Created July 2003, the Biomedical Informatics Research and Consulting Service (BIRCS) offers health informatics consulting to faculty of the University of California (UC), state or federal agencies, and non-profit organizations. BIRCS faculty are also available to serve as research collaborators in funded activities within the UC system.

BIRCS core competencies include information system architectures (health level-7 v3 Reference Information Model), development of enterprise-level applications for biomedical venues, terminological systems (SNOMED CT, LOINC, UMLS), biomedical image acquisition/storage, and medical decision support systems. Many of the faculty are nationally recognized and engaged in a variety of large-scale projects.

BIRCS also offers information technology services in support of the projects in which it engages. These services include:

• All aspects of the software development life cycle (SDLC), in compliance with IEEE standards.
• Project planning and oversight of medical informatics systems development and implementation/deployment.
• Secure hosting of custom applications and project Web sites developed by BIRCS for its clients.

For more information, send e-mail inquiries to either Dr. Robert Cardiff or Dr. Michael Hogarth.