AHIMA's HIM Body of KnowledgeTM Content Policy

This document was created and approved by the AHIMA Body of Knowledge team.


Content to be included in the Body of Knowledge must meet all the following criteria:

  • Relevant to the practice of health information management
  • Contains knowledge that will be significant and relevant to our members for at least one year or has historic value
  • Source is reliable
  • Copyright laws are not being violated

The Body of Knowledge will consist of the following categories of content:

  • Internal (AHIMA)
    • Journal of AHIMA-following categories from January 2001, with older items on a selected basis
      • Practice Briefs
      • Feature Stories
      • Cover Story
      • Coding Notes
      • Word from Washington
      • Working Smart
      • Any series, (for example, HIPAA on the Job)
      • Inside Look
      • Profile
      • Inserts (not vendor inserts)
      • President's Message
    • AHIMA Advantage-selected (by Advantage editor) articles
    • Seminars (descriptive information only)
    • Online Training (descriptive information only)
    • Other HIM resources
    • Web-only Extras or Features
    • AHIMA Convention Proceedings
    • White Papers
    • Publications
      • Relevant out-of-print books
    • AOE Education Perspectives (ceased publication)
    • Perspectives in Health Information Management (PHIM)
    • AHIMA Models/Standards (Such as the Standards of Ethical Coding)
    • Position Statements
    • AHIMA Foundation or AHIMA research reports
    • FORE (now AHIMA Foundation) practice solutions
    • Sample job descriptions
    • Sample policies and procedures
    • Advocacy and Public Policy releases
    • Special Studies
    • E-alert excerpts
    • CodeWrite
  • External
    • Public domain (non-copyrighted) documents or articles
    • External sources, when submitted for inclusion, will be evaluated by AHIMA staff (members of whom will be determined by subject of content) for BoK suitability.
Body of Knowledge content retention schedule:
ContentRetention Period
JournalPermanent
AdvantagePermanent
SeminarsOne year
Online TrainingPermanent or until training no longer available
Web-only ExtrasPermanent
Convention ProceedingsPermanent
PublicationsOut-of-print books retained as long as relevant
Position StatementsPermanent
AOE Education PerspectivesPermanent
AHIMA models and standardsPermanent or until revised
Sample job descriptionsPermanent or until revised
Sample policies and proceduresPermanent
AHIMA or FORE research reportsPermanent
FORE practice solutionsPermanent
Advocacy and Public Policy materialsPermanent
Special StudiesPermanent
E-alert ExcerptsPermanent
CodeWritePermanent
External contentPermanent or until revised/deleted