FAQ

No. Candidates do not need to take the GRE in order to apply for this program.

All applicants are required to demonstrate a level of proficiency in the English language sufficient to meet the admission requirement of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Proficiency can be demonstrated by the receipt of a bachelor’s or advanced degree from an accredited institution of higher education in the United States or from a university where English is the primary language of instruction (please note that applicants receiving degrees at universities in U.S. territories, such as Puerto Rico, are required to submit the TOEFL or IELTS unless the primary language of instruction at the institution is English).

TOEFL: You need to request that ETS (Educational Testing Services) send your TOEFL scores to Georgetown University. To request scores, use the code: 5244. 

IELTS: Official score reports should be sent electronically by the testing center to Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences.

No. This program currently meets in-person only at Georgetown University.

Yes. Students will have up to 3 years to complete this program on a part-time basis. Unfortunately, this option is not available for International students on an F-1 visa.

No. The MS HIDS program currently only accepts applications for Fall admission.

The main goal of the MS HIDS program is to develop responsible leaders in health data science and medical informatics with rewarding careers in industry, government or academia. Depending on your prior educational background and professional experience, this program will train you to take on entry-level to mid-senior level job roles including, Health data analyst, Health business analyst, EHR data manager, Health technology consultant, Health data scientist, Nurse informatician, Chief Medical Informatics Officer and other related positions.

Hands-on experiences are the primary focus of the HIDS program. The program has an industry advisory panel who will be offering 6 week Capstone projects to students. The Capstone program is designed to bring together everything students learn in 3 semesters and apply that knowledge to real-world industry problems. If students do well in their Capstone, this will act as a gateway for employment with our industry partners.

The medical terminology and operational aspects of healthcare systems will be taught in two introductory courses that students will take in the Fall semester. All courses will deal with medical concepts as well as data science concepts. In courses – Introduction to Health Data Science & Analytics, Evidence based data analysis in population health, Massive data fundamentals, and AI for health applications – students will be using programming languages (R or Python) to acquire, process, analyze and visualize medical and/or life sciences datasets. The medical knowledge needed to do the exercises and tests will be taught during the course of the class. Prior medical knowledge is not necessary for admission but students must demonstrate programming skills and quantitative skills. Students will learn machine learning, deep learning and statistical methods in these courses, but the focus of the HIDS program is not Biostatistics). The focus is on learning how to apply data science approaches to healthcare data.

Health Informatics and Data Science (HIDS) is a multi-disciplinary field concerned with the optimal use of information, often aided by health information technology and tools, to improve individual health, healthcare, public health and biomedical research. It helps in the collection, organization, standardization of health data in a manner that is readily usable for analysis to improve current care processes and clinical research. HIDS assists in identifying novel insights on the health condition of patients and care processes. It also helps in improving the quality of care by generating better information and knowledge from patients’ data to improve outcomes, safety and costs.
Example courses include: Introduction to Health Data Science and Analytics (HIDS 6001), Utilizing data in electronic medical records (HIDS 7003), AI for health applications (HIDS 7006) and Digital Health applications (HIDS 7007).
Prospective students will have undergraduate or advanced degrees in any field of engineering or life sciences including, Computer Science, Math, Physics, Engineering, Information Systems, Health Informatics, Biomedical Sciences, Medicine, Nursing or related fields.
Graduates from the program will be ready to take on roles such as Data scientist, Data analyst, Programmer, Health business analyst, EHR data manager, Health technology consultant, Nurse informatician, Chief Medical Informatics Officer, Chief Analytics Officer, and other related positions.

Systems medicine relies on systems biology and multi-omics approaches and tools in solving biomedical problems.
Example Courses Include: Biomedical Informatics, Clinical Informatics, Application of Biostatistics to “Big Data”, Clinical Applications of the Microbiota, Application of Biostatistics to “Big Data”, Critical Reading in Systems Medicine, Systems Medicine Internship.
Prospective students: will have undergraduate degrees in Biology, Life sciences, Statistics or related fields.
Graduates from the program will be ready to take on roles such as bioinformatics analysts, biocurators, and pursue advanced degrees (e.g. MD, PhD).

Bioinformatics is the field that develops methods and software tools for understanding biological data. The goal of bioinformatics is to enable the discovery of new biological insights, as well as to create a global perspective from which unifying principles in biology can be discerned. Bioinformatics helps in sequencing genes and understanding the role of DNA, genes, and chromosomes. Experts in bioinformatics study protein structures using their functions. They also build 3-D models of molecules, cells, tissues, systems, and even entire organisms.
Prospective students will have undergraduate degrees in Biology, computer science, Mathematics, Statistics or related fields.
Graduates from the program will be ready to take on roles such as Bioinformatician, Molecular biologist, Research associate, other related positions.

Biostatistics is the application of statistics to a wide range of topics in biology. It encompasses the design of experiments especially in life sciences, medicine, pharmacy and agriculture; the collection, summarization, and analysis of data from those experiments; and the interpretation of, and inference from, the results.
Example courses include: Probability & Sampling (BIST 6510), Statistical Inference (BIST 6511), Linear Models & Multivariate Analysis (BIST 6514).
Prospective students will have undergraduate degrees with courses in Basic courses in Statistics, Multi-Variable Calculus, and Linear Algebra.
Graduates from the program will be ready to take on roles such as Biostatistician, Clinical trial statistician, Data manager, Research associate, other related positions.

Please see this link for more information regarding fee waivers: https://biomedicalprograms.georgetown.edu/admissions/faq/#applicationfee (new window)