3M Canada donates more than $128,000 in software to UOIT

Students gain access to high-tech data coding system; will receive significant training on patient coding process for hospitals

OSHAWA, ON. – Students graduating from the University of Ontario Institute of Technology’s (UOIT) Bachelor of Health Science (BHSc) (Honours) – Health Information Management (HIM) program will soon have a greater edge in the health-care industry thanks to more than $128,000 in patient coding software being donated to the university by 3M Canada.

The HIM program, offered through UOIT’s Faculty of Health Sciences, has been given a five-year licence for 3M’s CodeFinder software that includes installation and initial training support for faculty members and students.

“3M is very pleased to provide this kind of support to the HIM program at UOIT,” said Brandon Brock, Sales and Marketing manager, 3M Canada Health Information Systems. “In health care, coding is the language that serves as the universal-standard description of a patient’s clinical care. Accurate coding is essential to both quality patient treatment and optimum utilization of resources. Hands-on experience with our industry leading coding software will enrich the learning experience for students and broaden their skills portfolio.”

Students will learn CodeFinder during their third and fourth years of study, enabling them to effectively employ the comprehensive system that is used by HIM professionals, the individuals responsible for deciphering medical charts and finding the appropriate diagnoses and procedure key codes to store patient and encoded health information at hospitals and other medical facilities.

Used by more than 5,000 health-care organizations worldwide to expedite the coding process, the innovative software assists HIM professionals with analyzing and interpreting text from multiple documentation sources created during in- and out-patient hospital encounters – including electronic records and dictated and transcribed reports – to identify codes that summarize and represent each patient’s diagnosis and treatment. This helps to automate the previously manual coding process for patient data, allowing HIM professionals to focus their expertise on accuracy and compliancy while helping to ensure patient information is recorded correctly.

"On behalf of everyone at UOIT, I would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to 3M Canada for this very generous donation,” said Dr. Ronald Bordessa, president of UOIT. “UOIT is committed to ensuring our students have access to the best possible technology and facilities. Thanks to our partnership with 3M Canada, our HIM students now have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the gold standard of today’s health data coding systems and graduate with the advanced skills necessary to meet the increasing demands of health information management here in Canada.”

Recognizing the important role that health information plays in the health-care industry, UOIT’s HIM program introduces students to health information science including information technology; the privacy, security, analysis and presentation of health information; and ethical practice and management theory as it applies to health-care systems and health information management.

The program is part of UOIT’s BHSc comprehensive program, which uses an interdisciplinary and hands-on approach to prepare students for the current health-care environment. It incorporates the integration of health sciences, science and business courses with exposure to health-care practitioners and applied researchers, preparing students to work in a variety of health-care disciplines. After completing the first two years of the BHSc program, students move into the Health Information Management specialization for their third and fourth years.

3M Canada’s active and responsible citizenship supports a variety of community initiatives and charitable causes. As part of its Healthy Communities umbrella program, the company partners with national high-performance non-profit organizations that are social innovators in the areas of education, health and wellness and the environment.