Columbia DBMI Summer Research Program

The Columbia Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) Summer Research Program provides rising juniors and seniors in high school and college or university undergraduate students from a wide range of backgrounds (biology, psychology, engineering, computer science, applied mathematics, statistics, etc.) with fundamental knowledge, hands-on skills, and research experience in biomedical informatics and health data science.

The goal of the program is to promote biomedical informatics and health data science as a career choice for young scientists in training. The program takes place in an inclusive research and learning environment. 

The Columbia DBMI Summer Research Program is part of the biomedical informatics training program which targets a broad spectrum of learners. Applications are now being accepted for our 2024 cohort, which will run from July 1 to August 16. The 2024 program will take place both in-person (on campus) and remotely.

Summer Program Testimonials

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Overview

Prathiv Raj Ramesh Babu, a high school student who took part in the 2023 Summer Research Program, earned a Distinguished Poster Award for the poster he collaborated on with Herbert Chase, MD: Multidrug Interactions on Intracranial Hemorrhage in Geriatric Patients.

The Columbia DBMI Summer Research Program lasts six weeks and traditionally takes place in the Collaboration Space at DBMI. In 2023, 12 students joined the program. Two presented posters at the annual American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) Symposium, and Prathiv Raj Ramesh Babu earned an AMIA Distinguished Research Poster honor!

At the end of the program, fellows will have gained computing and research skills, familiarity with the fields of informatics and health data science, experience with real-world, massive health datasets from electronic health records and the data acumen that comes with handling such datasets, along with understanding of the complex ethical and fairness questions inherent to biomedical informatics and health data science research. 

• Research Project: Students will work on a project currently being led by DBMI faculty and graduate students;
• Mini-course: Students will watch and discuss prerecorded lectures with faculty on how biomedical informatics has the potential to improve healthcare outcomes and practice through new knowledge generation;
• Lab Meetings: Students will participate in weekly lab meetings to illuminate the intricacies of how research is conducted;
• Journal Clubs: Students will present recent publications that report on biomedical interventions in healthcare;
• Study Design: Students will study the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics (OHDSI) framework, a clinical data warehouse of more than 800 million patient records, to propose a study of their own choosing;

The 2019 DBMI Summer students visited Watson Health at Astor Place.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) is part of the Graduate School for Arts and Science at Columbia University and the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. Our faculty are affiliated with both the Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the Columbia Data Science Institute.  

Our trainees and faculty come from a wide range of disciplines and are all committed to improving health and healthcare through the use and design of informatics methods and tools. Examples of DBMI research is available here, and include machine learning, causal inference, natural language processing, data assimilation, mobile health, disease phenotyping, technology for shared decision making, large-scale observational data science, and study of health and healthcare disparities.   

The 2023 DBMI Summer Research cohort

Eligibility

Rising juniors and seniors in high school from the New York City area, as well as college or university undergraduates, are invited to apply for the Columbia DBMI Summer Research Program.  

Apply

The application deadline has passed for the 2024 cohort. For more information, please contact Herbert Chase (hc15@cumc.columbia.edu).