ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Joy Fletcher has worked as a Certified Health Information Management (HIM) professional for more than 35 years. Her career includes health care data collection, health information department management, adult education and professional development, and national standards development and oversight.

Joy’s HIM work has traversed small community hospitals, mid-sized regional health care facilities and large teaching institutions. When her career transitioned to adult education, she developed and delivered classroom and distance education courses in the application of ICD-10-CA and CCI for students newly entering the HIM profession and for practicing HIM professionals seeking to refresh their coding skills and transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10-CA.

In 2005, Joy joined the Classifications and Terminologies Team at the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) where she led the development of the Canadian Coding Standards and Classification’s client education program. Among her achievements at CIHI, Joy demonstrated the potential of online learning for Classifications’ education offerings, leading a transition from lectured-based learning to online courses and facilitated workshops.

The first edition of the ICD-10-CA/CCI Classification Primer was published in 2000. Joy was honoured with a CHIMA Special Achievement Award in recognition of this publication.

JoAnne Lokun has enjoyed a diverse career in health information management which includes data collection and management positions at various acute care facilities in Toronto ON and Nanaimo BC; instructor in the HIM program at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology in Edmonton AB; contract work for the HIM program in Douglas College in New Westminster BC; and working from home in Nanaimo BC as Classification Specialist for the Canadian Institute for Health Information. Retired now, JoAnne likes to travel, read and garden and is fascinated by astronomy. JoAnne says, “It has been a great pleasure to contribute to the ICD-10-CA/CCI Classification Primer and, thereby, sound coding practices of both new and experienced coders.”