Meet Health Informatics Chair and Faculty Bambang Parmanto

Bambang Parmanto is a professor and chair of the Department of Health Information Management. He teaches in the Master of Science in Health Informatics program and contributes to the Bachelor of Science in Health Informatics program.

Read on to learn more about Parmanto’s teaching style and his unique background in the field of health informatics (HI).

Leadership in Pitt Health Informatics

My background is in computer and information science. When I finished my PhD in information sciences at Pitt, I applied for positions and received offers from several places. I ultimately chose to stay at Pitt. At the time, my girlfriend—who is now my wife—was still finishing her PhD, so staying in Pittsburgh made sense. That personal consideration played a role in my decision to stay, and eventually I built my career here and have been here for about 30 years.

Within that time, I contributed to the development of the curriculum for both programs and helped establish a concentration in health informatics within the school’s PhD program in rehabilitation sciences. When I first assumed the role of department chair, the program was still focused on traditional health information management at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Recognizing early on that the field was rapidly evolving, I led efforts to reposition the programs toward health informatics, anticipating the growing importance of data, digital health and artificial intelligence (AI).

A man with dark hair wearing a black and white striped shirt nad black pants, a younger man with dark curly hair wearing a black and white striped shirt with black pants, an older man with dark hair wearing dark glasses, a white tee shirt and black pants and a woman with dark hair wearing a tan sunhat, dark sunglasses, a black and white striped shirt and a black cardigan all standing together in front of a body of water. — Bambang Parmanto (second from right) with his family during their trip to the Komodo Islands.

Because of that, I led a redesign of the curriculum for the master’s program and subsequently developed the undergraduate version around informatics. While peer institutions retained a traditional health information management focus and incorporated limited informatics contents, we chose to take a more decisive approach by centering our programs directly on health informatics.

That decision led to our program becoming the first undergraduate program to be accredited specifically as a health informatics program.

In terms of teaching, I co-teach Foundations of Health Informatics and machine learning courses, as well as statistical programming. I continue to draw on my background in artificial intelligence by guest lecturing on AI-related topics in the undergraduate program.

A key part of my role is shaping the broader direction of the curriculum and ensuring it evolves with the field. Because HI is rapidly changing, we continuously revise the curriculum and update courses. Right now, for example, we are thinking about how to integrate AI more deeply into the curriculum. That includes not only teaching students how to use tools like large language models, but also determining the appropriate levels of technical depth they should develop. These are challenges we constantly face as educators in a fast-moving field.

Teaching Style

I am naturally curious and I enjoy learning, and teaching allows me to explore new ideas and share them with students. I find it especially rewarding to see students engage with the material and develop their own understanding.

My teaching style involves creating my own course materials by synthesizing content from many different sources rather than relying on a single textbook. I combine online resources, research articles and applied examples, selecting materials intentionally to align with specific learning goals of the course. The aim is for students to gain broader and deeper understanding than they would from a single source.

A woman with dark hair wearing a long black coat, dark pants and a red hat, a young man with dark hair wearing a white jacket over a red shirt and black pants, a man with dark hair and glasses wearing a red jacket and tan pants and a younger man with dark hair and glasses wearing a gray scarf over a black jacket and dark gray pants stand together in front of a building that reads "Liverpool Football Club." — Bambang Parmanto (second from right) and his family in Liverpool for a soccer match.

For example, right now I am building a new course on generative AI. Ideally, I like to cover the full spectrum—from application to foundation—so that students can appreciate both the capabilities of these systems and the principles behind them. My goal is to help students understand that while these technologies are sophisticated, they are built on concepts that can be understood step by step.

Finding Health Informatics

When I was a graduate student in computer and information science with a focus on artificial intelligence, I had the opportunity to work with clinicians at the Pittsburgh Transplant Institute, conducting research in modeling liver transplant survival using neural networks. This experience exposed me to the potential of computing technologies in medicine. At the time, Pittsburgh was the global center of transplant research, which made the experience especially formative. It naturally led me toward health informatics, even though it was not my original plan when I began studying computer science. Health care is inherently complex, which is part of what makes it compelling. The idea that we can use data, technology and AI to improve people’s lives is very rewarding. Through digital health interventions and data-driven solutions, we can improve both health outcomes and the patient experience.

