Staff profile

Ms Sonia Palma

Co-ordinator, Professional Development Program

Faculty of Health Sciences

School of Public Health and Human Biosciences
Department of Health Information Management

Melbourne (Bundoora)

 

Qualifications

AssocDip Medical Record Administration (Lincoln)

Membership of professional Associations

Member, Health Information Management Association of Australia (HIMAA)

Area of study

Health Information Management

Brief Profile

 

Sonia is an experienced Health Information Manager (HIM) who has a deep interest in and commitment to the evaluation and enhancement of the quality of health data and its subsequent applications in epidemiology, public health, clinical medicine and research, and activity-based funding of healthcare facilities.

In her capacity as Co-ordinator – Health Information Management Professional Development Courses, Sonia manages the Clinical Coding Refresher Certificate Course, the Clinical Coding Auditing Courses (External, Internal, and International Certificates) and other short courses offered by the Department of Health Information Management. These distance-based (online) courses, designed especially for qualified Health Information Managers and Clinical Coders, are undertaken by individuals in the healthcare sector throughout Australia and from many other countries around the world including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Malaysia, New Zealand, South Africa, and elsewhere.

Sonia was also employed, up to recently, as a Health Information Manager at the Victorian Department of Health, in the Clinical Councils Unit (Consultative Council on Obstetric & Paediatric Morbidity & Mortality). In that role she undertook data collection, analysis, quality control and reporting within the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection and for the Victorian Birth Defects Register.  She also undertook the classification and management of the state-wide perinatal and birth defect data. This included specialist coding and classification of both obstetric and paediatric morbidity, using ICD-9, ICD-10 and the BPA Classification of Diseases.  

Sonia has also previously worked as a Research Assistant, in the Exercise in Pregnancy Study, investigating the effects of exercise on pregnancy.   She has provided research project support to several La Trobe University, Bachelor of Health Information Management (Honours) students, and has acted as Professional (Clinical) Practice Supervisor for students in the Health Information Management degree courses.  

Sonia’s main areas of interest are in obstetric and paediatric coding and health classification as well as in data quality and, in the context of health data, clinical coding auditing.

Teaching Units

 

Academic Co-ordinator of: Refresher (Certificate) Course in Clinical Coding (ICD-10-AM, current edition) Internal Clinical Coding Auditing Certificate Course External Clinical Coding Auditing Certificate Course Clinical Coding Auditing Certificate Course - International

Recent Publications

 

Collins V., Muggli, E., Riley M., Palma S. and Halliday, J. L. (2008) Is Down syndrome a disappearing birth defect? Journal of Paediatrics 153(5):728-9.  

Riley, M., Howard, J., Dale, K., Palma S. and Halliday, J. (2002) Validating notifications of pregnancy terminations for birth defects < 20 weeks gestation. Health Information Management Journal 30(2):1-8.  

Contribution to multiple state public health and epidemiological reports, eg: Annual Reports published by The Consultative Council on Obstetric and Paediatric Mortality and Morbidity.   Births in Victoria. Reports published by the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection Unit, Victorian Department of Health (formerly Department of Human Services).   Birth Defects in Victoria. Reports published by the Victorian Perinatal Data Collection Unit, Victorian Department of Health (formerly Department of Human Services).