Doctor of Philosophy in Biomedical Data Science & Informatics

The Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Biomedical Data Science & Informatics program is a joint program offered by Clemson University and MUSC, bringing together Clemson's strengths in computing, engineering, and public health and MUSC's expertise in biomedical sciences. The program prepares students to analyze large-scale data, such as electronic health records, biomedical texts, bio-sensor and imaging data, and omics data and perform research in prescriptive analytics. This interdisciplinary program is designed for full-time students with undergraduate or graduate biomedical sciences, computer science, engineering, or mathematics backgrounds who wish to make a contribution to the biomedical sciences.

Curriculum

Each student will work with the graduate coordinator, academic advisor, and dissertation committee to construct a program of study that conforms to the requirements outlined below and takes into account both the student’s prior preparation and intended research area. In cases where the student comes to the program with prior coursework in a required area, the graduate coordinator may approve a substitution. In cases where a student lacks pre-requisites for a required course, the student will be asked to complete both the pre-requisite coursework and the required course. Because the curriculum will be tailored to each student, the time needed to complete the degree will vary, but in general, it is expected that students can complete the degree in five years or less. 

Area	Area Title	Credits
I	Biomedical Informatics Foundations & Applications	15-18
II	Computing, Math, Statistics, & Engineering	18-20
III	Population Health, Health Systems, & Policy	5-6
IV	Domain Biology & Medicine	3-4
V	Seminars, Lab Rotations, & Research Hours	26
Curriculum Total		67-74

Additional requirements include passing a qualifying exam, a dissertation proposal, and ultimately a dissertation and its defense.

Students will have a designated "home institution" -- either Clemson or MUSC -- at which they will be physically located. However, all students in this program will take graduate classes from both institutions. Students will not be required to travel between campuses as courses will be made available to students both on-campus and via synchronous remote capability. Courses will be offered at the Clemson main campus, MUSC main campus, the University Center at Greenville, and the Zucker Family Graduate Education Center (on CURI campus, North Charleston).

This doctoral program is a research degree. Students will pursue one of three track specialty areas which include precision medicine, population health, and clinical and translational informatics. All students will have the opportunity to work directly with one or more program faculty members on research related to data science and informatics. Doctoral students will be immersed in the research environment and will actively engage in authoring research proposals, conducting research, writing abstracts and manuscripts, and presenting research findings. 

Curriculum

Area I: Biomedical Informatics Foundations & Applications

Course ID	Course Title	Credits
Research Foundations (Choose one)
BDSI8210	Health Research I	3
DHA805	Qualitative Methods	3
HIN708	Applied Statistical & Research Methods	3
Biomedical Informatics Foundations
BDSI701	Introduction to Biomedical Informatics	3
BDSI702	Biomedical Data Standards & Terminologies	3
HIN702	Introduction to Health Care Information Systems	3
Track Specific (Choose one)
BDSI711	Precision Medicine Informatics	3
BDSI712	Clinical & Translational Informatics	3
BDSI8900	Population Health Informatics*	3
BDSI###	Clinical Decision Support Systems*	3
Electives (Choose one to two, minimum 3 credits)
BDSI731	Microbiome Informatics	2
BDSI732	Health Enterprise Analytics	2
BDSI775	Systematic & Scoping Reviews	3
BMTRY783	Statistical Methods for Bioinformatics	2
CPSC8450	Bioinformatics Algorithms*	3
BDSI###	Panomics	3
BDSI###	Consumer & Quantified Self	2
Area Total		15-16

