Medical Informatics · Politechnika Wrocławska

What is Medical Informatics?

The science of health data

Medical Informatics is an interdisciplinary field combining computer science, information science, and medical sciences, with the goal of managing, processing, and analysing health data to improve patient outcomes and healthcare systems.

"Medical informatics is the interdisciplinary field that studies and pursues the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision making." · WHO / IMIA

From hospital information systems and electronic health records (EHR) to AI-powered diagnostics, genomics, and wearable biosensors, our graduates build the systems that make healthcare smarter, safer, and more connected.

The Polish e-health infrastructure, IKP, e-prescriptions, e-referrals, the P1 platform · was built by professionals exactly like our graduates. Wrocław is one of Poland's leading medtech hubs, with over 200 companies in the sector.

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Polski

Zapraszamy na studia inżynierskie na kierunku Medical Informatics na Politechnice Wrocławskiej. To nowoczesny, interdyscyplinarny program łączący informatykę z medycyną. Otwórz drzwi do kariery w digitalnej transformacji ochrony zdrowia w Polsce i Europie. Niniejsza strona, materiały oraz sylabus są prezentowane po angielsku. Studia prowadzimy w całości w języku angielskim.

✦ Zajęcia w języku angielskim

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English

We invite you to study Medical Informatics a modern, interdisciplinary engineering programme at Politechnika Wrocławska. The programme is conducted fully in English, preparing you for a career at the intersection of technology and healthcare across Poland and Europe.

✦ Programme fully in English

Key technologies you will master

Python python.org Java java.com SQL postgresql.org R r-project.org PyTorch pytorch.org TensorFlow tensorflow.org HL7 FHIR hl7.org/fhir DICOM dicomstandard.org Docker docker.com Git git-scm.com OMOP CDM ohdsi.org ICD-10 / 11 icd.who.int SNOMED CT snomed.org RODO / GDPR gdpr-info.eu

Graduate Profile · Sylwetka Absolwenta

Who you'll become

Our graduate is an IT specialist with deep domain knowledge in healthcare, an engineer, analyst, and health informatics expert in one. They move fluently between the worlds of software, clinical data, and medical regulation.

Software Engineering

Skilled programmer who writes high-quality code, knows algorithms, and selects the right tools and languages for each task.

Clinical Data & Measurement

Acquires and processes one- and multi-dimensional clinical data from sensors and medical devices with precision.

Systems Security

Applies security requirements in clinical environments, including GDPR/RODO compliance and protection of sensitive health data.

Biological Knowledge

Knows the fundamentals of biology and medicine, enabling participation in interdisciplinary clinical and research projects.

Medical Ethics & Law

Understands patient privacy, informed consent, and the ethical deployment of AI in clinical decision-making.

Cross-disciplinary Communication

Communicates fluently with clinicians, statisticians, biologists, and developers, connecting professional worlds.

Medical Data Standards

Works with key ontologies and standards: FHIR, OMOP, ICD-10, HL7, SNOMED CT, LOINC, and more.

AI & Machine Learning

Applies AI/ML tools in clinical settings and critically evaluates their applicability, limitations, and validation requirements.

Regulatory Environment

Navigates MDR, GDPR, NFZ requirements, EMA guidelines, and the European Health Data Space (EHDS) framework.

Electronics & Medical Devices

Understands electronics, medical device construction, and patient safety standards for hardware integration.

6 Curriculum Domains · each a distinct career pathway

Hospital Data Systems

Large-scale clinical databases, security in hospital environments, interoperability standards (FHIR, OMOP, HL7), Polish e-health infrastructure (IKP, EHDS).

Clinical Data Analysis

Statistical & analytical methods, data quality control, machine learning foundations, visualisation, dashboards, and collaboration with biostatisticians.

Medical Imaging & Computer Vision

Imaging modalities (X-ray, MRI, CT, US), image processing algorithms, deep learning for segmentation, classification, and anomaly detection.

Tools & Advanced Visualisation

Web apps, native GUIs, mobile applications, full product lifecycle with OOP, UI/UX principles, and modern front-end frameworks.

