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Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
Health Sciences Integrated Program

Health & Biomedical Informatics

Informatics is the study of information: how you collect it, how you organize it and how you use it to solve problems. Health & Biomedical Informatics (HBMI) is informatics applied to healthcare and biomedical research. The HBMI track applies the concepts and techniques of informatics to healthcare and biomedical research. This track contains many subfields within the broader field of health and biomedical informatics. These subfields use similar techniques and tools but apply them to different problem areas.

Our investigations address questions ranging from the molecular scale (bioinformatics) through the patient scale (clinical informatics) to whole populations (public health informatics).The figure provides a general sense of the subdomains of informatics, while acknowledging that the subfield overlap considerably.

The philosophy of our program is to broadly train informaticians. It is not a health informatics program focusing only on clinical systems, nor is it a bioinformatics program focusing only on molecules. We believe that students must have a familiarity with the broad range of informatics to excel in any of the sub-domains. 

Note: Students with a strong biology background and an interest in computational genomics may also want to consider the new research emphasis area in the Driskill Graduate Program.

MEET OUR FACULTY

Courses

 Required Courses

  • HSIP 400 Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Doctoral Colloquium
  • MHI 403 Introduction to Medical Informatics
  • BIOSTAT 302 Introduction to Biostatistics
  • HSIP 441, 442, 443 Informatics Methods I, II, III
  • HSIP 401 Introduction to Health Measurement Science
  • BIOSTAT 402 Intermediate Biostatistics
  • HSR 462 Grant Writing

 Choose One Healthcare & Biomedical Knowledge Course

  • BMD_ENG 301 Systems Physiology
  • IBIS 401 Molecular Biophysics
  • IBIS 402 Eukaryotic Molecular Biology
  • IBIS 403 The Human Proteome: Defining Variation and Modifications of Protein Molecules
  • IBIS 404 Principles and Methods in Systems Biology
  • IBIS 406 Advanced Topics in Cell Biology
  • IBIS 407 Genetics & Epigenetics
  • IBIS 410 Quantitative Biology
  • IEMS 385 Introduction to Health Systems Management
  • IGP 401 Biochemistry
  • IGP 405 Cell Biology
  • IGP 410 Molecular Biology
  • IGP 420 Introduction to Pharmacology
  • IGP 430 Genetics
  • IGP 435 Signal transduction and human diseases
  • IGP 440 Immunology
  • IGP 442 Microbiology
  • IGP 450 Tumor Cell Biology
  • IGP 466 Structural Basis of Signal Transduction
  • IGP 475 Virology
  • IGP 485 Data Science for Biomedical Researchers
  • IGP 486 Advance Bioinformatics and Genome Informatics
  • MGMT 444 Health Economics
  • MHI 401 American Healthcare System
  • MHI 402 Introduction to Clinical Thinking
  • MHI 404 Health Care Enterprise Operations
  • MHB 403 The History of Medicine and Bioethics
  • MSHA 403-DL American Healthcare, Digital Health and Analytics
  • PUB_HLTH 301 Behavior, Society, & Health
  • PUB_HLTH 412 Infection Disease Epidemiology and Prevention
  • HQS 420 Introduction to US Healthcare System
  • HSR 433 Health Economics and Healthcare Financing
  • HSR 470 Federal Policy Making and Health Care Reform

 Choose One Computation Course

  • BIOSTAT 305 Applied Statistical Programming in SAS
  • MHI 406 Decision Support Systems
  • MHI 405 HIT Standards
  • MSDS 430 Python for Data Science
  • MSIA 422 Intro to Java and Python
  • MSHA 401 Programming for Health Analytics

 Recommended Electives

Choose three or more of the following courses. Other electives may be taken with adviser approval.

  • BIOSTAT 429 Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis in the Medical Sciences
  • MHI 404 Health Care Enterprise Operations
  • MHI 407 Legal, Ethical & Social Issues in Informatics
  • MHI 413-DL Consumer eHealth
  • MSCI 330 Electronic Health Record Data as a Foundation for Clinical Research
  • PUB_HLTH 425 Introduction to GIS and Spatial Analysis for Public Health
  • PUB_HLTH 431 Basic Decision Analysis and Models of Medical Decision Making
  • PUB_HLTH 438 Survey Design and Methodology
  • PUB_HLTH 439 Qualitative Research Methods
  • PUB_HLTH 444 Advanced Decision Analysis
  • PUB_HLTH 445 Writing and Peer Reviewing for Scientific Publication
  • HQS 440 Fundamental Methods for Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety
  • HSR 425 Introduction to Quantitative Methods in Health Services and Outcomes Research
  • HSR 463 Topics in HSR: Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety (0.5 unit)
  • IGP 422 Introduction to Translational Research
  • IGP 466 Structural Basis of Signal Transduction