About Us

Mission Statement

The Mission of the School of Biomedical Informatics 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 all areas of the discipline including bioinformatics, clinical informatics, computational biomedicine, and public health informatics. This mission is consistent with the mission of the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston 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 School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI), formerly the School of Health Information Sciences (SHIS) was originally founded in 1973, as the School of Allied Health Sciences (SAHS). SBMI is one of six schools at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) located in the world renowned Texas Medical Center, the largest contiguous medical center in the world.

In 1992, UTHealth determined it would focus on graduate education in the health sciences. At that time, SBMI began the shift from traditional allied health baccalaureate programs toward the development of informatics graduate programs and joined the other schools at the University. SBMI currently offers a non-degree certificate program, a Master of Science in Health Informatics, a recently developed Master of Science in Applied Health Informatics and a Doctor of Philosophy in Health Informatics program. As the field changes and advances, SBMI will continue to add and develop new 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