The Department of Biomedical Informatics at the College of Life Sciences of Central South University originated from the Department of Medical Library and Information Science established in 1987 at Hunan Medical University. It was renamed the Department of Medical Information in 1995, then restructured as the Department of Information Management in 1998. In 2002, it was transferred to the College of Medical Technology and Information at Central South University and renamed the Department of Medical Information. In 2006, the department was incorporated into Xiangya Schoo of Medicine of Central South University. In 2015, it merged into the Institute of Information Security and Big Data at Central South University. Finally, in 2019, the department was integrated into the College of Life Sciences and renamed the Department of Biomedical Informatics.

The Department of Biomedical Informatics currently has 18 faculty members, including 3 professors, 12 associate professors, and 3 lecturers. It holds one doctoral and master's degree authorization program at the secondary discipline level (Department of Biomedical Informatics) and one professional degree authorization program (Libraries and Information Science). The department has successively established programs such as Medical Libraries and Information Science (1987), Information Management and Information Systems (1998), Medical Informatics (2000), and Bioinformatics (2013). Graduate admissions cover doctoral programs in Medical Information Management (2006), Biomedical Informatics (2023), and Biomedical Engineering (2023), as well as master's programs in Libraries and Information Management (2004), Medical Information Management (2026), Biomedical Informatics (2023), Public Information Resource Management (2020), and Libraries and Information Science (2014). The department is equipped with 2 undergraduate teaching laboratories, 3 graduate study rooms, and 1 research laboratory.