Course description

Our Health Data Science course aims to create a new breed of scientist who can understand the healthcare sector and medicine, how data is collected and analysed, and how this can be communicated to influence various stakeholders.

The current model of healthcare delivery in the UK is subject to unprecedented challenges. An ageing population, the impact of lifestyle factors and increasing costs mean that the existing approaches may become unsustainable.

This, coupled with a drive towards personalised medicine, presents an opportunity for a step change in healthcare delivery.

To do this, we need to make best use of the health data we collect and create a better understanding of the relationship between treatments, outcomes, patients and costs.

This MSc promotes the need for translational thinking to provide the knowledge, skills and understanding that will be applied across new challenges within healthcare delivery.

Students from a variety of professional backgrounds will benefit from the course, as the structure of the MSc ensures that you will share this knowledge with each other and learn to work in multidisciplinary teams, rather than in specialist silos.

Aims

This course will allow you to:

• gain key background knowledge and an understanding of the healthcare system, from the treatment of individuals to the wider population;
• gain an understanding of the governance structures and frameworks used when working with health data and in the healthcare sector;
• experience key technical skills and software for working with and manipulating health data;
• understand the breadth and depth of application methods and the potential uses of health data;
• comprehend key concepts and distinctions of the disciplines that need to be synthesised for effective health data science;
• appreciate the role of the health data scientist and how they fit into the wider healthcare landscape;
• understand the importance of patient-focused delivery and outcomes;
• develop the in-depth knowledge, understanding and analytical skills needed to work with health data effectively to improve healthcare delivery;
• develop a systematic and critical understanding of relevant knowledge, theoretical frameworks and analytical skills to demonstrate a critical understanding of the challenges and issues arising from heterogeneous data at volume and scale, and turn them into insight for healthcare delivery, research and innovation;
• apply practical understanding and skills to problems in healthcare;
• work in a multi-disciplinary community and communicate specialist knowledge of how to use health data to a diverse community;
• evaluate the effectiveness of techniques and methods in relation to health challenges and the issues addressed;
• extend your knowledge, understanding and ability to contribute to the advancement of healthcare delivery knowledge, research or practice through the systematic, in-depth exploration of a specific area of practice and/or research.

Career opportunities

Data science is increasing in importance in the fields of medicine and public health, where we can determine how to best design treatments and allocate resources based on analysis of health and related data.

For students completing this MSc, there will be a wealth of career opportunities available in the NHS, industry and academia. It is envisaged there is a need for 52,000 data scientists in the UK alone.