Emory University School of Medicine
Emory University School of Medicine
Department of Biomedical Informatics

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Department of Biomedical Informatics

About BMI

Our Mission

As a department in the Emory University School of Medicine, our mission is threefold:

  1.  Educate and train students and postgraduate fellows as leaders in the field
  2.  Advance research in biomedical and health informatics
  3.  Improve health by creating and evaluating novel health care initiatives

We do this by assembling a world-class faculty to drive mission-critical research and shaping collegial relationships with scientists and medical practitioners at Emory and beyond - while advancing health equity and racial and social justice.

An Ideal Setting for Biomedical Informatics

The broader Atlanta region has a remarkable combination of strengths and opportunities to position itself as a leader in biomedical informatics. This discipline incorporates virtually all areas of biomedical, physical, computational and social sciences. And vast research and educational resources in these areas make Emory an ideal setting for it.

World-class Research Groups

Emory has some of the best research groups in the world in cancer, infectious diseases, neurosciences, pathology, psychiatry, human genetics, high-throughput drug discovery, radiology, and more — each actively interested in integrating informatics into their work.

Partnering Big Data and Bench Science with Clinical Care 

Working with clinical partners at Emory Healthcare, our department is combining state-of-the-art machine learning, signal processing, and clinical domain knowledge to position itself as a world leader in streaming analytics, mHealth, quantitative imaging, and quantitative neurophysiology and neuropsychiatry. 

“Our access to healthcare data is unparalleled, and it provides the opportunity to create systems that can be evaluated in a real healthcare setting. We are physically co-located with the hospital, which guarantees a constant flow and easy in-person collaborations with clinical faculty and staff. Nothing beats spending time with the clinicians to understand the flaws in your data analysis and system design.”

— Gari Clifford, DPhil, Department Chair

National-Level Training in Biomedical Informatics

In addition to Emory's Computer Science Department (through our joint CSI program), we have a strong relationship with Georgia Tech through our joint Georgia Tech/Emory top-ranked biomedical engineering program and Georgia Tech's Machine Learning program, which help drive some of the best students in the world to our door. If you are interested in applying on any of these programs, please see the links above.

Emory’s association with the Centers for Disease Control, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, American Cancer Society, Georgia Institute of Technology, Morehouse School of Medicine, and other institutions in the Atlanta Metro area, provides distinct opportunities for biomedical informatics training at the national level. These regional assets set a unique stage for joint training opportunities, coursework, and hands-on research experience in medicine, informatics, public health, and computer science.

Growing Our Department

Established in 2011, the Biomedical Informatics Department is relatively small, with just over 70 researchers operating like an agile institute or startup. But we’re expanding rapidly, doubling our research income in the past year alone.

We’re always looking for faculty, postdocs, and students to complement the unique skill sets of our faculty members. If you’re interested in joining us, please reach out to bmi@emory.edu with your CV and interests.