In her current role as Director for Provincial Terminology Services in Health Information Management for Alberta Health Services (AHS), Sharilyn Kmech is responsible for a specialized team of subject matter experts in evolving areas of electronic Health Information Management (eHIM) with a focus upon terminologies and education and training. As the AHS business lead for a joint project between AHS Health Information Management and Alberta Health, she co-led the “Terminology Services Strategy and Roadmap Project.” The project outcomes will influence a health system wide approach to the adoption of clinical terminologies and their use in Alberta. She is the also the Co-Chair for the provincial Alberta Clinical Vocabulary Sub Committee.

During her career, Sharilyn has completed secondments with Alberta Health in support of provincial projects such as ICD-10-CA/CCI training. She also developed and presented a series of Ambulatory Care Data Collection Education sessions for Health Information Management professionals across Alberta. Her last secondment included involvement as a member of the “Alberta Clinical Vocabulary Initiative Project” Team from 2007-2009. As a member of this team, she developed and presented SNOMED CT educational models and was a member of the IHTSDO Mapping Special Interest Group working on the initial ICD-10 to SNOMED CT Mapping Prototype. Along with national and international colleagues and as a joint venture between CHIMA and the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), she contributed towards the development of a “Terminology Asset Management” presentation.   She was one of the co-authors of the CHIMA SNOMED CT® Primer released in 2014.  In 2015, she received the Pinnacle Volunteer Award from the Canadian Health Information Management Association (CHIMA)

Because of her passion for informatics and data standards, Sharilyn continues to pursue learning opportunities in these areas and values her collaborative partnerships and networks with colleagues and other organizations with similar interests.