Molecular Biology & Bioinformatics

High-throughput molecular biology, genomic data, bioinformatics pipelines, sequence alignment, variant calling, transcriptomics.

Embedded Systems & Medical Sensors

Medical device electronics, sensors & signal acquisition, embedded programming, complete IoMT measurement system design.

Cross-disciplinary Communication

The language of every specialist

In modern healthcare, technology alone is not enough. Our graduates learn to communicate fluently across specialisation fields: bridging the gap between clinicians, engineers, statisticians, and policymakers.

👨‍⚕️Clinicians

🧬 Biologists

📊 Statisticians

🏛️ Policy makers

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Medical
Informatics

Graduate

💻 Developers

🔬 Researchers

📋 Regulators

🏥 Hospital IT

Speak every language

Translate technical concepts for clinical staff, and clinical requirements into precise engineering specifications: fluently and without loss of meaning.

Lead interdisciplinary teams

Coordinate project work across medicine, software, statistics, and regulation: the essential skill for delivering real-world healthcare solutions.

Present with confidence

Communicate findings, proposals, and technical results clearly to diverse audiences: from hospital boards to international research conferences.

"In today's healthcare ecosystem, the most valuable professional is not the one who knows the most: it is the one who can make different specialists understand each other."

Industry & Innovation

A field that is reshaping healthcare

Medical Informatics is a young, dynamic, and genuinely difficult discipline: still defining itself in Poland and across Europe. It is not for everyone. But for ambitious students willing to sit at the intersection of two demanding worlds, it offers a career at the very frontier of what technology can do for human health.

Honest about the challenge

This is a field under construction. Standards are still being written, regulations are evolving, and the tools are changing faster than any curriculum can fully capture. You will need to be comfortable with ambiguity, eager to learn continuously, and capable of working where no clear playbook exists. That is precisely what makes it exciting.

Report

Top Disruptors in Healthcare: Poland

Annual overview of the most innovative companies and projects transforming Polish healthcare through technology. Where our graduates are already making an impact.

aiwzdrowiu.pl ↗

EU Regulation

European Health Data Space (EHDS)

The EU's landmark framework for sharing health data across Member States: enabling research, innovation, and better care. Building and operating EHDS-compliant systems is a defining challenge for the next generation of medical informaticians.

health.ec.europa.eu ↗

Ecosystem

Poland's growing medtech sector

From Warsaw to Wrocław, a rapidly expanding cluster of health-tech startups, hospital IT providers, and CROs are creating demand for specialists who combine deep technical skills with clinical literacy: faster than universities can produce them.

Artificial Intelligence in Medicine

AI is rewriting the rules of medicine

Machine learning, foundation models, and computer vision are not distant promises: they are already in clinical pipelines. Understanding them, validating them, and deploying them responsibly is the core challenge of medical informatics today.

Digital Pathology

Deep learning models analyse whole-slide pathology images at scale, detecting tumour margins, grading cancers, and flagging rare findings with accuracy matching: and in some cases exceeding: expert pathologists. Medical informaticians build, validate, and integrate these pipelines into clinical workflows.

CNN · ViT WSI analysis SaMD

Protein Design & Structural Biology

AlphaFold2 solved the protein folding problem. Generative models now design entirely new proteins for drug targets. Bioinformaticians and medical informaticians work at this frontier: running pipelines, interpreting outputs, and linking molecular findings to clinical phenotypes.

AlphaFold Generative AI Drug discovery

Clinical Text Mining & NLP

The majority of clinical knowledge lives in unstructured text: discharge summaries, radiology reports, clinical notes. Large language models and NLP pipelines extract diagnoses, medications, and outcomes from free text, enabling population-scale research and real-time clinical decision support.

LLMs NER · ICD coding OMOP NLP

Explainable AI · xAI

Black boxes don't belong in medicine

A model that predicts sepsis 6 hours early is useless if no clinician can trust it. Explainability: understanding why an AI system made a decision: is not just a technical nicety. Under the EU AI Act, high-risk AI systems in healthcare must be transparent, auditable, and explainable. Medical informaticians are the professionals who make that happen: designing interpretable models, building validation frameworks, and translating model behaviour into clinical evidence.

