The Indiana Training Program in Public & Population Health Informatics

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Project Summary / Abstract The Indiana Training Program in Public & Population Health (PPH) Informatics trains the next generation of pioneering PPH informatics researchers, faculty, and leaders, prepared to advance the state of knowledge in the field and conduct research over the course of their careers that uses biomedical informatics and data science to advance the health of the U.S. population. Over the past five years, our program has trained 12 PPH informatics researchers who are helping modernize the nation’s public health infrastructure and strengthen approaches to managing and analyzing population health data. Building on these and other successes, including the establishment of a vibrant and flourishing educational, institutional, and technical infrastructure to support these trainees, we are now positioned to grow our program and its value as outlined in this application for competitive renewal. The program continues to have two overarching goals: 1) train predoctoral and postdoctoral scientists for successful careers in PPH informatics research; and 2) recruit and graduate high-caliber trainees with diverse backgrounds, races/ethnicities, and research disciplines. Our program equips trainees with advanced data and information science skills to address biomedical informatics research challenges in the context of public and population health. Predoctoral trainees pursue a PhD in epidemiology, health policy and management, or biostatistics with a doctoral minor in population health analytics. Postdoctoral trainees obtain further training that includes a research-oriented master’s degree if they lack prior training in PPH informatics. The educational program for all trainees consists of coursework; a substantial research project culminating in dissertation for PhD students and thesis for master's students; purposeful mentorship and guidance in meeting training goals; and associated publications, presentations, and other academic activities related to their research with expert faculty mentors. In this next funding cycle, we propose to train a steady state of 9 predoctoral trainees and 5 postdoctoral trainees, including two trainees focused on HIV research. Overall, we aim to build on our past successes by: 1) expanding the number of trainees served by our program; 2) expanding coursework and research experiences in the area of clinical informatics, including a focus on training HIV researchers who can apply PPH informatics methods to enhance surveillance and care for people living with HIV; 3) improving coursework in the areas of data science and analytics; and 4) expanding and achieving greater diversity among our faculty and trainees.