Biomedical Informatics - Research Masters Degree

The Research Master of Arts degree in Biomedical Informatics prepares trainees for research positions in health care, biomedical research, education, and industry. This is our post-doctoral fellowship program, which is open to U.S. citizens and immigrants who have a doctoral degree (generally in one of the health professions) and are eligible for post doctoral support from our training grant. The program can be pursued only on a full-time basis, requiring at least two years of study. The first two years are generally devoted to coursework and research, and culminate in the oral examination. Course approval forms are to be completed by the students and their academic advisor at the beginning of each semester. Progress in the Research Masters program is tracked each semester using a set of standard reporting forms.

Curriculum

Students must complete a minimum of 30 units of Columbia University instruction at the 4000 level or higher, address any admission deficiencies, and complete two residence units (the equivalent of two full-time semesters). The following table shows the minimum number of courses required to meet the program's educational objectives. Students who meet biomedical, computational, or mathematical objectives through prior graduate preparation are not required to take further courses in these areas. Students must consult with their academic advisors to determined such placement, to choose appropriate courses to meet core objectives, and to choose electives in one of the four specialization tracks: bioinformatics, bioimaging, clinical informatics, or population informatics.

Research Project

Research is the primary focus of the RMA degree, and accordingly represents half of the required points. RMA students enroll in the research project course (G6001) for 6 points per semester in the first year, and 9 points per semester in the second year. They are expected to work at least 20-30 hours/week under the direction of one a faculty advisor to gain experience in posing scientific hypotheses, conducting experiments, building information systems, and measuring impact. The research is not considered complete until the student has finished a formal paper on the topic (G6091), one that the research preceptor believes is suitable for submission to a peer-reviewed journal. Biomedical informatics papers must be more than system descriptions; students are encouraged to extract general lessons and principles and to communicate what they have learned in a form so that others in the field may draw on their results.

Additional Requirements

Research Masters students are expected to participate in the teaching activities of the department, and must enroll in two points of teaching experience (G8010). In addition, they are expected to attend the weekly Student Seminar (G4098) and Research Seminar (G4099). They will also give a presentation, generally once per year, in the student seminar.