CAPITAL CHAPTER 25TH ANNIVERSARY MEETING

I was honored to be the keynote speaker for the Capital Chapter's 25th Anniversary Meeting in Austin, Texas this past weekend. Other speakers included John Hays, M.D., a cardiologist who showed videos of cardiac catheterizations with explanations of what we were viewing, Ashley Katz, MSW, executive director of Patient Privacy Rights who provided eye-opening information regarding the sale of PHI by various entities, Ellen Drake, CMT, AHDI-F [AHDI's 2008 Educator of the Year], who spoke on interpreting difficult dictation, and Marlene Schoenberg, Ed.M., CCC /Sp, who provided tips for understanding ESL dictators. There were 64 attendees and 4 new AHDI members were signed up during the meeting. A wonderful time of education, information sharing, and networking was had by all and Kathy Muelker, RMT, Capital Chapter President and her team are to be commended for this wonderful event.

On Friday, prior to the meeting, we had an outstanding Military Spouse Informational at Central Texas College across the street from Fort Hood with 24 military spouses in attendance. An amazing amount of interest was generated in medical transcription as a portable career and, in fact, Operation Life Transformed awarded a $3000 scholarship to one lucky attendee. Many thanks go out to Central Texas College, one of our ACCP approved schools for hosting this event, to Operation Life Transformed, and to the Capital Chapter for setting this up for us. The venue was perfect and the enthusiasm was palpable. A special thank you also goes to Kathy's husband, Jack who helped us with the audio/visual equipment during this MSI as well as during the Capital Chapter meeting -- everything would have been nearly impossible without his expertise.

All in all -- deep in the heart of Texas is a wonderful place to spend a weekend......