The McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston, formerly UTHealth Houston School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI), is helping to improve health care and biomedical research by advancing the field of biomedical informatics through research, application service and educational of professionals across all areas of discipline, including health data science and artificial intelligence, clinical and health informatics, and bioinformatics and systems medicine.
The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Genome Informatics (AIGI) at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics supports development of methodological and applied informatics research programs modeling the intrinsic structural connections among modern data modalities in biomedical research, including genetic, electronic health records (EHR) and imaging big data. Current research activities of this center focus on the use of deep learning AI methodology in biomedical data and the efficient algorithms for genetic data. The AIGI is led by Degui Zhi, PhD
→ AIGI
The Center for Behavioral Emergency and Addiction Research (C-Bear) at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics oversees a multidisciplinary team of scientists and clinicians that utilize health data science methodologies to improve health systems and population science through prevention, policy, and treatment programs targeting vulnerable populations, especially those that engage with hospital emergency departments and first responders. Working at the intersection of clinical informatics and public health, the Center primarily focuses its efforts on behavioral informatics, applied clinical informatics for cardiovascular and emergency care, as well as applied clinical informatics for health policy, management and entrepreneurship. The CBEAR is led by James Langabeer, PhD, MBA, FAHA.
Applied Clinical Informatics
→ CBEAR
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics Center for Computational Systems Medicine (CCSM) seeks to serve as a leader in solving the complex problems related to precision health by focusing on the development/advancement of leading-edge clinical and translational informatics, biomedical imaging informatics tools, bioengineering and systematic modeling tools, and the integration heterogeneous big datasets derived from multiple sources (e.g., clinical, imaging, EMR, genomic, behavioral, social, population, environmental, and other data sources). Through these means, CCSM is providing groundbreaking solutions to patient care and health prevention through biomedical discoveries that improve clinical and translation research. The center conducts research across three dimensions: systems informatics and physics-guided precision medicine, clinical and translational big data informatics, and translational systems bioinformatics and systems biology. The CCSM is led by Xiaobo Zhou, PhD.
→ CCSM
The UTHealth Houston Center for Precision Health (CPH) designs and conducts research and demonstration projects focused on the use of state-of-the-art informatics and analytics, coupled with Electronic Health Record (EHR), phenotype, and -omics data, to advance the seminal field of precision medicine. The Center works in close collaboration with researchers and physician-scientists across UTHealth, as well as national and international partners. Currently, CPH is a frontrunner in the development of four high-priority research areas: population-based genomics for precision health, cancer precision medicine, translational bioinformatics, and smart clinical trials. The CPH is led by Zhongming Zhao, PhD, MS.
Health Data Science & Bioinformatics
→ CPH
The Center for Quality Health IT Improvement (CQHII) is a program within McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics that provides health information technology (HIT) and care transformation services to medical practices in Southeastern Texas and the Rio Grande Valley. The CQHII region encompasses almost 11 million patients, comprising 44% of the Texas population. RECs were originally funded by the Office of the National Coordinator to promote the adoption, implementation, and meaningful use (MU) of electronic health records (EHRs) in underserved, primary care provider settings. CQHII has successfully helped over 2,235 clinicians achieve their MU goals, thereby qualifying for financial incentives. Currently, CQHII has evolved to provide professional HIT consulting to clinicians and hospitals on a fee-for-service basis. CQHII has a proven track record of working with Texas clinicians, Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), and small hospitals to improve practice workflows, patient care, and patient safety through the optimized use of EHRs. CQHII is led by Susan Fenton, PhD.
Clinical Informatics
→ CQHII
The Center for Secure Artificial Intelligence For hEalthcare (SAFE) at McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics focuses on using advanced methodologies derived from computer science, applied mathematics, biostatistics, chemistry, and pharmacology to facilitate and expedite biomedical data analysis. By combining secure and privacy-preserving solutions with advanced machine learning models, SAFE is uniquely positioned to explore massive, sensitive healthcare data across diverse sources and modalities. SAFE is led by Xiaoqian Jiang, PhD.
