20 Years of Biomedical Informatics Graduate Education at OHSU

Earlier this month was graduation at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), and I was proud to see 41 individuals listed in the program receiving Graduate Certificates as well as master’s and PhD degrees in biomedical informatics. This year also marks the 20th year of the program, dating back to the first group of master’s degree students matriculating in the fall of 1996. (OHSU already had been funded as part of the National Library of Medicine [NLM] training grant program since 1992, but initially only accepted non-degree postdoc trainees. I also launched my introductory course prior to 1996 as an elective in the OHSU Master of Public Health program.)

The program has achieved many milestones, but clearly the most important is the number of people who have launched careers in the field by graduating from the program. As shown in the table below, the OHSU Biomedical Informatics Graduate Program now has awarded 716 degrees and certificates to 653 people. (Some of the latter have more than one of the former.)

Later this year will be the celebration of another milestone for informatics at OHSU, which will be the celebration of 25 years of the Biomedical Information Communication Center (BICC) Building. I have worked in this building since the day it opened and look forward to celebrating the sustained success of its occupants, especially the Department of Medical Informatics & Clinical Epidemiology and the OHSU Library.