The Health Information Technology program at SBCC provides online certificate and degrees to students within the South Central Coast Region (and throughout California). The two year associate degree curriculum is the core educational requirement for the Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) exam, however, completion of one or more specialty tracks allows graduates more options for specialization. One of the specialty tracks recommended by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA) is in Health Data Analytics. Completion of the Health Data Analytics specialty track would provide a path to an additional AHIMA credential: the Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA) credential. AHIMA's recently published workforce study noted that HIM professionals recognize data analysis as the top needed skill in the future. Currently only 280 individuals hold the CHDA credential. <br><br><br>This proposal focuses on Health care which is a priority sector within the South Central Coast region. Furthermore, this proposal targets a trending job (i.e., HIT Data Analytics Specialist) that has been identified by our regional Deputy Sector Navigator (Health).<br><br><br>The future of HIM must be associated with knowledge workers with high degrees of specialization, which will provide more significant opportunity for individuals with associate degrees. The technical HIM professional level (associate degree) will be more focused, or specialized, bringing awareness to the employer community that associate degree-educated HIM professionals have a deep knowledge in a specific area HIM practice (for example, privacy, auditing, coding, data analysis, etc.).