Summary

Objectives: The purpose of this paper is to describe biomedical informatics training at the University of Wisconsin-Madison (UWMadison). Methods: We reviewed biomedical informatics training, research, and faculty/trainee participation at UW-Madison. Results: There are three primary approaches to training 1) The Computation & Informatics in Biology & Medicine Training Program, 2) formal biomedical informatics offered by various campus departments, and 3) individualized programs. Training at UW-Madison embodies the features of effective biomedical informatics training recommended by the American College of Medical Informatics that were delineated as: 1) curricula that integrate experiences among computational sciences and application domains, 2) individualized and interdisciplinary crosstraining among a diverse cadre of trainees to develop key competencies that he or she does not initially possess, 3) participation in research and development activities, and 4) exposure to a range of basic informational and computational sciences. Conclusions: The three biomedical informatics training approaches immerse students in multidisciplinary training and education that is supported by faculty trainers who participate in collaborative research across departments. Training is provided across a range of disciplines and available at different training stages. Biomedical informatics training at UW-Madison illustrates how a large research University, with multiple departments across biological, computational and health fields, can provide effective and productive biomedical informatics training via multiple bioinformatics training approaches.