About Us

Mission Statement

The mission of the UT School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston is to improve healthcare and biomedical research by developing, refining and advancing the field of Biomedical Informatics through research, curriculum development, service, and by training professionals in areas of the discipline including bioinformatics, clinical informatics, computational biomedicine, and public health informatics. This mission is consistent with UTHealth's mission as a comprehensive health science university that educates health science professionals, discovers and translates advances in the biomedical and social sciences, and models best practices in clinical care and public health.

History

The University of Texas School of Biomedical Informatics at Houston (SBMI), formerly known as the School of Health Information Sciences (SHIS), was founded in 1972 as the School of Allied Health Sciences. The school is the newest of the six UTHealth schools. UTHealth is located in the world-renowned Texas Medical Center (TMC), one of the largest medical centers in the world.

In 1992, UTHealth determined it would focus on graduate education in the health sciences. At that time, the school began to shift from traditional allied health baccalaureate programs toward the development of graduate programs to join the other professional and graduate schools in the university. In 1997, the school created the Department of Health Informatics and began to offer a Master of Science in Health Informatics. In 2001, the name of the school was changed to the School of Health Information Sciences, which also subsumed all faculty and students in the department. The school offered a Master of Science in Health Informatics, a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Informatics and a Certificate Program in Health Informatics for non-degree seeking students. In 2010, the School underwent another name change– SHIS became the School of Biomedical Informatics.  The school offers a Master of Science in Health Informatics, a Master of Science in Applied Health Informatics, a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Informatics, a Certificate Program in Health Informatics and multiple dual-degree programs.

Students

Nearly 150 students are working towards a degree or a certificate from SBMI. The average age of our students ranges between 34 to 39. The pie charts below show information regarding our students' degree plan, gender, and enrollment status.

Careers

Many of our master's students have gone on to work in hospitals that are implementing electronic health record systems. They analyze the needs of the hospitals by the number of users and then train workers to use the systems. Doctoral students generally work in academia after completing their degrees. In academia, they are able do research as well as teach.

Some other common jobs are: 

• systems analysts
• informatics support analysts
• informatics project managers

Accreditation

The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston is accredited to award undergraduate, graduate, doctoral, and professional degrees by:

The Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools
1866 Southern Lane
Decatur, Georgia, 30033
Phone: 404-679-4501