CPHIMS Cheat Sheet 2026

The 30 highest-yield CPHIMS facts, distilled from real exam questions. Print it, save it as a PDF, or study it here — free, no sign-up.

1. In a healthcare data governance program, a 'data steward' is PRIMARILY responsible for: → Managing the quality, definitions, and appropriate use of data within a specific domain
2. A project sponsor for an EHR implementation is BEST described as: → The executive who champions the project and provides resources
3. When building a healthcare analytics report, stratifying patient outcomes by age, gender, and race PRIMARILY supports: → Health equity analysis to identify and address disparate outcomes
4. Which procurement document is used to solicit proposals from vendors for a hospital's new health information system? → Request for Proposal (RFP)
5. Which risk response strategy involves transferring the financial impact of a risk to a third party? → Transfer
6. Earned Value Management (EVM) uses which metrics to measure project performance? → Planned Value, Earned Value, and Actual Cost
7. Which HIE governance model gives patients direct control over who can access and receive their health information? → Consumer-mediated exchange model
8. Which of the following examples will BEST help a presenter show how frequently certain kinds of problems can occur when a new program is used? → histogram
9. Which of the following does a clinical informatics worker in an acute care setting normally NOT need to have knowledge of or experience with? → quantitative statistics
10. Which type of HIE architecture consolidates data from multiple participating organizations into a single shared repository? → Centralized model
11. When a hospital EHR project is experiencing scope creep, the project manager should FIRST: → Evaluate change requests through the formal change control process
12. Which project management methodology uses iterative sprints and is increasingly adopted in healthcare IT implementations? → Agile/Scrum
13. Which of the following is a decision-support system component? → Model editor
14. A data dictionary in a healthcare information system PRIMARILY provides: → Definitions, formats, and allowable values for each data element in a system
15. Which document formally authorizes a healthcare IT project and names the project manager? → Project charter
16. What is the main justification for the usage of financial information systems in healthcare organizations? → Government regulations
17. In a traditional Waterfall SDLC model, which phase must be fully completed and signed off on before the 'Development' (or Build) phase can begin? → Design
18. Which database type is most frequently used in the healthcare sector? → Hierarchical database
19. When managing a healthcare IT project budget, a cost baseline is BEST described as: → The approved time-phased budget used to measure cost performance
20. Stakeholder engagement planning in a healthcare IT project PRIMARILY aims to: → Identify stakeholder interests and develop strategies to maintain appropriate involvement
21. How can a healthcare company lessen data redundancy and keep data consistency? → Through the use of databases
22. What does an executive information system serve? → Ensure proper functioning of a healthcare organization
23. What does IHE stand for in the context of health informatics standards? → Integrating the Healthcare Enterprise
24. What is the most popular method used by the healthcare sector to safeguard private information? → Passwords
25. The critical path in a project schedule is BEST defined as: → The longest duration path of dependent tasks that determines project end date
26. Which type of analytics uses historical healthcare data to describe what has already happened? → Descriptive analytics
27. Which of the below phrases best defines the format that information takes when it is entered into a computer system? → Data dictionary
28. Which of the following list items constitutes a clinical decision-support system's core elements? → knowledge base, inference engine, and patient-specific information
29. Which quality management concept focuses on building quality into processes rather than inspecting defects after the fact? → Quality assurance
30. Which federal program incentivized U.S. hospitals to demonstrate 'meaningful use' of certified EHR technology and advance health data analytics capabilities? → HITECH Act / Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs