The History of BMI
Our program was founded in 1982 by Dr. Edward Shortliffe as the Medical Information Sciences training program. The original focus was on clinical computing but it has evolved to train students broadly in informatics applied to multiple domains of biomedicine. Dr. Russ B. Altman became the director in 2000 and in recognition of a mission beyond clinical informatics, the program was renamed "Biomedical Informatics" (BMI). The Biomedical Informatics program has had an integrated core program combining coursework in biomedicine, computer science, probablity and statistics, ethical and social impact with core biomedical informatics courses generally taught by the members of the executive committee. With over 100 graduates, the program has extensive experience in training students to combine biomedical and computer science.
The program has been funded by the National Library of Medicine since 1984. It was initially focused solely on post-doctoral trainees, but was broadened in 1988 to include pre-doctoral trainees as well.
