Portland State University and Oregon Health & Science University offer an accelerated, collaborative degree program in Biomedical Informatics. Designed for high achieving freshmen, students in this program combine PSU and OHSU courses to receive both a B.S. Computer Science degree and a Master of Science in Biomedical Informatics degree at the end of five years.
What is Biomedical Informatics?
Biomedical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field which combines knowledge of biology, computer science, informatics and information engineering to assist in the management of health and biomedical information. Modern medicine has spawned this new spectrum of interdisciplinary scientists who have a combined understanding of computer and biological sciences in order to advance research and medical discovery at unprecedented rates and levels.
Biomedical Informatics played a leading role in research successes such as the mapping of human genes, also known as the human genome project. Projects of this type require data analysis and computing expertise as well as medical research talent to analyze and manage billions of data elements. Scientists and scientific institutes around the globe now include these technology experts as leading contributors to advanced research teams. The field of biomedical informatics is a fast growing and highly sought area in medical science.
According to Merriam Webster, informatics is "the collection, classification, storage, retrieval, and dissemination of recorded knowledge treated both as a pure and as an applied science." Click here for more information.
Program Overview
Biomedical Informatics graduates are in high demand. Alumni of the program enter a broad range of career fields including: research, teaching, health care information technology, biomedical information applications programming, and health care computing industry.
The Biomedical Informatics program is designed for high-achieving high school applicants with an interest in Biology and Computer Science. They must meet the following requirements:
- Minimum 3.5 cumulative GPA
- 1200 combined SAT / 26 composite ACT
- Minimum 3.0 GPA in all high school mathematics courses
- Successful completion of pre-calculus and physics
Students begin taking courses from OHSU during their fourth year, and by their fifth year, they are taking courses exclusively from the OHSU Biomedical Informatics program. Successful students in the Biomedical Informatics program maintain a minimum PSU cumulative 3.0 GPA. In addition, they will have received a verbal score of 500 or above, quantitative score of 600 or above and an analytical score of 4.0/600 or above on the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) by the beginning of their fourth year.
Upon successful completion of the GRE and required Portland State coursework, students begin taking courses at Oregon Health & Science University in their third or fourth year. By the end of the fourth year, all courses will be taken at OHSU. Successful students will receive both a B.S. Computer Science and an M.S. Biomedical Informatics degree at the end of five years.
See a sample 5-year program schedule.
For more information, contact the CS Undergraduate Advisor (uccs@pdx.edu).