Alphabet Soup and the HIMSS Leadership

Mr. HIStalk calls our attention to the fact that the HIMSS organization has a CIO:

Did I maybe just forget that HIMSS has a CIO? Says it does here.

Very interesting. If you link to this list of HIMSS executive contacts, you will also can't help but be impressed by the number of executives attached to the organization (lots of mouths to feed), the creativeness of some of the titles (e.g, Sr. Director, Information Technology; Sr. Director, Business Information Systems; Vice President, Informatics; Vice President, Healthcare Information Systems), but, most of all, the alphabet soup following their names. Here's of list of what you will find:

CAE; SPHR; CISM; FHIMSS; CPHIMS; PMP; MALA; RN-BC; MPA

WTF? I offer a free subscription to Lab Soft News to anyone who can decode this total list and submit the answer to me. I have a pretty good idea what PMP stands for. I also know that the prefix mal- is derived from the Latin malus meaning bad.

Comments

[Mr. HIStalk]

I'm sorry to say that I know all of them except two first hand:

CAE: Certified Association Executive
SPHR: Senior Professional in Human Resources
CISM: Certified Information Security Manager
FHIMSS: Fellow (HIMSS)
CPHIMS: Certified Professional in Healthcare Information and Management Systems
PMP: Project Management Professional
MALA - guessing it's either a master's in legal administration or some kind of medical librarian
RN-BC - registered nurse board certified (passed an ANCC exam, I think)
MPA - master of public administration

It's the dirty secret of member organizations - making up some credential means you can charge for the test, renewals, and the prep courses, PLUS make it nearly impossible to renew without attending that same organization's conferences or meetings. It carries a mixed incentive: make it easy enough to sell enough of them so that the market recognizes the credential, but just hard enough not to be a complete joke that doesn't even require study or experience.

Only two of the alphabet soup components you listed are approved degrees; the rest are private industry certifications. There is at least one for-profit organization selling EHR certifications (and the related prep materials, training sessions, etc.) without any real oversight except their own. I don't know if it has real-world value, but if somebody thinks employers will like it, they'll pay.

[Joy Mammen]

I am doing some reading on healthcare economics etc - "fixed costs" would be a good category
LOL
Joy