Paul D. Bell, PhD, RHIA, CTR

Professor, Health Services and Information Management
252-744-6171
bellp@ecu.edu
4340Q Health Sciences Building

Dr. Bell has been a member of the HSIM faculty since 1995. Prior to his appointment at ECU he was on the faculty of the Health Information Management program in the college of health related professions at Illinois State University. Before coming to academia, Dr. Bell served as an assistant director and then interim director in the Department of Health Information Services at Peninsula General Hospital in Far Rockaway, NY. Before that, he worked in the office of personal health in the NYC Department of Health where he was responsible for conducting medical record audits as well as for administering patient surveys. Dr. Bell also has experience in medical records consulting in long term care (LTC) facilities as well as in supervising community hospital-based cancer registries.

Education

  • PhD, Educational Research and Policy Analysis, minor in community college adult education, NCSU, 2006
  • Certificate, Health Information Management, College of Health Related Professions/SUNY Downstate, 1988
  • MS, Teaching English as a Second Language, SUNY Albany, 1976
  • BA, French and Spanish, SUNY Albany, 1974
  • Other: Completed basic science curriculum; passed National Board of Medical Examiners (NBME) part I, SUNY Stonybrook School of Medicine, 1983

Program Affiliations

Courses Taught

  • HSMA 3115: Human Diseases
  • HSMA 3030: Written Communication and Documentation in Health Care
  • HSMA 3040: Managing the Health of Populations
  • COHE 6000: Health Care Systems and Problems
  • HIMA 3000: Medical Terminology

Research Interests

Dr. Bell’s eclectic research interests include the following areas: disparities in diagnosis and treatment of chest pain; standards for integrating electronic health records; evaluation of computer assisted and web-based learning; the role of self- regulated learning and epistemological beliefs in predicting learning achievement in undergraduate asynchronous web-based courses.

Selected Works

Publications

Zeng, X. & Bell, P. D. (2011). Determination of Problematic ICD-9-CM Subcategories for Further Study of Coding Performance: Delphi Method. Perspectives in Health Information Management, 16.

Bell, P. D. (2007). Predictors of College Student Achievement in Undergraduate Asynchronous Web-based Courses. Education, 127 (4), 523-533.

Bell, P. D. & Akroyd, D. (2006). Can Factors Related to Self-Regulated Learning Predict Learning Achievement in Undergraduate Asynchronous Web-based Courses? International Journal of Instructional Technology and Distance Learning.

Bell, P. D. & Hudson, S. (2001). Equity in the Diagnosis of Chest Pain: Race and Gender. American Journal of Health Behavior, 25 (1), 60-71.

Presentations

Bell, P. D. & Zeng, X. (2015-2016, July). Crowdgrading for Collaborative Learning and Evaluation. 2015 Assembly on Education Symposium/Faculty Development Institute, Austin, Texas.

Bell, P. (2002). Learning Medical Terminology on the Web: A High Tech Correspondence Course. Breaking Boundaries for Global Learning, Ninth Annual EDiNEB International Conference, 56, Guadalajara, Mexico.

Bell, P. (2000). Chest Pain Research: Data Analysis to Improve Patient Care. Data Driven Knowledge Bound: 2000 AHIMA Convention, 309 – 324, Chicago, Illinois.

Books/Book Chapters

Bell, P. D., Zeng, X., & Harris, S. (2011). Blogs and Wikis: ICT tools to facilitate critical thinking and learning in a web-based health services and information management curriculum, In A. Mendez-Vilas (Ed.), Education in a technological world: communicating current and emerging research and technological efforts (pp. 77-82). Formatex research center Badajoz, Spain: Formatex.

Bell, P. D. (2010). Self- regulated learning matters in asynchronous web based learning, In Jesus de la Fuente Aria and Mourad Ali Essa (Eds.), International Handbook of Self Regulated Learning in Different Settings (pp. 455- 475). Almeria, Spain: Education & Psychology I+D+i epublishing.

Grants and Contracts

2008: Zeng, X. & Bell, P. D., Development of a New Graduate Certificate Program in Health Informatics at ECU ($50,000.00), UNC General Administration

2008: Zeng, X. & Bell, P. D., The Determination of Reasons and Solutions for Low Quality ICD-9- CM Coding in Cardiovascular Cases: A Qualitative Approach ($12,774.00), East Carolina University Graduate Research and Study

Service Activities and Memberships

  • Program Coordinator for Graduate Health Information Management (HIM) certificate program
  • Chair, HSIM Academic Affairs
  • Chair CAHS, Graduate Curriculum Committee
  • Reviewer Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences
  • Ad Hoc Reviewer for Perspectives in Health Information Management (PHIM)
  • American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA), 1989-present
  • National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA) 1993-present

Honors and Awards

One of the two campus wide winners of the ECU Outstanding General College Adviser Awards for 2001-2002. East Carolina University General College Advising.