Which organization began with a focus on management engineering?

• A. AMIA
• B. HIMSS
• C. AHIMA
• D. NAHIT

Answer: (B)

This item looks at the origins of health IT organizations and which started with a management engineering focus. HIMSS, or Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, began from efforts by hospital professionals who wanted to manage and engineer information systems within healthcare settings. Its early work centered on integrating the management needs of healthcare organizations with the technical aspects of information systems, applying engineering-minded approaches to hospital IT. That focus distinguishes it from the others: AMIA is oriented toward medical informatics research across disciplines; AHIMA emphasizes health information management, such as coding and records; NAHIT was formed to promote nationwide health IT adoption and policy. Each contributes to health IT, but HIMSS is the one that originated with that management engineering perspective.