Advanced Coding and Statistics for Biomedical Informatics
BMI 714
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course covers the programming, data analysis, and statistics skills required for advanced graduate-level courses in biomedical informatics. During the first half of the course, students develop coding skills to reproducibly analyze complex biomedical data. Topics include visualization, clustering, dimensionality reduction, and high-performance computing. During the second half of the course, students develop their statistical toolkit for robust hypothesis testing. Topics include hypothesis testing, parametric and non-parametric tests, simulations and resampling, regression models, classifiers, and statistical significance.
This course is highly interactive and applied. In-class activities and problem sets provide opportunities for students to practice analyzing real-world clinical, molecular, and epidemiological data to answer biological questions - from designing the analysis all the way through interpreting and communicating the results. All coding will be in the R programming language, so students should have basic R programming skills prior to enrolling in this course.
Class Notes
CROSS-REGISTRATION INFORMATION
Students not enrolled in an HMS Master’s program will be able to start submitting petitions for this course in August, 2026.
Students who are not in the Master of Medical Sciences in Biomedical Informatics program who wish to cross-register for this course must submit a petition in my.harvard that summarizes their interest in the course and previous programming experience. Cross-reg petitions will be reviewed on a first-come, first-served basis beginning August 19, 2026. Students can and should submit petitions before this date, but they will not be approved ahead of time.
For questions regarding cross-registration, please contact mbi@hms.harvard.edu with the subject line "BMI 714 cross-registration".
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
