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About Us

The Health Information Technology (HIT), associate of science degree program was implemented in the fall of 1997. Enrollment in the first course - Introduction to Health Information Management - consisted of 22 students. Since that time the HIT Program has grown to include a the Medical Coding Specialist certificate program and has grown to an enrollment of well over 1,000 students.

Graduates of the HIT Program are eligible to sit for the national certification examination to earn the Registered Health Information Technician (RHIT) credential. Students earning the Medical Coding Specialist certificate are trained to sit for the Certified Coding Associate (CCA) examination. Both the RHIT and CCA examinations are administered by the American Health Information Management Association (AHIMA). www.ahima.org

The Cancer Information Management (CIM) associate degree and certificate programs were implemented in the fall of 2000. The California Cancer Registrars Association (CCRA) partnered with Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) for the development and implementation of the CIM program. The CCRA funded the course development and assisted in marketing the program. Today the CCRA is still collaborating with SBCC to offer non-California residents a reduced tuition fee for CIM courses. Information about this special offer is available at the CCRA Web site: www.ccraregistrars.org

Graduates of the CIM associate of science degree and students earning the CIM certificate are eligible to sit for the national certification examination to become a Certified Tumor Registrar (CTR). The CTR examination is administered by the National Cancer Registrars Association (NCRA). www.ncra-usa.org. Beginning in 2010, the NCRA will require all CTR candidates to either have an associate’s degree in CIM OR a certificate in CIM along with an associate's degree or higher in any field.

All of the HIT and CIM courses are offered fully online. Students are never required to come to the SBCC campus. Students may take their general education courses at SBCC or at their local community college and transfer the credits to SBCC to meet degree and program requirements.