The mission of The OSU Department of Biomedical Informatics (BMI) is to be the worldwide leader in discovering, creating, and applying leading-edge biomedical informatics innovations to improve individuals' lives through personalized healthcare.
Biomedical informatics is the study and process of efficiently gathering, storing, managing, retrieving, analyzing, communicating, sharing, and applying biomedical information to improve the detection, prevention, and treatment of disease.
BMI is divided into four main application areas:
- Bioinformatics applies the use of computers and other such tools to help with basic biological observations, such as genome and protein sequences, and direct measurements of molecular and cellular processes.
- Medical informatics applies tools to promote effective management, the use of information to improve healthcare, and includes clinical and public health informatics.
- Imaging informatics focuses on creating tools and algorithms to analyze large biomedical image data, including images of diseased tissues, phenotypes, and neuroblastoma.
- Multiscale and grid computing concerns the creation of software, allowing diverse data to be shared and analyzed efficiently across multiple computers and systems throughout the world.