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

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The REU 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. Health informatics connects science, engineering, social sciences, and multiple other fields to identify, design, develop, deploy, and study innovative technology-based solutions for important health-related problems. The REU-PATHI site seeks to broaden participation in health informatics and open new opportunities in this rapidly expanding field. Health Informatics is one of the fastest growing fields today. At least 50% of REU-PATHI students will come from groups that are underrepresented in STEM-C 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 objectives of the REU-PATHI Site are to engage undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds in meaningful scientific research projects. 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 biomedical data science, predictive analytics, natural language processing, and data privacy; 2) Precision Health, focusing on topics such as genome-phenome studies, multi-omics analysis, phenotype risk scoring, and clinical decision support and 3) Human-Technology Interaction, applying concepts from human-computer interaction, human factors engineering, and sociotechnical systems to topics such as studying workflow and patient safety. Regardless of specific research area, all REU-PATHI students will participate in twice-weekly seminars presented by faculty, professional development workshops, a team-based design challenge, and other professional development activities. 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 and giving them the skills, knowledge, and confidence to pursue those pathways; 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 to help high school students understand next educational steps.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.