IHHN Commences I-CCR Program | Pakistan’s First-Ever Medical Coding Training Program

Indus Hospital and Health Network (IHHN) is pleased to announce the commencement of Medical Coding and Cancer Registry Training (I-CCR). The program is Pakistan’s first-ever Medical Coding training program and will have a substantial impact on healthcare academics and the development of worthwhile human resources in Pakistan’s healthcare sector.

Efficient, timely, factual, and accurate data is the key to effective service delivery in any healthcare organization. As IHHN continues to expand its services across Pakistan to meet the increasing demand for affordable healthcare and the growing patient burden, the need for professionals for effective clinical data gathering and handling is imperative. The I-CCR program will directly work to fill this healthcare gap. In addition, the program will set a high-quality precedent for other organizations in the field of electronic medical records.

I-CCR Program Overview:

IHHN’s Electronic Medical Record (EMR) Department initiated this training module in the wake of the growing need for trained medical coders and cancer registrars. In coordination with the department of information technology, an online training module was designed. The module is focused on the development and advancement of the basic knowledge of the field, analytical abilities, critical thinking, and code assignment as per international standards of coding and cancer registry.

This Program is meant for graduates of Biological Sciences who want to establish successful careers in medical coding and/or cancer registry. The course is taught by designated EMR personnel, including one representative from the coding unit and one from Cancer Registry, who are well-versed in their respective fields.

The program has been designed on a hybrid model; it’s a self-paced online training program that includes video lectures, practice exercises, evaluation quizzes, and online discussions with the trainers.

I-CCR comprises two courses:

  1. Advanced medical coding training
  2. Cancer registry training

The advanced ICD medical coding training is designed to teach the fundamentals of medical coding and to advance coding skills by reviewing clinical concepts of commonly treated conditions to help readily assign the correct codes and efficiently work with the clinician. This training helps establish careers in a financially rewarding field because successful medical coding requires that a patient’s diagnosis justifies the service or procedure the provider performed. The data extracted from coding is used for many purposes, including reimbursement and quality and population health reporting.

The Cancer Registry training is designed to familiarize students with the concept of cancer registry and cancer registrar. It will also provide an overview of the oncology coding and staging system (ICD-O-3, the MP/H rules) focused on coding clinical information from medical records.

Course outcomes:

The intended objective of these courses is to build a team of trained coders and cancer registrars with the following essential skills:

  1. Understand clinical concepts for comprehensive coding of conditions.
  2. Obtain insight into chronic and acute conditions.
  3. Understand ICD Procedures coding.
  4. Review the guidelines and accurate ICD-10-CM/PCS coding for the conditions and procedures.
  5. To introduce pediatric cancer registration and reporting system
  6. Use of ICD-O-3 for Morphology and Histology coding
  7. Introduces the student to the phases of clinical evaluation, diagnostic tests, staging cancer, and treating cancer that is part of a pediatric cancer patient’s medical journey
  8. To understand Medical and anatomical terminology that is commonly used in the cancer setting as well as the fundamentals of what cancer is and how it forms.
  9. Review the most common types of pediatric cancer.
  10. Knowledge and skills necessary to successfully abstract and report quality pediatric oncology data.
  11. Familiarizes students with what is contained in the medical record, what a source document is, and the challenges of working with the medical record.