Education review: Meeting statewide needs for health information management education through distance education.

In 1990 a need was expressed for a baccalaureate degree in health information management (HIM) for HIM employees who could not leave their jobs and/or families to attend classes 150 miles away. Faculty from the Medical College of Georgia, the state's health sciences university, began teaching one class per quarter at St. Joseph Hospital in Atlanta in 1993. In conjunction with DeKalb College in Atlanta, the Medical College of Georgia now offers the entire HIM curriculum leading to a baccalaureate degree. Classes are taught by faculty at the Medical College of Georgia through the use of ¿electronic classrooms¿ equipped with two-way interactive video cameras and monitors, special detail cameras, and state-of-the-art computers. The Medical College of Georgia now offers the only baccalaureate degree in HIM in the state university system.