMA

On a final note, what does self-care look like to you? Can you share some tips on avoiding work burnout?

AL

For many people, life after the COVID-19 pandemic still feels different. Give yourself time and grace to build a new routine that works for you. Working virtually much of the time has unfortunately resulted in back-to-back meeting scheduling, so we are making an effort to end meetings 5-10 minutes before the hour to give people a short break and reduce the stress of arriving late for your next meeting. It’s a small thing that we hope will spread across our organization.

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About Andrea Lorette

Over the past 25 years, Andrea has worked in health informatics and information management roles in Western Canada. Some career highlights include co-leadership of HIM services regionalization in the Northern Health authority and the development and leadership of the Information & Data Hub, an organization-wide, centralized intake service for secondary-use data and information request management.