The Ph.D. in Health and Biomedical Informatics specialization is a 90-credit-hour program that integrates knowledge from informatics, health care, health information technology, and other disciplines. The program includes core courses, research rotations, your choice of minor, qualifying examinations, and a dissertation.
Year 1
Fall
- INFO I501 Introduction to Informatics
- INFO B530 Foundations of Health Informatics
- INFO I575 Informatics Research Design
Spring
- INFO B505 Project Management –for HI
- INFO B518 Statistics for Biomedical Informatics
- INFO B535 Clinical Information Systems
Summer
- INFO I790 Independent Study/Rotation or elective
Year 2
Fall
- GRAD G660 Clinical Research Methods
- INFO B581 Health Informatics Standards & Terminology
- INFO B585 Biomedical Data Analytics
Spring
- PBHL B562 Biostatistics for Public Health II
- INFO B642 Clinical Decision Support Systems
- INFO B667 Seminar in Interprofessional Collaboration
Summer
Year 3
Fall
- INFO-B 668 Advanced Seminar in BioHealth Informatics
- Research Rotation or INFO I890 Dissertation
- Elective or minor course
Spring
Summer
Year 4
Fall
Spring
Summer
Electives
Choose a minimum of 2 (maximum of 5) courses.
- INFO-B 512 Scientific and Clinical Data Management (Bioinformatics)
- INFO-B 551 Independent Study (including summer)
- INFO-B 513 The Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of Electronic Health Record Systems (Corequisite: INFO-B 642)
- INFO-B 573 Programming for Science Informatics
- INFO-B 582 Health Information Exchange
- INFO-B 585 Biomedical Analytics
- INFO-B 605 Social Foundations of Informatics (summer)
- INFO-B 626 Human Factors Engineering for Health Informatics (prerequisites: INFO-I 501 and INFO-B 535)
- INFO-B 641 Business of Health Informatics
- INFO-B 643 Natural Language Processing for Biomedical Records and Reports
- INFO-B 644 Consumer Health Informatics
- INFO-H 541 Interaction Design Practice (HCI)
- INFO-H 543 Interaction Design Methods (HCI)
Other elective courses are possible upon approval of your faculty advisor.
Human-computer interaction courses
- INFO H563 Psychology of Human-Computer Interaction
- INFO H564 Prototyping for Interactive Systems
Graduate school courses
- GRAD 610 Topic in Translation and Implementation of Research
- GRAD 661 Clinical Trials
- GRAD 653 Introduction to Applied Statistic Methods
Minor
All students will be required to have an appropriate minor outside or partially inside the school. Minors will be selected with the advisor’s recommendation. The selected minor should be appropriate to the student’s choice of subdiscipline within health informatics. Some appropriate minors include public health, dental informatics, cognitive psychology, communication sciences, biostatistics, and clinical research science. In all cases, the number of hours to be included in the minor will be consistent with the requirements of the unit granting the minor.
Qualifying examinations
Written exam
All students will take a written qualifying examination that covers the (1) core courses of the Master In Health Informatics Program and (2) critical review of Health Informatics Research. The examination will be set by a group of faculty who are familiar with the content of the core courses. Examinations will be offered in August. Examinations must be completed by the beginning of the student’s third year in the program, but can be completed before that time when the core courses are completed. Students who do not successfully complete the examination can retake the examination a second time.
Oral exam
The oral examination will take place after the student successfully passes the written exam. Students must pass both the written and oral exam before passing on to candidacy. Only two attempts to pass the oral examination will be allowed.
The oral exam will be based on the student’s response to the written exam and any material from the core courses.
Dissertation
Proposal (Required)
This is an oral exam that covers in-depth knowledge of the student’s primary research area and dissertation proposal. The research proposal for dissertation must be approved by the student’s research committee. That committee may have the same membership as the program committee, or the student may choose different members. The advisor for the dissertation will be a faculty member in the School of Informatics and Computing and a member of the graduate faculty. At least one of the three members of the committee will be based outside the school. The student will defend the thesis proposal at a public colloquium in the school. The examination should be completed within one year after passing the Qualifying Examinations. Only two attempts to pass this examination will be allowed.
Dissertation (21 to 30 cr.)
A written elaboration of significant original research, which must be successfully presented to the research committee in a public defense as described in the Graduate School Bulletin.
last updated: 3/2024
