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Patti Anania-Firouzan is an assistant professor and clinical education coordinator in the Department of Health Information Management. She received her Bachelor of Science (BS ’80) degree in Health Records Administration from the School of Health Related Professions, and her Master of Science in Information Science (MSIS ’89) degree from the School of Library and Information Science, both at the University of Pittsburgh. She has worked in both health care and vendor settings prior to her arrival at Pitt and has had numerous consulting engagements over the years in the areas of long term care and coding & reimbursement. She has been active in local (Western Pennsylvania Health Information Management Association), state (Pennsylvania Health Information Management Association) and national (American Health Information Management Association) associations and has presented numerous seminars on coding and HIPAA Privacy at different forums and sites across the country. Anania-Firouzan’s research focus has been on Encoder Systems and Computer-Assisted Coding, progression to the Electronic Health Record, Electronic Health Record standards, HIPAA privacy compliance issues, and the effectiveness of using ICD-10-CM and ICD-10-CM/PCS implementation and training issues. She also procures sites for the clinical education of students in the Health Information Management program and is responsible for overseeing their non-didactic learning experiences.

Departments

Department of Health Information Management

Programs

Health Care Supervision and Management
Health Informatics (MS)
Health Informatics (BS)
Health Information Systems

Education & Training

  • MS, University of Pittsburgh, 1988

Representative Publications

  • Watzlaf, V., Garvin, J., Firouzan, P., and Moeini, S. (2007).  The effectiveness of ICD-10-CM in capturing public health diseases.  Perspectives in Health Information Management. 4:6.
  • Watzlaf, V., Garvin, J., Firouzan, P., and Moeini, S. (2006).  The effectiveness of ICD-10-CM in capturing public health diseases.  Proceedings of American Health Information Management Association National Meeting.
  • Watzlaf, V., Garvin, J., Firouzan, P., and Moeini, S. (2006).  ICD-10-CM and public health reporting.  Abstract for Proceedings of American Public Health Association Annual Meeting.
  • Firouzan, P. and McKennon, J. (2004).  HIPAA privacy implementation issues in Pennsylvania healthcare facilities, Perspectives in Health Information Management, Volume two, Issue one, http://perspectives.ahima.org/.
  • Firouzan, P. and Beldin, J. An investigation into HIM program prerequisites – Computer versus science courses, Educational Perspectives in Health Information Management, Winter 2001-2002, 4(2), 43-50.

Research Interests

  • Computer applications in health care
  • Electronic health record
  • Classification systems
  • Reimbursement methodologies