Training in Biomedical Informatics at Columbia University

PROJECT SUMMARY Columbia University's biomedical informatics training program seeks to advance the discipline of biomedical informatics by providing a broad and rigorous formal course exposure paired with intense research training in a strong health-focused environment. Our program is run by Columbia's Department of Biomedical Informatics, and it offers an exceptionally rich environment as it is closely tied to NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, the Columbia Data Science Institute, and departments and schools throughout the university. We have a large, internationally recognized faculty with consistent involvement in national biomedical informatics projects. In addition, our clinical information systems service responsibilities offer trainees opportunities to get first-hand exposure to, and training on, state-of-the-art clinical and research information systems. Funded by NLM since 1992, our program has produced many informatics leaders, including chairs, directors, senior research faculty, and ACMI fellows, and it has graduated 91 pre-doctoral PhD students (49 NLM trainees) and 75 NLM postdocs. Our graduate programs received over 100 applications this year. Our curriculum includes a biomedical informatics core, additional courses in data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, qualitative methods, information technology methodology, courses in the application domains, extensive research experience throughout the training period, teaching experience, and dedicated instruction on ethics. We cover five application areas— health care/clinical informatics, translational bioinformatics, clinical research informatics, public health informatics, consumer health informatics— and propose a new specialization dedicated to informatics and data science for HIV research. We cover three educational end-points— pre-doctoral PhD (generally for 3-5 years), post-doctoral MA and PhD (generally for 2-3 years), and post-doctoral non-degree for those trainees with previous informatics doctoral training (generally for 2-3 years)— as well as short-term positions. We request 12 pre-doctoral slots (including 2 for the new Informatics and Data Science for HIV specialization), 5 post-doctoral slots, and 4 short-term trainee positions (2 pre-doctoral and 2 post-doctoral).