BIDSS Manual

Biomedical Informatics

Welcome to the Biomedical Informatics and Data Science Skills (BIDSS) Manual. The goal of this learning platform is to develop data science skills and understanding of biomedical informatics methods and theories. This manual can be used in a variety of courses offered by the Brown Center for Biomedical Informatics (BCBI) or for anyone interested in biomedical informatics. The final goal will be to develop a functional solution that uses informatics and data science approaches to address a biomedical or health challenge. Particular emphasis will be given to formalisms and algorithms used within the context of biomedical research and health care, including those used in biomolecular sequence analysis, electronic health records, clinical decision support, and public health surveillance. General programming language skills will be outlined within these contexts. The focus of this manual is on the programming language Julia. Unix, mySQL, R, and Python will also be touched on throughout the manual with the goal of walking through the entire analytic pipeline from start to finish for a particular health research question of interest. This learning platform will provide a functional overview of methods commonly used to address challenges in biomedical and public health contexts.