Bachelor of Science with a Major in Health Data Science, Pre-Medical Professions Concentration

Program Director: Ali Rahnavard

The bachelor's program in health data science offers an interdisciplinary degree that equips students with a comprehensive understanding of using data analytics, statistics, and machine learning to address crucial challenges in public health and biomedicine. This program focuses on managing, analyzing, and interpreting complex health and omics data, alongside providing a strong foundation in public health principles, health policy, and population health. Students gain expertise in applying data science tools and methodologies to real-world issues, including epidemic tracking, molecular epidemiology, health disparities, disease prevention, health promotion, and health services planning. The curriculum integrates modules on epidemiology, biostatistics, health informatics, biology, machine learning, and data ethics. Graduates are well-prepared for diverse career paths in public health departments, healthcare organizations, hospitals, biomedical research institutes, non-profit research institutions, and government agencies. They contribute significantly to data-driven public health initiatives and advancements in biomedicine. Through this program, students engage in real-world health applications and gain an understanding of the risk factors for public health and human diseases such as cancer and how infectious diseases spread and evolve.

Pre-medical Professional Concentration

The pre-medical professional concentration is a specialized program that equips students with the foundational knowledge and skills required for admission into medical school or pursuing a career in healthcare. This concentration focuses on essential subjects like biology, chemistry, physics, and anatomy, while also integrating coursework in health data science, statistics, and research methods. This combination prepares students to engage in cutting-edge research utilizing new health and omics data and technologies, which serve as complementary skills to medicine. Students in this concentration develop a solid understanding of medical concepts and cultivate critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills essential for success in the medical field. The program effectively prepares students for the rigorous academic demands of medical school and offers a pathway towards various medical professions, including physicians, surgeons, or healthcare researchers.

Information on the admission process is available from the Office of Undergraduate Admissions website. Applications may be submitted via the Common Application.

Supporting documents not submitted online should be mailed to:

Office of Undergraduate Admissions
The George Washington University
800 21st Street NW, Suite 100
Washington, DC 20052

Contact for questions:

gwadm@gwu.edu or 202-994-6040

The following requirements must be fulfilled: 24 credits in University General Education courses, 37 credits in health data science core courses, 34 credits in pre-medical professionals concentration courses, 19 credits in general elective courses, and 6 credits in health data science guided elective courses.

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
SPH University General Education Requirement
One course in critical thinking in the humanities.
Two courses in critical thinking, quantitative reasoning, or scientific reasoning in the social sciences.
For exercise science and nutrition majors, this requirement must be fulfilled with one of the following: ANTH 1002, ANTH 1003, or ANTH 1004.
For public health majors, students are encouraged to take ECON 1011 as a General Education social science course, as it is a prerequisite for PUBH 3130.
One course that has an approved oral communication component .
For exercise science and nutrition majors, this requirement must be fulfilled with either COMM 1040 or COMM 1041.
For public health majors, students can chose any of the following pre-approved oral communication courses: AMST 2450, AMST 2620, ANTH 1004, ANTH 2502, CHEM 2118W, COMM 1040, COMM 1041, EAP 1010, ECON 4198W, ENGL 1365, ENGL 3918, GTCH 2003, GTCH 3101, HSSJ 4195, ORSC 2000, PHIL 2124 or PHIL 2124W, PHIL 2134, SLHS 1011, SOC 4192, SOC 4195 or SOC 4195W, SPAN 3022, SUST 2004, WLP 1020
One course in quantitative reasoning.
For exercise science and nutrition majors, this requirement must be fulfilled with one of the following: STAT 1051, STAT 1053, or STAT 1127.
Public health majors should avoid taking STAT 1051, STAT 1053, STAT 1111 or STAT 1127.
One course in scientific reasoning with laboratory experience.
For exercise science and nutrition majors, this requirement must be fulfilled with BISC 1111.
For public health majors, this requirements must be fulfilled with one of the following: BISC 1005, BISC 1006, BISC 1007, BISC 1008, BISC 1111, BISC 1112 or HONR 1033 Biology.
UW 1020	University Writing
or HONR 1015 (Origins and Evolution of Modern Thought)
After successful completion of UW 1020 or HONR 1015, 6 credits distributed over at least two different Writing in the Disciplines (WID) courses taken in separate semesters (summer counts as one semester) are required. WID courses are designated by a "W" appended to the course number.

 Approved courses can be found under University General Education Requirement.

