2016 T15 Renewal Project Summary RFA-LM-16-001 Gadd, Jackson, Malin 1 Vanderbilt University proposes a five-year renewal of its Biomedical Informatics Training Program. Begun in 2 2001, the program offers MS and PhD degrees in Biomedical Informatics, as well as nondegree postdoctoral 3 and short-term training experiences. The program has experienced steady growth in high quality applicants 4 and currently has more than 30 trainees, including 15 predoctoral and postdoctoral students funded by our 5 NLM training grant, now in its fourteenth year. The Training Program's administrative home, the Department of 6 Biomedical Informatics (DBMI), has likewise grown ? in faculty, resources, and productivity ? to become widely 7 regarded as among the top informatics programs nationally. The informatics-rich environments of the 8 Vanderbilt University Medical Center and the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare System provide ?hands on? 9 training experiences that are exemplary. The MS and PhD degree programs include a core curriculum of 10 courses in biomedical informatics and the foundation disciplines of computer science, biomedicine, and 11 research methodology. Degree-seeking students pursue concentrated study in one of several application 12 domains: clinical informatics, translational bioinformatics, and biomedical data science (new track in 13 development). We continue to offer research-intensive nondegree postdoctoral fellowships. For the period 14 2017-2022, Vanderbilt requests a total of 17 full-time training positions: 15 NLM-funded full-time positions -- 9 15 predoctoral whose training endpoint will be an informatics PhD and 6 postdoctoral whose training endpoint will 16 be a research informatics MS or enhanced preparation for a research career; and 2 NIEHS-funded full-time 17 predoctoral positions in a proposed Environmental Exposures Emphasis of the biomedical informatics PhD 18 program. We will also offer 4 short-term training positions per year to engage STEM-C undergraduate and 19 graduate students from groups that are underrepresented in computational bioscience, including women, in 20 pathways leading to biomedical informatics training and careers. We continue to expand these recruitment 21 efforts through the Meharry-Vanderbilt Alliance and collaborations with Fisk University and other HBUC 22 institutions. The uniquely rich and nurturing environment for informatics at Vanderbilt is a result of the shared 23 vision of the senior leadership of the institution for more than 25 years, that effective management of data, 24 information and knowledge will be the competitive advantage for the university and its medical center in the 25 current century. In this unique setting for education in biomedical informatics, our students have excelled in 26 developing new knowledge that advances informatics as a scientific discipline. They are the strongest 27 evidence that the Vanderbilt Biomedical Informatics Program has met the NLM's objectives for biomedical 28 informatics research training and will continue to do so.
NIH ExPorter
NIH ExPorter