The Doctoral Degree in Biomedical Informatics

The Ph.D.

Biomedical Informatics Training Program's Research Focus

All prospective degree candidates should note that the program in Biomedical Informatics emphasizes research in novel computational methods aimed at advancing biology and medicine. The Biomedical Informatics program focuses on investigating new approaches to conceptual modeling in biology and medicine and on developing new algorithms to address challenging problems in these fields. Students who are seeking graduate work in biology that emphasizes computation or who wish to use computational methods in their pursuit of research questions in the natural sciences; consider programs offered in departments such as Genetics, Structural Biology, Developmental Biology or another of the many Biosciences programs. Faculty from all of these departments have research projects of a computational nature.

The Ph.D. is a full-time, residential, research-oriented program in Biomedical Informatics which supports a diverse pool of candidates. Some students enter with advanced training, typically these are medical degrees, the MD, RN, MPH although other students may enter the program with Masters degrees in other fields. Many students enter the program with their B.A/B.S. Please note, we do not accept candidates who already hold the Ph.D. into the Ph.D program except under extremely unusual circumstances (See the postdoctoral programs instead).

What about students interested in other application areas of informatics beyond biology?

We would like to invite applicants with a wide variety of interests to apply to the Biomedical Informatics program. Stanford has major strengths in computer science, decision sciences, imaging informatics, and health services research. Active topics of research include: building semantic web models of clinical and biological relationships; creating model-driven architectures for application areas such as clinical trials research, and advances in the field of translational bioinformatics through the combination of multiple datasets. For more details on these and other research areas, please see the research blurbs and the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research (BMIR) and research lab descriptions, the Stanford Center for Clinical informatics , the Radiological Sciences Laboratory, the Helix group and the links associated with Biomedical Informatics associated faculty. In addition, several national labs are hosted at Stanford in relationship to these research efforts.

The goals of the Biomedical Informatics program and the faculty associated with the program are described in this website and at the Biosciences pages.

Continued on the next panel. For more information about differences between the PhD and the Masters, click "Educational Goals" on the tabs above.

Is the PhD the right degree program for you?

The doctoral program is primarily intended for those who seek a research-oriented career path. The progam accepts a diverse pool of applicants into the PhD program. A typical cohort of incoming students for any particular year might contain

• Students with a bachelors degree in biology, medicine, computer science, chemistry, statistics or other mathematical degrees and so forth
• Students with more advanced training: a Masters degree, typically in the life sciences, health care, computer science, computational sciences, mathematics or other
• Students at the postdoctoral level: MD's, RN's and in rare instances, PhD's who desire cross-training.

Educational outcomes follow the mission of the program: about half of our students obtain jobs as faculty at Universities and colleges, the other half obtain research-oriented positions in industry, government or health care. Since informatics can be applied to a broad class of problems which spans many fields, a few of our graduates have gone onto diverse careers, such as, investment banking. The best way to determine the impact of this training is to review our alumni webpages and their career outcomes.

Continued on the next panel. For more information about requirements for the PhD, click "Degree Requirements" on the tabs above.

Requirements for the PhD

The doctoral program is a full-time, residential, research-oriented program, and all students are expected to register as formal degree candidates once candidacy has been granted. The Biomedical Informatics program does not offer part-time distance education leading to the Ph.D. However, some students have applied to the part-time distance education Masters program in Biomedical Informatics, completed the requirements for the Masters and then submitted a separate application to the Ph.D. program. There is no guarantee that Masters graduates will be accepted into the PhD program.

The requirements for obtaining a doctoral degree follow those of the university and are tailored to fit the background and interests of each student. Ph.D. students may only matriculate in the fall quarter. They spend an average of five years at Stanford and are expected to undertake significant research projects. The philosophy behind the Biomedical Informatics program is that leaders in the field will receive broad exposure through intensive research training as well as rigorous coursework.

Candidates are encouraged to explore the various research interests of the biomedical informatics core and participating faculty. Lab rotations during the first year are strongly encouraged. Prior to being formally admitted to candidacy for the doctoral degree at the end of the second year of study, each student must demonstrate knowledge of informatics fundamentals and a potential for succeeding in research by passing a qualifying oral examination. Students must complete and defend a doctoral dissertation around the fifth year.

