CHDA study guide
CHDA · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Certified Health Data Analyst (CHDA) is an AHIMA credential that recognizes expertise in health data analysis, reporting, and business needs assessment. It is built for practitioners who acquire, manage, analyze, interpret, and transform healthcare data into accurate, consistent, and timely information, balancing big-picture strategic vision with day-to-day detail. CHDA holders are expected to demonstrate broad organizational knowledge and to communicate with individuals and groups at multiple levels, inside and outside the organization. Eligibility requires either an RHIT or RHIA credential, or a bachelor's degree or higher from an accredited college or university. The CHDA study guide has 6 sections and about 1,968 words.
01Foundational Knowledge of Analytics in Healthcare
Healthcare analytics is usually taught as a maturity ladder. Descriptive analytics reports what happened (census counts, readmission rates, cost per case).
323 words, about 2 min02Business Needs Assessment
A business needs assessment converts a vague request ("we need a readmissions dashboard") into a defined problem, measurable objectives, and agreed scope. Work through: sponsor and stakeholders; the decision the analysis will support; current state and workflow; future state; gaps; data and analytic requirements; success criteria; constraints and risks.
324 words, about 2 min03Data Acquisition
Data acquisition covers identifying source systems, extracting data, mapping it to a target structure, and confirming fitness for use. Know the pipeline stages: extract, transform (standardize codes, units, dates; deduplicate), load, and validate.
325 words, about 2 min04Data Analysis
Match method to question. Descriptive statistics (counts, means, medians, rates, distributions) characterize the population; watch for skew, where the median is the better summary.
313 words, about 2 min05Data Interpretation and Reporting
Reporting turns results into decisions. Start with the audience and the decision: executives need the headline and recommended action; clinicians need patient-level context and comparability; analysts need method and definitions.
333 words, about 2 min06Data Governance
Data governance is the decision rights and accountability framework for data: who can define, change, access, and use it. It is not the same as IT operations or a single security tool.
350 words, about 2 min