First-year Biomedical and Health Informatics graduate students work in the departmental computer lab. (From left to right): Kai Wang, Olivia Cheng and Syed Zia Ul Huq. Photo courtesy of Brian Brown.

The Department of Medical Education's Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics has received a $3.5 million research training grant from the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The grant will be used to strengthen existing informatics research and training activities by adding a research training pathway and funding additional trainees for the pre-doctoral training option.

Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, associate professor of pediatrics and medical education and head of the Division of Biomedical and Health Informatics, is principal investigator and director on the five -year grant. Sherrilynne Fuller, professor of medical education and professor in the information school and adjunct professor in health services, and Ira Kalet, associate professor of medical education and radiation oncology, are co-directors.

The recently established graduate program in biomedical and health informatics (BHI) is an interdisciplinary program in the School of Medicine that includes faculty participants from across the health sciences (including the Schools of Nursing, Public Health and Community Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry) as well as from the Information School and Computer Science and Engineering.

The BHI program has 15 continuing and 12 new students, from which the NLM grant will support four predoctoral and four postgraduate students. Applicants interested in the 2003 BHI graduate program may visit the BHI Web site.