Surabaya – The Faculty of Medicine at UPN “Veteran” East Java has once again demonstrated its leadership in digital medical education by launching its newest elective course: Medical Bioinformatics. This course represents a cutting-edge evolution of its predecessor, Information Technology in Medicine, which has now been transformed to meet the demands of modern healthcare. This development marks a paradigm shift from merely studying electronic medical records and hospital information systems to acquiring the ability to read the very language of life: the genetic code, and to mine global genomic data using bioinformatics software and artificial intelligence.
In an era where human genome sequencing which once took 13 years and cost billions of dollars can now be completed in 24 hours for less than $200, the explosion of biological data can no longer be ignored. Modern hospitals generate terabytes of data daily from radiology images, digital pathology slides, and real-time patient monitors. Scientists discover thousands of genetic variants responsible for rare diseases every year, and cell and gene therapies such as CRISPR require bioinformatics analysis for design and evaluation. This is where Medical Bioinformatics serves as a bridge, connecting raw data to clinical meaning.
Students taking this course will learn the fundamentals of biomedical data, DNA and RNA sequencing analysis to detect genetic variants (such as BRCA1/2 mutations in breast cancer), structural bioinformatics for drug design through 3D protein visualization and molecular docking simulations, machine learning for tumor classification and antibiotic resistance prediction, as well as the ethics and regulations surrounding genomic data, including Indonesia’s National Genomic Blueprint. All materials are delivered through interactive online lectures and virtual lab sessions using a cloud-based bioinformatics server, culminating in a final project involving the analysis of real anonymized data.
The course coordinator for Medical Bioinformatics, Ilham Kurniawan, S.Si., M.Si., CHCM, emphasized the importance of this transformation. “We have designed Medical Bioinformatics as a concrete response to the challenges of the digital era a step toward curriculum transformation. Whereas previously the focus was on hospital information systems and electronic medical records, we now invite students to go further: to understand the language of life through the genetic code with the help of bioinformatics software, to process genomic data from global databases, and to integrate artificial intelligence to predict patient responses to therapy. We want students at FK UPNVJT and other universities across Indonesia to realize that the future of medicine no longer belongs to those who merely memorize texts, but to those who can interpret biological data critically and applicatively. Join us. In this class, we don’t just teach with slides we present real cases, the latest mutation data, and the clinical challenges the world is currently facing.”
Full support was also expressed by the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, UPN “Veteran” East Java, Prof. dr. Hj. Rika Yuliwulandari, M.Hlt.Sc., M.MB., Sp.KKLP., Subsp.FOMC., Ph.D., who reaffirmed the faculty’s commitment to producing data-literate graduates. “The Faculty of Medicine at UPNVJT is committed to becoming a center of excellence in digital medical education in Indonesia. Launching the Medical Bioinformatics elective course is part of our grand vision to produce graduates who are not only clinically competent but also data-literate and ready to face the era of precision medicine. I invite all medical students from across the country to take advantage of this elective program. This is a rare opportunity to learn directly from real-world cases, use modern bioinformatics infrastructure, and work on projects relevant to cutting-edge research. Do not let yourself be left behind. The future doctor is one who can collaborate with algorithms, and it starts here, in the Medical Bioinformatics classroom at FK UPNVJT.”
This course is not only intended for internal students of FK UPNVJT but is also opened as an inter-university elective program for active students from all across Indonesia. Students from Medicine and related study programs at any university may register, attend fully online lectures, and receive a certificate and an officially recognized transcript. This program offers significant advantages: enriching your academic portfolio for residency applications, access to national bioinformatics lecturers and practitioners as well as international research partners, and cross-university collaborative projects.
The schedule and technical implementation details are as follows: The course will be conducted fully online via Zoom and an asynchronous LMS in the even semester of 2025/2026, with recorded lectures available for later access. The quota for external participants is limited to only 40 students. Registration will be announced soon keep monitoring the website of FK UPN Veteran East Java.
Interested students may fill out the online form on the page that will be provided, attaching a scan of their student ID card and an unofficial transcript, and then submit a letter of permission from their home faculty (a template is available on the same website). After that, prospective participants simply need to wait for a confirmation email from the academic team of FK UPNVJT (within a maximum of 3 working days), then join the LMS group.
Modern medicine is no longer about memorizing disease names and drugs. The future of medicine is data science working directly with human lives from precision medicine that tailors therapy based on a patient’s genetic profile, to genomic oncology that detects tumor DNA through bodily fluids, to rare disease diagnosis that shortens the timeline from seven years to just a few weeks, to genomic-based pandemic surveillance for tracking new variants, and to the integration of AI with medical records. Bioinformatics gives you the ability to read the language of life written in the A, T, G, C code and translate it into real clinical action. FK UPN “Veteran” East Java invites you, students from all over Indonesia, to be part of this revolution. You don’t need to be a programming genius; all you need is curiosity and a commitment to learn.
Register now, and become a doctor, researcher, or innovator who does not just follow the times but creates the times.
For more information, contact the Medical Bioinformatics Elective Committee of FK UPNVJT at ilham_kurniawan.fk@upnjatim.ac.id, or visit the registration website.
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