This summer, the University of Wisconsin Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (ICTR) and the UW School of Medicine and Public Health further expanded their commitment to medical informatics by launching the UW Clinical and Health Informatics Institute (CHI2) to serve as a new home for the services provided by the ICTR Biomedical Informatics (BMI) group.
Over the past decade, continuing growth in the importance of informatics to clinical and translational research has been matched by a substantive investment from School of Medicine and Public Health, ICTR and UW Health for informatics infrastructure and support systems.
New name, expanded services
Not just a name change, the new Clinical and Health Informatics Institute portfolio will also include developing educational offerings in informatics and providing an intellectual home for affiliated faculty to collaborate on innovative projects. These affiliates will include both existing faculty and scientists, plus targeted hires partially supported by the School of Medicine and Public Health and housed in established campus departments.
Investigators can still access BMI services in the same way by completing an online consult form, or continue to request services online through ServiceNow if the researcher has UW Health credentials, according to Umberto Tachinardi, MD, CHI2 executive scientific director.
The Clinical and Health Informatics Institute’s existing service lines include the Clinical Research Data Service, Research Computing Platform and i2b2, among others. BMI staff will also continue to test and launch new service lines, such as the recent offering of QlikView.
The added support for the Clinical and Health Informatics Institute has also provided an opportunity for BMI to enhance its service lines by hiring a dedicated program manager, according to Tachinardi.
“This is an exciting time for informatics at UW,” he said. “CHI2 represents a real investment by the ICTR-SMPH-UW Health partnership in creating an academic home for informatics at UW. Stay tuned!”
School of Medicine and Public Health and ICTR news outlets will be sharing updated information about new faculty affiliated with CHI2 and the availability of credit and non-credit educational offerings. More information will also be provided at a town hall session planned for early winter.
A complete list of informatics services available for research can be found on the ICTR website.
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