Alana Lane, InfoCentral Health Terminologies Community Leader

Stepping into the Spotlight

Alana Lane is a certified Health Information Management (HIM) Professional and works as a Program Lead in Classifications and Terminologies at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and is the co-chair of the Health Terminologies Community on InfoCentral.

Alana has over 23 years’ experience in the HIM field, having worked across multiple HIM disciplines, including hospital coder, data quality coordinator, HIM instructor and classification specialist. Educating others in HIM is one of Alana’s passions, having mentored over 100 students through hospital practicums and via her role as an instructor in Coding and Abstracting at the Nova Scotia Community College. At CIHI, Alana leads and supports multiple projects, including SNOMED CT mapping initiatives, development of the Canadian Classification of Health Interventions (CCI), and client support for the use of the classifications.

Why do you believe in digital health?

I have a passion for quality health care data. The better we are at collecting health care data, the better the outcomes will be. Otherwise, it is a “garbage in, garbage out” scenario. Digital health tools and technology provide an opportunity to capture quality-standardized data that can be used to make improvements and support decisions for better health care for Canadians. There is so much rich data out there, and I believe we are just touching the surface.

What are the Health Terminiologies Community's goals?

The goal of our community is to have a healthy open forum for sharing and communicating on the topics of terminologies and classifications and their use in Canada. The best way to move forward to standardize digital data collection practices is to work together as a community, by learning from one another and sharing our successes and challenges. We want to encourage collaboration in the meetings and beyond.

How do members of your community participate and make a difference to digital health in Canada?

Our community meetings share updates, news of events, and information related to implementation and updates to health-related terminologies, terminology subsets and classifications used in Canada. We also host presentations by professionals that highlight the use of terminologies and classifications in Canada through digital health solutions; our meetings provide a forum to share that knowledge.

What are the regular meeting times of your community?

The health terminologies community meets every third Tuesday of the month at 11:00 AM EST. We welcome all participants and encourage members to forward meeting invitations within their own networks.  Our next meetings are November 17, and December 15. 

What are the long-term goals of your community?

Encouraging open discussions is our main goal. We want to encourage an environment that fosters professional connections and communication. A community is a unified body of individuals with common interests and goals. We want to connect people that have a common interest in digital health solutions using terminologies/classifications to create opportunities for information sharing.

What are the 2020-21 goals for your group?

We would like to inspire members of the community and ensure we are providing relevant topics of interest, making sure we are listening to the needs and wants of the group. We all have our own priorities for attending the meetings, what are yours?

Tell us a fun fact about you

I have lived in the same seaside community, Prospect Bay, Nova Scotia, my entire life, surrounded by family and many friends from childhood. My great-grandparents were one of the first families to settle here over 80 years ago. I love to hunt for sea-glass and my “happy place” is any beach. Why would I live anywhere else?

Connect with Alana Lane on InfoCentral or LinkedIn.