The BioHealth Informatics Department was founded on August 1, 2013, from the merger of three programs of the Indiana University Luddy School of Informatics, Computing, and Engineering: Health Information Management, Health Informatics and Bioinformatics. The Department of BioHealth Informatics brings together expertise from biological, biomedical and health sciences, and addresses the strong industrial and academic demand for graduates with expertise in these related informatics specialties.
What is BioHealth Informatics?
BioHealth Informatics (BHI) is an interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision making, driven by efforts to improve human health. BHI investigates and supports reasoning, modeling, simulation, experimentation, and translation across the spectrum from molecules to individuals and to populations, from biological to social systems, bridging basic and clinical research and practice and the healthcare enterprise. BHI builds on and contributes to computer and information sciences and technologies, emphasizing their application in biomedicine. BHI further develops, studies, and applies theories, methods, and processes for the generation, storage, retrieval, use, management, and sharing of biomedical data, information, and knowledge.
Finally, BHI recognizes that people are the ultimate users of biomedical information, and therefore draws upon the social and behavioral sciences to inform the design and evaluation of technical solutions, policies, and the evolution of economic, ethical, social, educational, and organizational systems. BHI can be subdivided into a number of related disciplines, including bioinformatics, translational informatics, health informatics, clinical informatics, and health information management. Our department represents the broad spectrum of education, research and practice in these areas.