The demand for qualified biomedical informatics (BMI) researchers has never been so high. Although San Diego hosts a variety of highly diverse healthcare institutions and is the #3 hub for biotechnology and #1 for wireless communications in the country, there has historically been no training in BMI. We propose to fill this gap with a balanced training program centered at the intersection of biomedicine and computer science. The Division of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), its many collaborators in the UCSD Schools of Medicine, Engineering/Computer Science, and Pharmacy, the UCSD Medical Center, the San Diego Supercomputer Center, the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology, and several local companies have joined their strengths to implement a program in San Diego that offers training in a core set of BMI competencies while also providing specialization that is needed for graduates to compete for the best positions in academia and R&D departments in industry. Our pre-doctoral trainees enroll specifically into the BMI track in the Doctoral Program in Bioinformatics. Our post- doctoral trainees with healthcare-related doctorates typically enroll into the BMI concentration area in the Master's of Science Program in Computer Science and Engineering. The BMI curriculum consists of coursework and enrichment activities and is run by DBMI faculty. Research mentors from several departments complement the expertise of DBMI faculty, providing inclusive environments for trainees to acquire skills that are necessary for independent research careers.
Science is no longer the pursuit by a single investigator, but rather that of a large network of investigators, with informatics playing a critical role in healthcare, clinical and translational research, and public health. We will train the next generation of Biomedical Informatics researchers in a diverse and inclusive environment where they will acquire the essential skills to approach informatics challenges in a thorough, yet innovative, manner.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 68 publications