Doctoral students are required to take a minimum of 135 units in Biomedical Informatics, Biomedical Domain Knowledge, Computer Science, Probability, Statistics, and Social and Ethical Issues.

Continued on the next panel. For more information about funding, click "Funding Sources" on the tabs above.

Biomedical Informatics Funding

The National Library of Medicine Training Grant

The Biomedical Informatics Training Program supports full-time masters (post-doctoral only) and doctoral students through a training grant award from the National Library of Medicine (NLM) at the National Institutes of Health. Our current NLM funding provides support for two post-doctoral trainees, and for 16 pre-doctoral students. Students who are funded by the NLM receive a portion of their Stanford tuition from this grant; the remaining tuition needed for 10 units per quarter plus ½ time research is paid from other (non-government) funds. Health insurance is also covered by the grant. Predoctoral students entering the program in 2010 will receive a stipend of $30,136/year; $20,976 of this is paid by the NLM. Postdocs are paid according to their years of experience after receiving the doctoral degree.

Students entering the program as predocs may also be medical students, although their NLM stipends and tuition costs are paid only while they are working on the Biomedical Informatics degree. The NLM training grant requires all M.S. and Ph.D. students to complete a research project. Students on the NLM training grant must be US citizens or permanent residents.

The Stanford Graduate Fellowship

Stanford University offers the Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF). This award is open to all PhD applicants in all departments and programs regardless of citizenship. As you can imagine the competition is intense. Masters applicants are not eligible. For the most part, this is the only source of Fellowship funding for international applicants.

Other Sources of Funding

On rare occasions, faculty will express willingness to fund a student directly from their research funds. This generally happens when there is an unusually good fit between the applicant's background and the faculty member's research interests. In those instances when an offer is made, the candidate will be mentored by the faculty for the first year of their graduate career. After the first year, the candidate is free to continue with their original mentor or to find an alternate research mentor. Please note, at the time of this writing, research funds are tightly restricted and changing mentors may present great financial difficulty.

Continued on the next panel. Click "Application Instructions" on the tab above to learn how to apply to the program.

Application Instructions

Please note these deadlines and procedures are for the PhD in Biomedical Informatics only. For the deadlines and procedures for the other graduate degree progams in Biomedical Informatics, please refer to the application instructions for that program.

The deadline to submit your application materials for the Ph.D. program is Dec. 1, 2011. If you have more than one document to submit (i.e., BMI supplemental application form and CV), stitch the documents together and submit them as one upload.

All prospective degree candidates should note that one of the most important admissions criteria is the fit between your interests and the program's research focus.

PhD applicants should apply to the Biomedical Informatics program via Biosciences Admissions Program. Through Biosciences you may apply to as many as three PhD programs within the School of Medicine. For more details, see the Biosciences Admissions process. In addition to the information requested on the Biosciences admissions page (e.g, application, and Biosciences supplement), students interested in the Biomedical Informatics program must fill out a Biomedical Informatics specific supplemental form:

Download the Biomedical Informatics PhD Supplemental Application Form Here

Additional information is available on the help pages. Search these pages using our Search engine (see the left hand navigation bar).

If materials are missing or have not been received, the Biomedical Informatics Admissions Officer will notify the applicant by January. All applicants will be notified the end of March.

The Biomedical Informatics PhD Supplemental form can be uploaded with the rest of the applications materials at the Graduate Admissions website.

Contact information:

Biomedical Informatics Admissions Officer
Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research
Stanford University School of Medicine, MSOB X-215
1265 Welch Road, MC: 5479
Stanford, CA 94305-5479

Continued on the next panel. For more information about other graduate programs in Biomedical Informatics around the country, click "Beyond Stanford" on the tab above.

Biomedical Informatics Training Beyond Stanford

The National Library of Medicine funds Biomedical Informatics Research Training Programs across the United States. Biomedical Informatics is a broad field and each program has its own strengths, take different approachs and focus on different problems in the field.

The Fogarty International Center funds Informatics Training for Global Health. Through the ITGH programs the Fogarty seeks to address the shortage of research capacity in low and middle income countries.

The Sloan Foundation funds innovative programs in Science and Engineering. The Professional Science Masters are new masters degree programs for students interested in scientific careers in industry.