The Biomedical Informatics Group (GIB, Grupo de Informática Biomédica in Spanish) was formally established in 1993 under the direction of professor Victor Maojo, a faculty member of the Artificial Intelligence Department of Computer Science School in the Polytechnic University of Madrid. In 1994 the group obtained a large award from Hewlett Packard USA ($200,000) which allowed to create the basic infrastructure of the group.
Training:
GIB has established collaboration over the last 15 years with the Harvard-MIT Health Science and Technology program, with whom it was developed an intense exchange program, with six students from Rutgers University, the University of Utah and the US National Cancer Institute. The GIB participated in pioneering activities in medical informatics at the UPM with undergraduate and graduate courses.
Research:
The GIB has led work on clinic-genomics database integration, a research that was pioneered within the First European Commission – funded project in this area (INFOGENMED). In 2008-2011 Prof Maojo led the Action Grid project, which was the first EC-funded project in the new area of Nanoinformatics. Several seminal papers authored at the GIB have contributed to consolidate the field.
The GIB has led work on clinic-genomics database integration, a research that was pioneered within the First European Commission – funded project in this area (INFOGENMED). In 2008-2011 Prof Maojo led the Action Grid project, which was the first EC-funded project in the new area of Nanoinformatics. Several seminal papers authored at the GIB have contributed to consolidate the field.
Other research areas include:
- Artificial intelligence in medicine
- Clinical guidelines and protocols
- Image processing and analysis (led by professor José Crespo)
- Mathematical morphology
- Data and text mining
- Information retrieval
- Informatics models and tools for clnical trials
- Internet-based applications
- Semantic interoperability
- Nanoinformatics
The GIB has coordinated the AFRICA BUILD project, including WHO and four African partners from Mali, Cameroon, Egypt and Ghana, to create centers of excellence in Africa where the use of information technologies can be used to improve health research and care. Through the Africa Build portal and a social network specially created for the project, the project aims to create a self-sustainable South-South infrastructure to carry out e-learning activities in the health domain.
Other current European Commission – funded projects are:
- DICODE – Mastering Data-Intensive Collaboration and Decision Making
- INTEGRATE – Driving Excellence in Integrative Cancer Research through Innovative Biomedical Infrastructures
- P-medicine – From data sharing and integration via VPH models to personalised medicine
- EURECA – Enabling information re-Use by linking clinical REsearch and CAre
- INBIOMEDvision – Promoting and Monitoring Biomedical Informatics in Europe
National projects include participation in the RETICS network COMBIOMED (2009-2013) and a AES/FIS project on Nanoinformatics (2009-2012)
Located at the D-5004 lab of the “ETSI Informáticos” GIB is part of the Artificial Intelligence Department of the “Universidad Politécnica de Madrid” (UPM).
The GIB currently accepts pre and postdoctoral students from external places, which should be funded in advance by external institutions (e.g., foreign countries), covering their living expenses and university fees if they apply to a formal academic program