REU Site: Program for Access to Training in Health Informatics (PATHI)

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The Research Experiences for Undergraduates - Program for Access to Training in Health Informatics (REU-PATHI) will provide 10 undergraduate students with the opportunity to conduct meaningful health informatics research for a period of 10 weeks in the summer. As a field, health informatics connects science, engineering, social sciences, and multiple other fields towards addressing critical health-related research topics. The REU-PATHI site seeks to broaden participation in health informatics and open new opportunities in this rapidly expanding field. At least 50% of REU-PATHI students will come from groups that are underrepresented in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and Computing fields, including women, members of minority groups, first generation college students, and students attending institutions with limited access to research experiences. Students will be matched with faculty mentors in the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Department of Biomedical Informatics, who will work with students to develop knowledge, skills, and experience in health informatics research. The undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work in one of three health informatics focus areas: 1) Computing, focusing on computationally-intensive topics such as natural language processing, data science, predictive analytics, and data privacy; 2) Precision Health, focusing on topics such as genome-wide and phenome-wide association studies, genomics, and proteomics, and 3) Human-Technology Interaction, applying concepts from human-computer interaction, human factors engineering, and sociotechnical systems to topics such as studying workflow in complex clinical environments and patient safety. Regardless of specific research area, all REU-PATHI students will participate in twice-weekly seminars presented by faculty, computer programming workshops, and other professional development activities. The objectives of the REU-PATHI Site are to engage undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds in meaningful scientific research projects at the nexus of computer science, basic sciences, engineering, social sciences, and health, and to prepare them to become the next generation of researchers identifying, designing, developing, deploying, and studying innovative technology-based solutions for important health-related problems. Health Informatics is one of the fastest growing fields today. However, there are significant challenges in orienting and training diverse undergraduate students to the many career pathways available in this high-impact scientific research field. REU-PATHI addresses this urgent problem by 1) training undergraduate students to conduct cutting-edge health informatics research; 2) introducing students to pathways in health informatics graduate education and research; 3) involving graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty in mentoring undergraduate students; 4) providing opportunities for REU students to disseminate their research to peers, graduate students, faculty, and the field; and 5) linking high school students in our larger internship program to undergraduate peers.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.