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Welcome to BIME


Welcome to the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education.
Our vision is to unleash the potential for information to improve biomedicine, health and medical education. We do this via a three pronged approach leveraging the bidirectional synergies between a) basic and applied research, b) training the next generation of researchers and practitioners, and c) applying our expertise to the broader operations of UW Medicine including research, clinical care and medical education through the practice of Biomedical Informatics and the practice of Medical Education and Evaluation. See our News and Events page for current activities.

Cordially,

Peter Tarczy-Hornoch, MD
Chair and Professor, Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education

News Highlights

Following are some recent BIME news highlights. For more BIME news, publications, and events, check out our News and Events page.

UW ranked most innovative public universities by Reuters
The University of Washington is listed at No. 5 on the Reuters Top 100: The World’s Most Innovative Universities, released Fall 2019. For the third consecutive year, the UW leads the list among public institutions.

UW is No. 10 on global ranking; No. 2 among US public institutions
The University of Washington maintained its No. 10 spot on the U.S. News & World Report’s Best Global Universities rankings, released Fall 2019. The UW is ranked No. 2 among U.S. public institutions.
“It’s an honor for the University of Washington to once more be recognized for the strength of our research and scholarship. This ranking is a testament to both our outstanding faculty across many disciplines and to the opportunities for research and discovery that bring our talented students here,” UW President Ana Mari Cauce said.

In Fall of 2019 Eric Tham MD, Adjunct BIME faculty, was elected a Fellow of AMIA which “signals to patients, employers, and colleagues that you are an expert in evidence-based informatics practice and engaged with a community of life-long learners who apply the latest advances in informatics to improve health and health care.

BIME faculty members Trevor Cohen and Meliha Yetisgen will serve on the Journal of Biomedical Informatics Editorial Board until December 2022. BIME Chair Peter Tarczy-Hornoch will serve as the informatics editor for Genetics in Medicine.

Trevor Cohen was elected to ACMI in Fall of 2019.  ACMI members are: “Individuals that have demonstrated major contributions in biomedical and health informatics, have achieved national recognition in the field, and are committed to advancing the charitable, scientific, literary and educational purposes of ACMI are eligible for membership as a fellow. Each year, new fellows are elected by the voting members of ACMI. Fellows are elected for life and upon election are named Fellows of ACMI and may use the designation “FACMI”.  https://www.amia.org/acmi-fellowship

Fall 2019 Grants

Adjunct Professor, Beth Devine (PI), along with co-investigators Patrick Mathias and David Veenstra, have received a $300,000, 2-year R21 from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to conduct a project titled, ““Customizing Value-based Methods to Prioritize Implementation of Pharmacogenomic Clinical Decision Support for Learning Health Systems”. The grant has been funded through AHRQ’s “Health Information Technology to Improve Healthcare Quality and Outcomes” initiative.

The National Library of Medicine announced $2.8 million to fund researchers at the University of Washington School of Medicine to lead an effort to develop technology that alerts clinicians when their unconscious biases might be affecting how they interact with patients. The “UnBIASED” project is led by Andrea Hartzler, Associate Professor and co-director of the UW’s Online Master of Science in Clinical Informatics & Patient-Centered Technologies program. Others on the team include Janice Sabin, an Associate Professor in Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education at the UW; Wanda Pratt, a Professor at the UW Information School and Nadir Weibel, an Associate Professor at the University of California, San Diego.

Paul Crane, in the Department of Medicine has received a two-year, $460K supplement entitled “ADNI Psychmetrics: Machine Learning to discern Natural History” for his existing R01 work in Alzheimer’s disease research. John Gennari is key personnel (co-investigator) for this supplement, and the work will support Harkirat Sohi’s dissertation research.