On Monday, January 26, HealthInno launched the inaugural cohort of its Health Data Innovators Bootcamp, selecting 10 standout participants from a highly competitive applicant pool to prepare them to enter—or advance within—New Mexico’s healthcare industry.

This isn’t workforce development as a talking point. It’s a practical response to a real constraint: healthcare is New Mexico’s largest employment sector, and it continues to face persistent hiring and retention challenges—especially for roles that sit at the intersection of data, technology, and operations.

HealthInno is a statewide innovation network focused on growing New Mexico’s health sciences and health technology ecosystem. We work with partners across healthcare, education, and industry to develop talent, convene applied innovation projects, and support real-world implementation—so New Mexico’s healthcare sector can safely adopt data-driven solutions that strengthen our healthcare system statewide.

Healthcare is a major economic engine—and the talent gap is holding it back

Healthcare is one of New Mexico’s most important “everyday economy” sectors. Recent statewide workforce reporting places health care and social assistance at roughly 150,000 jobs, making it the largest employing industry sector in the state.

And it’s not just large—it’s a major wage engine. New Mexico labor-market reporting shows the sector contributed billions in annual wages, while organizations across the state face persistent difficulty recruiting and retaining the talent needed to modernize operations and deliver care efficiently.

HealthInno’s Bootcamp is built for that gap.

What the Bootcamp actually delivers (and why it’s different)

Program format and structure

The Health Data Innovators Bootcamp is a 9-week, part-time program running January 26 – March 27, 2026, meeting Mondays and Thursdays (3:00–5:30 p.m. MT) with additional project work outside class. It’s 100% virtual, synchronous, with options for in-person mentoring.

Watch a 2-minute overview of the Bootcamp:

Curriculum focus areas

The curriculum is designed to move participants beyond generic “health IT awareness” into concrete, employable capability:

The healthcare ecosystem and reimbursement: How money flows through the system and what it means for the underlying data
Interoperability: exposure to HL7 v2 and FHIR APIs (testing queries, decoding messages, exchanging data)
Policy and real-world context: CMS, ONC, TEFCA, and the Cures Act—what they mean for data exchange and care delivery
Population health + performance: risk stratification and performance improvement using measures such as HEDIS and CMS QPP
Digital Health in practice: evaluating digitally-enabled interventions through a lens of equity, outcomes, requirements, feasibility, and ROI
Privacy, ethics, and compliance: HIPAA and considerations for use of health data in AI environments
Cross-functional execution: working across IT/clinical/admin teams and practicing health tech implementation planning

Software tools and lab environments are provided (including a FHIR sandbox and HL7 lab environments)—and no prior healthcare background is required.

The program is also aligned with HIMSS CAHIMS, supporting a recognized credentialing pathway.

Meet the instructor: Stefany Goradia

The program is led by Stefany Goradia, the Health Data Innovators instructor. Stefany has spent 15+ years leading health data and technology initiatives across startups, health systems, health plans, and agencies. She is pursuing a PhD in Health Equity Sciences at the University of New Mexico, where she also works as a Research Scientist, and she co-leads HealthInno—helping strengthen New Mexico’s health sciences and health technology ecosystem.

That mix—hands-on delivery experience plus an equity and systems lens—matters in New Mexico, where healthcare innovation must work across rural and underserved settings, not just well-resourced systems.

Estimated economic impact: what wage gains could look like

Based on cohort sizing, the clearest impact to estimate is direct wages added to the healthcare economy through job placement, plus the wage lift created through upskilling. A reasonable starting point from program materials is an average starting salary estimate of ~$63,000+ in New Mexico for similar health data / interoperability / analytics support roles. For context, the median wage for all occupations in New Mexico (2024) is $45,870.

A conservative wage-impact range (direct wages only)

For example, if five participants were seeking employment and five were currently employed and upskilling, we can estimate impact in two ways:

For the 5 participants currently without jobs (placement impact):
- ~$315,000/year in new wages tied to placement (5 × $63,000)
For the 5 participants already employed (upskilling impact):
- Using the statewide median wage as a conservative baseline ($45,870), moving to ~$63,000 represents ~$17,130/year in wage gain per person ($63,000 − $45,870)
- ~$85,650/year in incremental wage lift (5 × $17,130)
Total estimated annual wage impact (placement + upskilling):
- ~$400,650/year in direct wage impact ($315,000 + $85,650)

This estimate is intentionally modest: it does not assume raises, promotions, inflation, or broader economic multipliers—just direct wages associated with placement and upskilling.

Return on investment (ROI)

ROI (wage-impact ROI, 1-year): Against the Encantado Foundation’s $145,000 investment, that’s roughly a 2.8x first-year ROI in wage-impact terms (~$400,650 ÷ $145,000 = ~2.76x).

ROI (5-year multiplier): If we apply a simple 5-year multiplier (assuming steady employment at similar wages and no inflation/raises), the total wage impact is ~$2.00M over five years ($400,650 × 5 = ~$2,003,250). Against the same $145,000 investment, that equates to roughly a 13.8x ROI over five years (~$2,003,250 ÷ $145,000 = ~13.8x).

And the key point is this: the demand is already there. Healthcare organizations are actively trying to hire people who can support interoperability, analytics, population health, reporting, and implementation work.

Why this matters to government and industry leaders

Programs like HealthInno’s Bootcamp are economic development infrastructure in practice:

They create faster on-ramps into the state’s largest employment sector to support technology infrastructure and innovation.
They expand the pool of people who can support healthcare’s most urgent operational needs—interoperability, analytics, population health, and quality reporting.
They build workforce capacity in roles that are increasingly essential as New Mexico’s healthcare ecosystem relies more on shared data infrastructure (HIE/APCD/Medicaid systems) and cross-organization coordination.

HealthInno’s position is straightforward: build practical pathways that help healthcare organizations hire talent that can contribute quickly.

Partner with HealthInno

If you would like to partner with HealthInno—by sponsoring students, proposing applied capstone problems for future cohorts, or creating internship and job placement pathways for program graduates—please email Stefany Goradia at stefany@htrx.io to discuss how we can help boost your workforce and accelerate healthcare improvement across New Mexico.

Building New Mexico’s Health Data Workforce: Why HealthInno’s Bootcamp Matters Now

Healthcare is a major economic engine—and the talent gap is holding it back