A Survey of the Job Profiles of Biomedical Informatics Graduates.

Abstract

In 2003, the University of São Paulo established the first Biomedical Informatics (BMI) undergraduate course in Brazil. Our mission is to provide undergraduate students with formal education on the fundamentals of BMI and its applied methods. This undergraduate course offers theoretical aspects, practical knowledge and scientifically oriented skills in the area of BMI, enab- ling students to contribute to research and methodical development in BMI. Course coordinators, professors and students frequently evaluate the BMI course and the curriculum to ensure that alumni receive quality higher education. This study investigates (i) the main job activities undertake by USP BMI graduates, (ii) subjects that are fundamental important for graduates to pursue a career in BMI, and (iii) the course quality perceived by the alumni. Use of a structured questionnaire to conduct a survey involving all the BMI graduates who received their Bachelor degree before July, 2015 (attempted n = 205). One hundred and forty-five graduates (71 %) answered the questionnaire. Nine out of ten of our former students currently work as informaticians. Seventy-six graduates (52 %) work within the biomedical informatics field. Fifty-five graduates (38 %) work outside the biomedical informatics field, but they work in other IT areas. Ten graduates (7 %) do not work with BMI or any other informatics activities, and four (3 %) are presently unemployed. Among the 145 surveyed BMI graduates, 46 (32 %) and seven (5 %) hold a Master's degree and a PhD degree, respectively. Database Systems, Software Engineering, Introduction to Computer Science, Object-Oriented Programming, and Data Structures are regarded as the most important subjects during the higher education course. The majority of the graduates (105 or 72 %) are satisfied with the BMI education and training they received during the undergraduate course. More than half of the graduates from our BMI course work in their primary education area. Besides technical adequacy, the diverse job profiles, and the high level of satisfaction of our graduates indicate the importance of undergraduate courses specialized in the BMI domain are of utmost importance.