CAREER IN THE NEW DECADE

Biomedical Informatics is an academic discipline that bridges medicine and information sciences. With the increasing popularity of IT biomedical informatics is making its presence felt in a big way.


"The role of IT in healthcare has become increasingly necessary for modern practices in medicine, efficient and effective management of healthcare and professional health education. Health professionals recognize an urgent need for skilled scientists who are knowledgeable about both medical environment and information technologies," says Dr. Kumud Sarin, head of the department, Biotechnology and Bioinformatics, Bioinformatics Institute of India (BII), Noida.

For the uninitiated, Biomedical Informatics is the combination of theoretical foundations and the current range of applications within contemporary delivery system. It focuses on structure, algorithms and design of efficient logic necessar2y to organize, store and retrieve as well as analyses the data. It is emphasizing to produce knowledge and under-standing about cognition and representation of biomedical knowledge, management of health care systems, clinical decision making, research, design and development of interactive multimedia systems.

Talking about the program offered by BII, Dr. Sarin says: "The purpose of the program in Biomedical Informatics is to prepare students in the applications of computer and information sciences to support and manage and healthcare activities." These can range from those pertaining to the care of the sick to health promotion and disease prevention, medical and health education, health sciences research and management efforts directed towards solutions of problems in the delivery of health care, including resource optimization and cost-effectiveness.

Those interested in making a career out of a degree in Biomedical Informatics would be delighted to know that its applications are rapidly increasing in healthcare and hospital management systems, laboratory automation, quality assurance, financial management and resource allocation, health services and biomedical research. They can also find placements in clinical decision making, treatment monitoring, networking and registration systems, information storage, retrieval and database management systems, simulation and modeling, pattern recognition, biomedical signal and image processing, and health education, research and support systems.

In terms of a professional career, there are several areas within the field where a qualified person can find opportunities. Data management and information analysis apart, there is scope for placement in medical imaging, enabling telemedicine, genomic mapping, systems and software development, and knowledge management. With respect to those with a professional degree in healthcare, job opportunities are available as consultants with management consulting firms, hospital record managers, data analysts, librarians, and positions with the state health departments.

Careers abound in professional companies that offer end-to-end solutions in Biomedical Informatics for medical facilities including setting up systems for IT-enabled clinical practices, medical/diagnostics decision support systems, multimedia healthcare solutions, healthcare content management, clinical knowledge architecture and sharing of healthcare knowledge between different healthcare groups.

The subject also involves the design and statistical analysis of drug trials. Professionals in this field are much in demand at pharmaceutical companies and research labs to work in the areas of modeling, simulations, gene expression control, clinical databases and medical statistics.

The typical starting salary in the sector ranges from Rs. 25,000 to 30,000. Sarin has a positive picture to paint about the future for those pursuing the course. "Our students do immensely well after the completion of the course as we have 100 per cent placement," she adds.