What Sets Pitt HI Apart

Pitt Health Informatics has been a leader in the field for many years. Even though our department is relatively small, we have a strong faculty with expertise in areas like AI, digital health and data science.

One major direction is integrating AI into everything we do. We are currently creating a new master’s program focused on AI in health care. The challenge is that AI technology is advancing extremely quickly. For example, the version of ChatGPT available in 2023 is very different from what we have today. Our goal is to navigate these changes and ensure that students gain skills that will allow them to thrive in this evolving environment.

A group of men and women standing together posing in front of a brick wall. — From left to right: Assistant Professor Andi Saptono, Program Director and Associate Professor Leming Zhou, Department Chair and Professor Bambang Parmanto, alumna Meagan Williams (BS ’00), Vice Chair for Education, Program Director and Professor Dilhari DeAlmeida, Assistant Professor and Clinical Education Coordinator Taylor Horne, Vice Chair for Research and Assistant Professor Yanshan Wang, Assistant Professor Ahmad Tafti and Research Scientist Agus Setiawan during the spring 2025 health informatics graduation reception.

Research Interests

My research often begins with real-world problems brought forward by clinicians that need technological solutions. Rather than starting with a purely theoretical idea, we begin with a practical challenge and ask how AI or digital health technologies can help solve it. This approach allows us to develop tools that are directly relevant to real-world health care practice, while also advancing underlying concepts and innovations in the technology itself.

My research currently focuses on applying AI and digital technologies to health care problems. I am currently collaborating with faculty in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology on digital interventions for child behavioral health using a system called UseIT (Utilizing Skills to Enhance the Impact of Treatment).

I am also working on two Department of Defense funded projects. The first focuses on developing mobile health (mHealth) and AI interventions for individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCI). I serve as the principal investigator in this project, which extends the iMHere platform to support individuals with SCI and their caregivers. A key innovation is the integration of mhealth with generative AI specifically designed for this population. This project is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Brad Dicianno (School of Medicine, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation), and colleagues in Health Information Management, including Yong Choi, Agus Setiawan and Andi Saptono. The second project focuses on digital health interventions for individuals with Raynaud’s syndrome, in collaboration with Haomin “Leon” Hu, a research scientist in our lab.

In addition, I am leading a project called GeniX in collaboration with Vice Chair for Innovation and Professor Dipu Patel from the Department of Physician Assistant Studies and Interim Dean David C. Beck. The project involves building AI systems for clinical exam preparation, assessment and remediation. The system can generate large banks of practice questions and provide personalized, interactive learning experiences such as chatbot-based guidance to support clinical training.The primary goal of my research is to improve health outcomes and patient experiences. Digital health interventions and AI tools can help deliver care more efficiently and at a larger scale. Ultimately, these technologies can make health care more accessible, more personalized and more cost-effective.

A man with dark brown hair wearing a black suit jacket over a white collared shirt and a green tie with black jeans, black shoes and black glasses, a woman with short black hair wearing a blue zip-up, blue plants and white shoes and a woman with short black curled hair wearing a black cardigan over a white blouse with floral patterns, black pants, tan shoes and black glasses all standing together in front of a brick wall. — Department Chair and Professor Bambang Parmanto, Meagan Williams (BS ’00) and Vice Chair for Education, Program Director and Professor Dilhari DeAlmeida

Students are encouraged to participate in research projects. For example, they might help verify AI-generated questions and answers, collaborate with domain experts, compile and manage data and evaluate system performance. Students may also be involved in the development of the AI system. Developing and evaluating these systems requires substantial effort, and participation provides valuable hands-on experience.

Fun Facts

A fun fact about my background is that when I first began studying computer science, I had never actually seen a computer before. I grew up in a rural area of Indonesia where there were no computers and even access to electricity was limited. Over the course of my lifetime, I have watched technology evolve from those early conditions to today’s world of advanced AI and even self-driving cars. My experience shows that you can enter this field even without early exposure to technology—the most important thing is curiosity and willingness to learn.