Course Overview: Introduction to Biomedical Informatics and Artificial Intelligence

Last updated: October 26, 2025

Course Director

William Hersh, MD
Oregon Health & Science University

Objectives

The goal of this course is to provide a detailed overview of biomedical informatics and artificial intelligence (AI) to those who will work at the intersection of healthcare and information technology (IT). The course also aims to provide an entry point for those wishing further study (and/or career development) in the field. It provides a broad understanding of the field from the vantage point of those who implement, lead, and develop IT solutions for improving health, healthcare, public health, and biomedical research. It provides up-to-date details on current events in the field, including electronic health records, data standards and interoperability, clinical decision support, population health, patient engagement, telehealth, clinical research, and public health. It also describes and sets the context for newer technologies, such as SMART on FHIR, generative AI, large language models (LLMs), and wearables. Although the course has a clinical orientation, many non-clinicians working in health IT environments have found the course accessible and the knowledge gained invaluable to their professional development.

The 10x10 (“ten by ten”) program gets its name from its original goal when launched in 2005 of educating 10,000 healthcare and related professionals in biomedical and health informatics by 2010. The goal of 10,000 individuals came from an assertion by former AMIA President Dr. Charles Safran that the US needed at least one physician and one nurse trained in medical informatics in each of the country’s 6000 hospitals. The needs are equally strong beyond the US in the rest of the world and for professionals beyond physicians and nurses. The goal of 10x10 was operationalized by Dr. William Hersh, adapting an online introductory graduate-level course he was already teaching at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). This course was the original offering in the 10x10 program and has had the largest enrollment, with over 3400 people, mostly from the US but also from a variety of international locations, having completed the course.

Instructor

The instructor for the course is William Hersh, MD. Dr. Hersh is a Professor of Biomedical Informatics at OHSU. He is a leader and innovator in biomedical informatics both in education and research. He has received numerous awards for his career accomplishments, including election to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians (FACP), the American College of Medical Informatics (FACMI), the International Academy of Health Sciences Informatics (FIAHSI), and the American Medical Informatics Association (FAMIA). He is also an elected member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest Group in Information Retrieval (SIGIR) Academy. The best way to reach Dr. Hersh is via email. He does not keep regular office hours but phone calls or video meetings can be arranged with him.

Course Coordination

The course is offered in two parts:

1. A 10-unit Web-based component starting January 14, 2026. The Web-based portion is provided through on-line lectures, readings, interactive discussion, and self-assessment tests. (Quizzes are required to be completed but grades do not count towards a final grade.)
2. A one-day in-person session held in conjunction with an AMIA meeting (see below). The in-person session brings participants together to integrate the material, allow presentation of course projects, and meet the instructor as well as other students in person.

10x10 participants have the option of attending the in-person session associated with any AMIA meeting within one year of their taking the class and not just the session that occurs at the end of the offering in which they are enrolled. (We also allow participants to forego the in-person session if hardship or other reasons prevent them from attending a session, although we strongly encourage attendance to complete their learning experience.) The next available AMIA meetings with in-person sessions will be:

• AMIA 2026 Clinical Informatics Conference; Denver, CO; May 18-21, 2026
• AMIA 2026 Annual Symposium; Dallas, TX; November 7-11, 2026

The course is an adaptation of the on-line Introduction to Biomedical Informatics and Artificial Intelligence course developed by the instructor at OHSU. This survey course provides a broad overview of the field, highlighting the key issues and challenges for the field. The course is taught in a completely asynchronous manner, i.e., there are no "scheduled" classes. However, students must keep up with the course materials so they can benefit from the interactive discussion with faculty and other students. The course uses the following teaching modalities:

• Voice-over-PowerPoint lectures – Lectures are provided in MP4 format via AMIA’s learning management system. The content is easily accessed by any type of computer, tablet, or smartphone connected to the Internet.
• Interactive threaded discussion – Students engage in discussion on important issues using the on-line threaded discussion forums. An on-line faculty moderator helps keep the discussion on track.
• Optional reading assignments – The syllabus suggests optional readings from a textbook for students.
• Homework/quizzes – Each of the units is accompanied by a 10-question multiple-choice self-assessment that aims to have the student apply the knowledge from the unit.

The on-line part of the course is accessed via AMIA’s learning management system (LMS). At the onset of the course, each student is provided a login and password by the AMIA staff, who also provide technical support for the course. The course has no required textbook. Students are expected to keep up with the materials and should anticipate spending 4-8 hours per unit on the course. All on-line activities are asynchronous, so there is no specified time that a student must be on-line.

Students are welcome to download and save all PDF files of slides and references. Please note that this content is for your own personal use and you should not share with others or post to any public or private Web sites.

Students must complete all of the self-assessment tests, the course project, and participate in class discussions to receive the AMIA 10x10 Certificate of Completion. Physicians are eligible for up to 44 hours of AMA PRA Category 1 CME Credit(s)™. The course has a policy about the use of generative artificial intelligence in course activities.

When Problems Arise

It is critical to contact the appropriate person when problems arise:

• For LMS problems, contact AMIA.
• For questions about course content (e.g., do not understand a topic or disagree with homework quiz answer), contact Dr. Hersh.

Course Interaction

The course aims to provide a great deal of interaction among the faculty, students, and teaching assistants. On-line discussion begins for each unit with the instructor posing 2-3 questions per unit. Students are also encouraged to post questions or comments about any topic in the course or the field in the general discussion forum at any time. The instructor aims to guide and fill in details of the discussion but not dominate it.

Course Project

Students must complete a course project to obtain the AMIA 10x10 Certificate of Completion. The goal of the project is to identify an informatics problem in your local setting (e.g., where you practice or work, or otherwise have access) and propose a solution based on what is known from informatics research and best practice. The project write-up is due by April 29, 2026. (If you do not have access to a health care setting, you can do the project in another setting, such as a company or organization. The instructor can help if you have a challenge with this.) The problem and solution should be written into a succinct 2-3 page (please no longer!) document that should include references that justify the framing of the problem and the proposed solutions. This is submitted in a Word document uploaded to the LMS. Students present their project to their colleagues at the in-person session that they attend.

Curriculum and Dates

The following table outlines the curriculum with unit number, topic, date posted, and date due. The course in general runs with two weeks in a row of posted materials and then a third week to finish the work. The due date for each unit is when the next cycle of material is posted. We are lenient about giving extensions but participants are strongly encouraged not to fall behind, since it is difficult to catch up once one is too far behind.