Research at the Department of Biomedical Informatics and Data Science (DBIDS) reaches across the biomedical informatics spectrum accelerating and enhancing informatics activities at UAB.

Biomedical informatics (BMI) is defined as the art and science of organizing knowledge of human health and disease and making it useful for problem solving. More specifically, it is the interdisciplinary scientific field that studies the capture, representation and use of biomedical data and knowledge.

BMI draws on the methods of many basic disciplines, such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics and psychology, as well as applied sciences such as medicine, nursing, computer science, cognitive science, pharmacology and allied health sciences.

It includes studies of information and the tools needed to produce and use information that will ultimately lead to greater prevention and treatment of disease and overall improvement in human health. Institute researchers have expertise in bioinformatics, translational informatics, clinical research informatics, and clinical informatics.