Area II: Computing, Math, Statistics, & Engineering

Course ID	Course Title	Credits
Systems & Database Management (Choose two)
BDSI6140	Human & Computer Interaction*	3
CPSC 6550	Computational Science: Methods & Software Systems*	3
BDSI6620	Database Management System*	3
BDSI8200	Parallel Architectures*	3
BDSI8470	Introduction to Information Retrieval*	3
CPSC 8490	Principles of Scientific Computing*	3
CPSC 8620	Database Management System Design*	3
CPSC 8700	Software Design*	3
BDSI8710	Foundations of Software Engineering*	3
ECE 6730	Introduction to Parallel Systems*	3
BDSI6780	General Purpose Computation on GPUs*	3
ECE 8780	High-Performance Computing with GPUs*	3
BDSI8310	Fundamentals of Human-Centered Computing*	3
BDSI8000	Human Factors Engineering*	3
Math (Choose one)
BMTRY700	Introduction to Clinical Biostatistics	4
BDSI8050	Data Analysis*	3
BDSI8010	Statistical Methods*	3
Machine Learning & Data Science (Choose one)
BDSI721	Applied Machine Learning	3
BDSI6300	Applied Data Science*	3
BDSI6420	Artificial Intelligence*	3
BDSI6430	Machine Learning: Implementation & Evaluation*	3
CPSC 8420	Advanced Machine Learning*	3
Other (Choose two)
BDSI722	Clinical Natural Language Processing	2-3
BDSI6310	Medical Imaging*	3
BMTRY701	Biostatistical Methods II	4
BMTRY719	Bayesian Biostatistics	3
BDSI6030	Data Visualization*	3
BDSI8031	Scientific Visualization*	3
BDSI8380	Advanced Data Structure*	3
CPSC 8400	Design & Analysis of Algorithms*	3
BDSI8430	Deep Learning*	3
CPSC 8480	Network Science*	3
BDSI8650	Data Mining*	3
ECE 6310	Introduction to Computer Vision*	3
ECE 6420	Knowledge Engineering*	3
ECE 6670	Introduction to Digital Signal Processing*	3
ECE 8470	Digital Image Processing*	3
ECE 8560	Pattern Recognition*	3
BDSI8310A	Quantitative Analysis in Health Research I*	3
IE 8030	Engineering Optimization & Applications*	3
BDSI6410	Introduction to Stochastic Methods*	3
MATH 8070	Applied Multivariate Statistical Analysis*	3
BDSI###	GIS & Mapping for Public Health*	3
PADM 8420	GIS for Public Administrators*	3
STAT 6020	Introduction to Statistical Computing*	3
STAT 8190	Biostatistics*	3
Area Total		18

Area III: Population Health, Health Systems, & Policy

Course ID	Course Title	Credits
Choose two (titles must be different)
BMTRY736	Foundations of Epidemiology I	3
BMTRY738	Field Epidemiology I	3
BMTRY747	Foundations of Epidemiology II	3
DHA807	Managing Healthcare Information	3
DHA850	Population Health Management	3
HAP632	Quality Management of Health Services	3
HAP704	Health Policy	3
HAP735	Health Law & Risk Management	3
HIN716	Informatics	3
BDSI###	Health Economics*	3
BDSI###	Epidemiology*	3
BDSI8100	Health Policy*	3
BDSI8110	Health Care Delivery Systems*	3
BDSI###	Population Health & Research*	2
BDSI###	Health Systems Quality Improvement*	2
HLTH 8900	Clinical Decision Support Systems*	3
Area Total		5-6

Area IV: Domain Biology/Medicine

Course ID	Course Title	Credits
Choose one
BCHM 6360	Molecular Biology: Genes to Proteins*	3
BCHM 6430	Molecular Basis for Disease*	3
BCHM 8140	Advanced Biochemistry*	3
BIOE 8460	Biomedical Basis for Engineered Replacement*	3
BIOL 6030	Introduction to Applied Genomics*	3
BIOL 8000	Concepts in Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology*	3
BIOL 8010	Concepts in Molecular, Cellular, and Developmental Biology*	3
CGS766	Genes: Inheritance & Expression	4
CGS767	Cells: Organization & Communication	3
CHE 8450	Systems Biology & Pharmacology*	3
GEN 6050	Molecular Genetics of Eukaryotes*	3
GEN 6100	Population & Quantitative Genetics*	3
GEN 6200	Molecular Genetics & Gene Regulation*	3
BDSI6400	Bioinformatics*	3
GEN 8060	Molecular Diagnostics & Pathogen Genomics*	3
GEN 8140	Advanced Genetics*	3
GEN 8200	Genomics & Proteomics*	3
GEN 8450	Advanced Medical Bioinformatics*	3
GEN 8900	Introduction to Quantitative Genetics*	3
GEN 8900	Regulatory Genomics*	3
HCG 9150	Principles of Pharmacogenomics*	3
MATH 9810	Statistical Genetics*	3
MICRO 8130	Practical Bioinformatics for Microbiologists*	3
PHYS 8190	Computational Biophysics*	3
Area Total		3-4

Area V: Seminars, Lab Rotations, & Research Hours

Course ID	Course Title	Credits
Seminars
BDSI700	Seminar	1
BDSI700	Seminar	1
BDSI700	Seminar	1
BDSI700	Seminar	1
Lab Rotations
BDSI720	Lab Rotation	2
BDSI720	Lab Rotation	2
Research Hours
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
BDSI970	Dissertation Research	3
Area Total		26

* This course is delivered through Clemson University as part of a joint Biomedical Data Science and Informatics program.