Faculty and students at the Milken Institute School of Public Health say the school’s new health data science major, which opened last fall, is tackling new medical technologies as data science jobs increase.
Milken officials will begin offering a Bachelor of Science in Health Data Science in the fall and will expand the program to offer dual degree options next fall, according to the undergraduate and graduate programs page. Milken faculty and students will be able to collect biomedical, clinical, and public health data using new technologies used by research, medical, and government agencies to predict and improve public health outcomes. He said authorities have designed a curriculum to train undergraduate students.
Ari Rahnawald, head of the health data science major and assistant professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics, said Milken officials will help students learn about new data technologies used to address issues such as health disparities and disease prevention. He said that he would like to offer a major that will help students understand this. He said teaching students about this technology in the context of biology and health policy will prepare them for jobs in the health research community.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, data science jobs are expected to grow 35% from 2022 to 2032, with approximately 17,700 new jobs expected each year.
The Medical Data Science major teaches students how to use data analysis, statistics, and machine learning in the healthcare industry, according to the program outline. The summary states that graduates will understand how to collect and interpret data in relation to public health challenges, allowing them to contribute to planning health services, tracking outbreaks and promoting health.
“At the undergraduate level, this major provides more practical skills, so students who graduate from this major can access job opportunities that actually reflect society’s health needs,” Rahnawald said. said.
Ranavad said the Department of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics decided to create the major in 2021 and formed a working group of six faculty members to develop the curriculum in 2022. Milken staff and the dean approved the curriculum in July 2023. Ranavad said he was the dean himself. We offer working groups and priority courses that familiarize students with technology in various health fields.
According to the curriculum sheet, this major offers electives in selected areas of interest such as biomedical engineering, statistics, and biochemistry, as well as core courses such as public health research methods, introduction to biostatistics, and health data visualization. Course required.
“We look forward to our graduates becoming the next generation of scientists who can start tackling the challenges facing the public health field early on,” Professor Ranabad said.
Rahnawald said he is focused on recruiting current Milken students and students currently in high school, and already has five Milken students planning to transfer into their major.
Ranabad said his primary role as director will be to gather feedback from faculty and students on the curriculum and ensure that the courses meet the program’s original mission: preparing graduates for jobs in the health data science sector and in graduate school. He said his goal was to make the necessary changes to make it happen.
Rahnabad said the dual degree program, which will begin next fall, will combine a bachelor of science and master’s degree in data science and will strengthen students’ skill sets and help them decide whether to pursue a Ph.D. said. He said officials will advertise an additional 27 credit offering to students enrolled in undergraduate programs.
The university also offers master’s and doctoral degrees in health data science.
Keith Crandall, director of GW’s Computational Biology Institute and professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics, said the institute’s faculty, along with other biostatistics and bioinformatics faculty, are working on health data science. He said he supported curriculum development.
“We hope this program will be a popular one because it is a great expansion of different majors into this field, which has great opportunities for graduates as well as job opportunities.” said Crandall.
Crandall said the major exposes students to Python scripting and a variety of health-related statistical languages, including R, a statistical computing software, and SAS, a data analysis and analysis software. Ta. He said these skills will help students get hired for programming and data science jobs in the healthcare industry.
“We thoroughly researched bachelor’s level jobs in health data science to find out what skill sets employers are looking for,” Crandall said.
Jessica Falk, a second-year student studying health data science, said this interdisciplinary offering allows students to explore potential career paths related to public health and research, such as epidemiology, data analysis, and data science. .
Farooq said they are currently taking Introduction to Health Data Science and two electives for the Health Data Science major: Introduction to Biostatistics and Introduction to Genomics.
“It was the perfect combination of what I think interests me,” Farouk said. “Career-wise, it’s a combination of data science, so you get to know how to code, and you get to study public health, to see how data impacts the public, so it’s a big deal. I feel like it could be helpful.”
