Always learning: Health information management grad looks to help patients from behind the scenes

With a career in the fast-evolving field of health information management, Peyton Still predicts the need to keep learning new things will never end. At least, that’s what he’s hoping.

“I always want to be learning,” said Still, who will earn his Bachelor of Science degree in health information management this month from the University of Kansas School of Health Professions. “I think continuous learning plays a huge role in striving toward helping patients get to better outcomes. The learning I’m doing now can help me get there, help the teams that I work with in health care and ultimately help patients receive the outcomes that they want.”

Still is part of one of the largest graduating classes from KU School of Health Professions, which expects to award 280 degrees and certificates this spring. The school educates students in a variety of health care disciplines including physical therapy, respiratory care, speech-language pathology, nutrition and athletic training. Graduates from the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Health Professions at KU will celebrate the milestone with hooding and recognition ceremonies May 17 in Kansas City and KU’s university-wide commencement May 18 in Lawrence.

For Still, his undergraduate degree will not be the last stop in his KU Medical Center journey. He’s also halfway through earning his master’s degree in health services administration, which he expects to complete in the spring of 2026.

“I like numbers, I like solving problems, I love working with people,” Still said. “I think that’s what helped me gravitate toward the degrees I’m pursuing.”

Though he never would have predicted it at the time, his high school retail job also laid the groundwork that ultimately charted his path at KU. 

As a teen in Kearney, Missouri, Still worked as a supervisor in customer service at a local grocery store. During his first two years of undergraduate work at KU’s Lawrence campus, he worked as a service manager and accountant at another grocery store.

At KU, Still started out studying biology, then chemistry. While he’d always been interested in science, he pivoted back toward administrative work like he’d done at the grocery stores. This helped him determine health information management would be a perfect fit.

Health information management professionals can help facilities implement and maintain electronic records. That’s important, Still said, because it helps to protect private patient information and to collect data for a variety of uses, such as public health efforts. Now, artificial intelligence is even being implemented into record systems, with exciting possibilities of helping with patient diagnoses and other uses.

This summer, as part of his health services administration master’s program, Still has an internship at the Kansas City VA Medical Center.

At graduation Still is being honored with the Faculty Award to the Outstanding Health Information Management Student. When he was an undergraduate he was nominated for Alpha Eta, the national honor society for the allied health professions, which are health professions that are distinct from medicine and nursing. He’s also been a manager for the health information management mentorship program, which pairs incoming juniors with mentors.

Still said it was a challenge to transition from Lawrence to Kansas City halfway through undergraduate work, as many KU Medical Center programs require. However, he said, he quickly found that he loved the smaller classes, closer relationships with professors and friendships with fellow health information students at the medical center.

“Graduation got here a lot quicker than I was expecting,” he said. “These last four years flew by, and I’m definitely excited.”