Volume 10, Issue 4
December 20, 2019
Happy Holidays from SBMI
Happy holidays to everyone in the SBMI Community. We hope everyone enjoys a happy and healthy holiday season as we all share time with friends and family.

The university will be closed Dec. 24, 25 and 26 and Jan. 1, 2020. SBMI will be open on Dec. 23, 27, 30 and 31 with limited hours and limited staff so please call 713-500-3900 if you need any assistance during those days. Regular business hours will resume on Jan. 2, 2020.
Click here to view the Dean's Holiday Message.
Fall 2019 Poster Session Winner
SBMI hosted its fall 2019 poster session on Dec. 9 as over twenty five student research posters were presented. We want to thank all the students for their work, the faculty judges and all others in attendance.

Please join us in congratulating the fall 2019 poster session winner – Sarvesh Soni (PhD Student). His poster titled “A Literature Review of Question Answering from Electronic Health Records” is the winner of the Paul C. Boyle Award for Excellence in Research for this semester.
Click here to view event photos.
SBMI Bragging Points
Members of the SBMI Community have recently achieved noteworthy accomplishments. We want to recognize and applaud their endeavors.
- PhD Student Surabhi Datta co-authored an article that was published in the December 2019 volume of the Journal of Biomedical Informatics. Her co-authors are Assistant Professor Kirk Roberts, PhD and Associate Dean for Research & Professor Elmer Bernstam, MD, MSE.
If any SBMI alumni or current students want to announce a recent professional accomplishment in a future Academic Update, please share the details with Chelsea Overstreet via email at Chelsea.E.Overstreet@uth.tmc.edu.
Upcoming SBMI Recruiting Events
Several SBMI faculty and staff members will be traveling in the coming months to attend conferences to promote our degree programs. We invite any prospective students or alumni in the area to visit us during these events.

- The December/January issue of TMC Pulse magazine included a feature on Assistant Professor Luca Giancardo, PhD, his co-collaborator Sunil Sheth, MD, and their algorithm that aims to improve stroke diagnoses (pages 25-27).
- Professor Dean Sittig, PhD, was recently interviewed by KTRH radio about the rise of artificial intelligence in health care. The story ran live on air and on the outlet's website.
- In late November, Dr. Sittig was also interviewed for a Fortune story with an embedded audio clip about the oversight of electronic health records.
Important Dates
Dec. 24-26 |
December holiday – university is closed |
Jan. 1 |
New Year’s Day holiday – university is closed |
Jan. 3 |
Spring 2020 regular course registration closes in MyUTH |
Jan. 6 |
First class day for spring 2020 semester |
Jan. 6-10 |
Late course registration is open in MyUTH (fees apply) |
Jan. 20 |
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day – university is closed |
|