hand holding stethoscope with abstract illustration of data network concept

Research

Program in Health Sciences Informatics

The Program in Health Sciences Informatics leverages the collective strengths at the University of Chicago in medicine, biomedical informatics, and computer science to develop novel and transformational methods for analyzing high-dimensional complex healthcare data. 

The convergence of medicine and computer science has revolutionized health care, with innovations such as high-performance computing, the pervasive availability of electronic health records, and large volumes of community- and population-level data. The solution lies in the application of computational methods not traditionally leveraged for healthcare data. By bringing together physician scientists and computational scientists, enormous amounts of structured and unstructured clinical data, and high-performance infrastructure, healthcare discoveries can be realized at unprecedented scale. 

Learn more by contacting us at phsi@bsd.uchicago.edu.

image

Methods

While machine learning methods have been productively applied to healthcare data, there is now a unique opportunity to leverage techniques not traditionally applied to biological systems to provide novel ways of understanding disease and health. By fostering new collaborations and team science across the University and the national laboratories at Argonne, Fermi, and the Marine Biological Lab, new and exciting innovations in informatics will be developed.

Data

Through PHSI, researchers will create opportunities for integrating data (genomic and biomarker data, medical and pathology images, health outcome and clinical information, as well as healthcare factors) and democratizing access to new and exciting disparate sources of healthcare information.

Sam Volchenboum at a computer screen with a student

Faculty

PHSI offers an ecosystem in which researchers can work closely together to utilize healthcare data for research and develop and test novel algorithms for analysis. The PHSI research team helps to facilitate faculty grant applications, establish research project staffing, and write peer-reviewed articles.

Our Faculty

Program Director

Sam Volchenboum

Sam Volchenboum, MD, PhD

Dean for Master’s Education and Associate Professor of Pediatrics

seminar speaker and audience

Speaker Series

The BSD Office for Master’s Education sponsors the Computational Life Sciences Seminar Series (CLSSS).

Since 2017, CLSSS has served to highlight research in the fields of bioinformatics and computational life sciences, foster collaborations, and provide a broad audience for feedback on current research. The format of the series is flexible (e.g., standard seminars, lightning talks, etc.), and seminars feature both University of Chicago researchers and guest speakers from other institutions. CLSSS talks are open to faculty, students, and researchers throughout the University of Chicago community. An archive of past talks is available on the CLSSS website.