Meet Kathryn Loftis, PhD, CAISS. Kathryn is a Biomedical Engineer and Injury Biomechanics Research Analyst at the Department of Defense in the United States.
How long have you been using AIS?
Since about 2006-2007. I started with AIS 98, then moved to AIS 2005 update 2008, then helped with developing AIS 2015. I’ve also been a faculty with AIS since about 2015.
What inspired you to obtain CAISS credentials?
I had been coding for a number of years in graduate school, but once I joined the workforce, I really wanted the credentials to back up my AIS coding experience. Thankfully my research job was supportive and so I took an AIS training course in the spring and then completed the CAISS exam that fall.
What are your main areas of interest in the field of injury scoring?
I have a slightly different background and job field compared to many of the other CAISS. I work in injury research, so I regularly mine datasets to conduct injury research and analysis using AIS codes. I also help with coding for trauma studies, teaching, and autopsy coding (which can present interesting coding challenges).
What do you find most rewarding about working in this field?
I’ve always had an engineering mindset, but I love the medical and anatomy side of things, so biomedical engineering with an emphasis on traumatic injury was a great fit for me. Once I got into that field, I saw a real need for consistent, mine-able injury data for improving safety and survivability, so AIS became a passion for me. AAAM and AIS are fantastic groups of very smart people, all passionate about similar things. It has been really rewarding working with other experts to improve coding, improve analysis with those codes, and then publish research that is saving lives across the world!
What do you hope to accomplish while on the AIS Certification Board?
I was drawn to serving on the AIS Certification Board because I really see the need for ensuring proper AIS coding in the datasets that we use to drive research and safety decisions/regulations. We are in an integral time where many large datasets are switching over to AIS 2015, so we need to shift our certification testing over the next few years and ensure we are maintaining a level of AIS coding competence with our CAISS experts. I’ve been teaching AIS with AAAM for about 10 years, so I can also bring some lessons learned from the teaching side into the certification board discussions. I look forward to enhancing the testing and certification experience and also learning from other experts on the CAISS board who have been doing this much longer than me!
What’s something about you (a fun fact) that not many people know?
I found Biomedical Engineering and specifically Biomechanics on a random snow day in high school. We were out of school, so I tagged along with my dad for his Professional Engineering luncheon and heard a presentation by the Wake Forest University (WFU) lead of Biomedical Engineering. He showed off really cool 3D images of human anatomy from Computed Tomography (CT) scans, and I fell in love with it! I ended up in his department at WFU for my graduate school career a few years later and got to make my own 3D images from CT scans – all because of a snow day!
How do you think the field is changing, and what trends do you see coming up on the horizon?
I think the larger community is recognizing the benefit of having certified AIS coders on their teams, which is great news for AIS coding consistency and data improvements. As data becomes more available and digital systems are brought on to aid in analyzing large datasets, I think AIS will become even more important to injury research studies. We are also seeing AIS expand even more globally, which is fantastic news as it is brought into more countries and evolving healthcare systems. There are a lot of exciting future avenues for AIS and CAISS!
What advice would you give to someone interested in CAISS credentials?
Do it! Be sure to take a AAAM AIS training course after you’ve had at least a few months of trial AIS coding under an experienced mentor and a strong anatomy background. After the training class, if you are feeling confident, then it’s a great time to sign up for the CAISS exam.
What’s one thing – either field-related or not – you learned in the last month?
If you are looking for opportunities to apply or expand your skillset, you will normally find them! It may take a little time, but if you are passionate about something, you can find others also passionate about similar things and work together to make a difference. It’s so exciting to meet someone else that is also passionate about the same topic you are and then talk all about it.
Is there anything else you would like to share with your colleagues?
I love working with all the experts in AAAM. It’s a great global mix of medical doctors, surgeons, trauma coders, researchers, policymakers, vehicle manufacturers, etc.. AAAM and AIS are unique groups to really transition AIS codes into actionable research that influences vehicle design and saves lives.