MSc Health Informatics with Data Science

Year 1

(Award available for year: Master of Science)

Learning outcomes

On completion of the programme students should have shown evidence of being able:
- Critically evaluate and analyse current research evidence from published sources and publicly available health data which drive decisions in the health domain demonstrating a sophisticated understanding of evidence synthesis and data analytic techniques.
- Demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the provenance and quality of routinely collected health data for quality improvement in care identifying opportunities for process and pathway innovation and develop strategies to effect change.
- Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the discipline specific techniques by proactively framing ‘real world’ health questions to interrogate routine health data within a framework of health data governance and apply generalisable analytical techniques to support quality improvement in health care.
- Critically evaluate and applying social science frameworks to health care systems and demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the societal context in which health professionals and patients engage with digital technologies and a self-reflective role in promoting and developing these key professional relationships.
- Proactively formulate a research question, develop and implement a methodologically robust research study evaluating and reporting on their ideas.
- Prepare students for higher research degrees in the subject area or in a wider health domain.

Transferable (key) skills

Masters (Taught) students will have had the opportunity to acquire the following abilities as defined in the modules specified for the programme:
- Develop and practice the skills for post graduate study, including IT skills, literature searching, critical reading, academic writing, time management, team building and group working.
- Ability to critically evaluate received opinions and challenge their own thinking.
- Evaluate their own achievements and those of other, working with others within multidisciplinary groups to achieve goal.
- Enhanced written and verbal communication skills.
- Take a proactive approach to planning and directing their own work, peer to peer learning, professional development and take responsibility their own academic integrity.
- Practical understanding of skills necessary to undertake research at a higher level either as part of a MDT, as an individual or promoting best evidence based practice in a range of settings.

Assessment

Achievement for the degree of Master (taught programme) will be assessed by a variety of methods in accordance with the learning outcomes of the modules specified for the year/programme and will involve the achievement of the students in:
- Demonstrating the ability to apply breadth and/or depth of knowledge to explore complex issues relating to health data/health informatics and it’s role in health and care improvement by critically evaluating the current evidence base.
- Demonstrating the ability to apply their knowledge in a complex and changing digital environment
- Demonstrating their knowledge of governance, data flows and data sets (aggregate level data available from NHS Digital and datasets collated at https://github.com/beamandrew/medical-data. Including MRI images, EEG timeseries, and data derived from electronic healthcare records) by applying appropriate data handling and analytic techniques.
- Drawing on a range of perspectives, including patient/clients in the implementation of technological advances.
- Comprehending the concepts of decision making in uncertainty and understand when their own judgments and knowledge can be reasoned and fully reported.