Health Data Science & Clinical Informatics
→ SAFE
The Center for Translational AI Excellence and Applications in Medicine (TEAM-AI) focuses on accelerating the translation of AI innovations in biomedicine and healthcare. The Center consists of faculty members, program managers/coordinators, data scientists and scientific programmers. The activities carried out by the team range from advancing AI innovations through big data, empowering biomedical and clinical sciences through team science collaboration and best practices, to building human-centered, value-added, and evidence-based tools, resources, and services to facilitate real-world implementation of said innovations. Ongoing projects at the center include open health natural language processing (OHNLP), cohort identification and computational phenotyping, EHR-based predictive modeling, real-world data analytics, and development of a learning healthcare system supporting precision medicine for rare disease, mental health, and cancer. TEAM-AI is led by Hongfang Liu, PhD.
→ TEAM-AI
National Center for Cognitive Informatics and Decision Making in Healthcare (NCCD) was funded by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT under the Strategic Health IT Advanced Research Projects (SHARP) Program, which seeks to support improvements in the quality, safety, and efficiency of health care through advanced information technology. The NCCD is led by Amy Franklin, PhD.
Clinical Informatics & Health Data Science
→ NCCD
The UTHealth Biomedical Informatics Group Analytics Research Center (BIG-Arc) seeks to leverage biomedical data for clinical/translational research and clinical care by obtaining, integrating, analyzing, and making sense of data. This work is done through existing tools (e.g., NLP, REDCap, etc.) and the creation of new tools (e.g., eMPI, BIGTXT, etc.), as well as services (e.g., enhanced subject recruitment, HIPAA and security, IRB, and data access), programming and application development (e.g., multiple project-specific applications for researchers), and research (e.g., CTSA-funded projects, data visualization, record-linking, scanned documents, precision oncology, and decision support, etc.). BIG-Arc is a component of the national network of CTSA Groups. It is led by Elmer Bernstam, MD, MSE.
→ BIG-Arc
The CPRIT UTHealth Cancer Genomics Center (CGC) seeks to provide next-generation sequencing (e.g., study design, DNA/RNA preparation, etc.), advanced bioinformatics (e.g., NGS and array data analysis, gene set enrichment analysis, etc.), and other key services (e.g., grant proposal development, NGS training, etc.) benefiting cancer investigators at UTHealth, the Texas Medical Center, and elsewhere, throughout the state of Texas. The CGC is led by Zhongming Zhao, PhD, MS.
Bioinformatics
→ CGC
Center for Digital Health and Analytics (DHA) is part of the UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics. Our work is driven by research in Human Factors, Cognitive Informatics, Behavior Science, Connected Health Technologies, and Clinical Decision Making in Healthcare. In addition to research, grant collaborations, mentoring and training, we provide fee for service to develop and implement clinical and patient centered applications, and product development in digital healthcare and analytics. The DHA is led by Amy Franklin, PhD.
Applied Clinical Informatics
→ DHA
McWilliams School of Biomedical Informatics at UTHealth Houston Data Science and Informatics Core for Cancer Research (DSICCR) provides expertise in genomics, proteomics, imaging analysis, complex systems modeling, electronic health record mining, clinical data warehouse creation, and clinical decision making. In addition, the center is proficient in configuring, deploying, and maintaining the large-scale hardware and software infrastructures necessary to cutting-edge health data science and informatics research. DSICCR has the unique ability to employ data science and informatics approaches in support of multi-scale cancer research and clinical projects that generate heterogeneous datasets especially, for projects that focus on understanding cancer through the integration of different data modalities. DSICCR is led by W. Jim Zheng, PhD.
Data Science, Clinical Informatics & Bioinformatics
→ DSICCR
The University of Texas Health Intelligence Platform (UT-HIP) is a program designed to integrate and analyze health data from The University of Texas System’s six health institutions and two medical schools. Working collaboratively across the system and drawing on the expertise of UT healthcare leaders, health data science is used to improve the patient’s care experience, enhance the health of populations served by UT institutions, and reduce the overall cost of health care across the system. At the UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics, UT-HIP is led by Coordinating Center Director, Robert Murphy, MD.
Clinical Informatics & Health Data Science
→ UT-HIP
The UTHealth School of Biomedical Informatics (SBMI) created the Informatics Innovation (I2) Lab in response to an increased demand for informatics-related assistance from the health industry and research partners. At the I2 Lab, graduate-level students, our world-renowned SBMI faculty and corporate and nonprofit partners collaborate to develop cutting-edge technology solutions to real-world informatics problems. The I2 Lab is led by Susan Fenton, PhD.
→ I2 Lab