SHAP · LIME EU AI Act Clinical validation Fairness & bias Regulatory compliance

High risk

AI classification for most clinical decision-support systems under the EU AI Act

Art. 13

EU AI Act: mandatory transparency and explainability requirements

MDR 2017

EU Medical Device Regulation covering AI-based Software as a Medical Device

Career Opportunities

Where you'll work

Life Sciences & Healthcare is one of Poland's fastest-growing sectors. Medical Informatics graduates are among the most sought-after professionals across the entire healthcare ecosystem, in Poland and across Europe.

Hospitals & Clinics

Hospital IT departments, clinical informatics teams, telehealth systems, FHIR integration projects

Pharmaceutical Industry

Clinical data management, regulatory affairs, real-world evidence (RWE), CRO companies

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Medtech Startups

Health apps, AI diagnostics, Software as a Medical Device (SaMD), digital therapeutics

Public Institutions

NFZ, Ministry of Health, CSIOZ, national e-health platforms and policy

Research & Academia

Universities, research institutes, EU-funded projects, biobanks, clinical registries

Europe & Beyond

EHR vendors, FHIR standards bodies, European Health Data Space (EHDS), international medtech

Medical Informatics is a young discipline in Poland — our first graduates entered the workforce only recently, so many alumni are still early in their careers or completing further studies. You can explore their professional pathways through the national graduate tracking portal: ELA · ela.nauka.gov.pl ↗

Why Politechnika Wrocławska?

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One of Poland's highest-ranked technical universities with strong industry networks

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Programme running since 2015: young, dynamic, with an individual approach to students

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Curriculum designed jointly by academics and practitioners from IT and medical industry

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Wrocław · a vibrant city with 200+ medtech firms and a thriving tech ecosystem

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Graduates are particularly sought-after across Poland and the European Union

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At the frontier of digital health transformation, informatics alone is not enough

Faculty · Politechnika Wrocławska

Meet the team

Medical Informatics at PWr is driven by researchers combining deep scientific expertise with a passion for real-world healthcare impact.

Professor · dr hab. inż.

Małgorzata Kotulska

Programme Coordinator

Full professor at W11 PWr. Her research focuses on the biophysics of biological membranes, electroporation, ion channels, and antimicrobial peptides, combining experimental and computational approaches. Long-standing leader of the Medical Informatics programme.

Membrane biophysics Electroporation Ion channels

Professor · dr hab.

Joanna Szyda

Biostatistics & Genomics

Professor of biostatistics and bioinformatics with extensive expertise in statistical genomics, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), and population genetics. Brings rigorous quantitative methods to the analysis of complex biological and clinical datasets.

Biostatistics Genomics GWAS

Professor · dr hab. inż.

Witold Dyrka

Computational Biology

Research at the intersection of bioinformatics and machine learning, with a focus on protein and peptide sequence analysis, structural prediction, and biological language models. Brings state-of-the-art AI methods to molecular biology problems.

Bioinformatics Protein structure ML / AI

dr inż.

Paweł Głąba

Software Engineering & Clinical Systems

Specialises in software engineering, clinical information systems, and project-based learning. Coordinates database and mobile application courses within the Medical Informatics curriculum, with a focus on practical, industry-oriented software development.

Software engineering Clinical systems Databases

dr hab. inż.

Dominik Drabik

Computational Biophysics

Research in computational biophysics with emphasis on molecular dynamics simulations of biological membranes and membrane-active molecules. Applies physical modelling to understand molecular mechanisms relevant to drug delivery and medical device design.

Molecular dynamics Membranes Biophysics

Anna Górska

Medical Informatics & Data Science

Research in medical informatics, clinical data analysis, and AI applications in healthcare. Involved in curriculum development, promotional outreach, and building bridges between academia and the Polish medtech ecosystem. Coordinates the programme's data science track.

Medical informatics Clinical data AI in healthcare

infeinfo.pwr.edu.pl ↗