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Required
Health data science core courses (37 credits)
PUBH 4202	Bioinformatics Algorithms and Data Structures
PUBH 1142	Introduction to Health Data Science
PUBH 2242	Natural Language Processing for Healthcare
PUBH 3232	Health Data Mining
PUBH 3242	Health Data Visualization
PUBH 2110	Public Health Biology
PUBH 2142	Introduction to Biostatistics for Public Health
STAT 2183	Intermediate Statistics Lab/Packages
STAT 4157	Introduction to Mathematical Statistics I
PUBH 1010	First-Year Experience in Public Health
PUBH 1101	Introduction to Public Health and Health Services
PUBH 2140	Foundations of Research Methods
PUBH 3131	Epidemiology

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Pre-medical professional concentration-specific courses
34 credits
BISC 1112	Introductory Biology: The Biology of Organisms
CHEM 1111	General Chemistry I
CHEM 1112	General Chemistry II
CHEM 2151	Organic Chemistry I
CHEM 2153	Organic Chemistry Laboratory I
CHEM 2152	Organic Chemistry II
CHEM 2154	Organic Chemistry Laboratory II
BISC 3261	Introductory Medical Biochemistry
or CHEM 3165	Biochemistry I
PHYS 1011	General Physics I
or PHYS 1021	University Physics I
or PHYS 1025	University Physics I with Biological Applications
PHYS 1012	General Physics II
or PHYS 1022	University Physics II
or PHYS 1026	University Physics II with Biological Applications
PSYC 1001	General Psychology
or SOC 1001	Introduction to Sociology
General electives
19 credits
Health data science guided electives
6 credits in elective courses selected from the list below.

No more than 9 of these credits can be taken through study abroad programs and/or at non-GW domestic institutions. For topics courses, only the specific topic indicated below can be counted toward this requirement. Students can petition the BS in public health program director for approval to use a GW course not listed here as an elective. No more than 3 credits in Lifestyle, Sport, and Physical Activity (LSPA) courses can be counted toward the 120 credits required for the bachelor's degree. LSPA courses count as general electives.

Course List

Code	Title	Credits
Health data science guided electives
Biochemistry
BIOC 3820	Bioinformatics and Computational Biochemistry
Biological sciences
BISC 2207	Genetics
BISC 2213	Biology of Cancer
BISC 2214	Developmental Biology
BISC 2336	Introductory Microbiology
BISC 2583	Biology of Proteins
BISC 2585	Biometry
Biomedical engineering
BME 3825	Medical Measurement Laboratory
BME 4482	Medical Measurements
Computer science
CSCI 1112	Algorithms and Data Structures
CSCI 1121	Introduction to C Programming
CSCI 1132	Data Structures and Software Design
CSCI 1311	Discrete Structures I
CSCI 2312	Discrete Structures II
CSCI 2441	Database Systems and Team Projects
CSCI 3212	Algorithms
CSCI 3362	Probability for Computer Science
CSCI 4341	Continuous Algorithms
CSCI 4342	Computational Linear Algebra and Applications
CSCI 4364	Machine Learning
CSCI 4576	Introduction to Biomedical Computing
CSCI 4577	Biomedical Computing
Data science
DATS 2101	Ethical Life in a Digital World
DATS 2102	Data Visualization for Data Science
DATS 2103	Data Mining for Data Science
DATS 2104	Data Warehousing for Data Science
Economics
ECON 2123	Introduction to Econometrics
ECON 3105	Economic Forecasting
ECON 3148	Health Economics
Electrical and eomputer engineering
ECE 1120	C Programming for Electrical and Computer Engineering
ECE 1125	Data Structures and Algorithms for ECE
ECE 3220	Introduction to Digital Signal Processing
ECE 3225	Signal and Image Analysis
Mathematics
MATH 2184	Linear Algebra I
MATH 2233	Multivariable Calculus
MATH 3125	Linear Algebra II
MATH 3342	Ordinary Differential Equations
MATH 3359	Introduction to Mathematical Modeling
MATH 3553	Introduction to Numerical Analysis
MATH 3740	Computational Complexity
MATH 4239	Real Analysis I
MATH 4240	Real Analysis II
Mechanical and aerospace engineering
MAE 1117	Introduction to Engineering Computations
Physics
PHYS 3100	Math Methods for Physics
PHYS 3181	Computational Physics
Public health
PUBH 3201	Introduction to Bioinformatics
PUBH 3202	Introduction to Genomics
PUBH 3995	Undergraduate Research in Public Health *
Statistics
STAT 2123	Introduction to Econometrics
STAT 2183W	Intermediate Statistical Laboratory: Statistical Computing Packages
STAT 3119	Design and Analysis of Experiments
STAT 4158	Introduction to Mathematical Statistics II
STAT 4181	Applied Time Series Analysis
STAT 4188	Nonparametric Statistics Inference
STAT 4189	Mathematical Probability and Applications I
STAT 4190	Mathematical Probability and Applications II
STAT 4197	Fundamentals of SAS Programming for Data Management

^*Up to 6 credits in Undergraduate Research and/or Independent Study can be counted toward the major. These courses must be taken for a letter grade; if graded on a Pass/No Pass (P/NP), they cannot be counted toward the major requirements.