Bowie State University

Program: The Public Health Informatics & Technology (PHIT) Workforce Development Program

Contact: Dr. Birthale Archie <barchie@bowiestate.edu>

# of students to be trained: 210 undergraduate and graduate students

Program Type: Expanding Existing Curriculums and New Programs

Bowie State University (BSU) and Consortia Partners’ major goal is to work strategically and cooperatively together to increase the number of professional employees in the workplace from minority and underrepresented populations who have expertise in Public Health Informatics and Technology (PHIT). The PHIT program at BSU will prepare students to collect, store, and process multiple data streams to improve public and population health delivery. Besides fundamentals of statistics, computer science, informatics, and programming, the PHIT program also aims to equip students with the tools and skills to manage and analyze diverse datasets across the healthcare ecosystem. The increase in PHIT professionals will improve public and population health delivery. Hence, the BSU PHIT program leads to the creation of a continuous pipeline of professionals from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds able to work with real public health data, utilizing advanced algorithms powered by machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). The BSU PHIT program and consortia collaborate with business, government, and community organizations to serve the public good by using the university’s resources to impact critical areas of need including social justice, education, technology, and health.

Partners and consortia members: BlueCross Blue Shield CareFirst, Chesapeake Regional Information System for our Patients (CRISP), Greater Baden Medical Services, MedStar Health, Prince George’s County Health Department, and Spring Grove Hospital Center.