Michelle Dougherty

Michelle Dougherty,MA, RHIA, CHP is a Director with the American Health Information Management Assocation (AHIMA).  In her role as director, Dougherty provides leadership to the HIM profession and healthcare industry on a wide array of topics including healthcare policy, electronic health records and health information exchange, data governance, data integrity, HIT standards, e-discovery, and personal health records.

Ms. Dougherty has served in key industry leadership roles including bringing together key stakeholders in the long-term and post-acute care research studies to spearhead engagement of the LTPAC sector in the use of EHRs and health inforamtion exchange.  Additionally, she has served as director, manager of facilitator for numerous projects and government contracts that shape healthcare and HIM policy and practices.  Ms. Dougherty represents AHIMA and HIM profession at HIT standards organization and co-leaders a standards workgroup developing critical EHR standards to support data quality and integrity.  Dougherty is a frequent speaker and award-winning author.

Prior to joining AHIMA in 1999, Dougherty served as an HIM consultant in the Post-Acute Consulting Services Group of Minneapolis-based Larson, Allen, Weishair & Co., LLP.  As a consultant, she provided health information, documentation, survey prospective payment systems (PPS), and complaince consulting.

Dougherty holds a Master's degree in healthcare informatics and information management and Bachelor of Arts degree in Health Information Administration from the College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, Minnesota.