Online CourseThe Power of Data Science for Health and Social Care

Why this Course?

This course offers up to date upskilling for individuals and public and private organisations in health and care data analytics. The course is designed to equip participants with the ability to understand, communicate and manage:
  • The value of data science and analytics for improving health and care service design and provision
  • Data Collection, Preparation and Management
  • Data Analytics Methods and Tools and their practical uses
  • Ethics and Information governance considerations 
  • How to generate and communicate meaningful insight from analytics

Who should take this course?

This course is aimed at people within the Health and Care sector (Health Boards, Local Authorities and Third Sector) and more generally those within the technology enabled care eco-system that have a common interest in the meaningful use of data for improving services and generating insight into how to manage and deliver care.

“The more people at all levels in an organisation who possess a level of knowledge of data science skills the greater the likelihood we can deliver safe, effective and relevant care to those who need it, both now and in the future” - Prof George Crooks, CEO of Digital Health and Care Institute.

Why study with us

Our two academic departments - Computer and Information Sciences and Management Science - along with the Institute for Future Cities are acknowledged across the sector for their experience and insight in the application of data management and analytics and for their expertise in digital health and care.

Our key sector specialist advisors (including Scottish Government, NHS24, Digital Health and Care Institute) have helped us to ensure the course is relevant and future proofed for this fast moving sector and also bring the data stories and challenges to life making the learning engaging for participants.

Entry Requirements

Learners need very little existing data experience but must have an appreciation of how health and care is changing.  You would need to know how data would enable you to incrementally build and advance from basic knowledge (provided by our MOOC) all the way to gaining basic data science skills (through the online learning course).  

This 6 week online course is a direct follow on from our MOOC which runs for 3 weeks.

There are also several follow on Educational and Skills courses available on completion of the course including Taught Masters, CPD and Research Opportunities at the University of Strathclyde.


Learning Objectives and Outcomes

You will become familiar with the concept and benefits of:

  • closed, shared and open data, 
  • best practices around data governance, 
  • ethics and data and information management, with leading interdisciplinary teams into a digital transformation 
  • and successfully creating, managing and delivering data projects within their teams and organisations.

You will come to understand:
  • tools and techniques for efficient data management in the health and care sector, 
  • data governance, 
  • collecting the right health and care data that can lead to better decision making and service redesign opportunities, 
  • and should bring an understanding of the power of data analytics and visualisation.

You will apply the knowledge and skills gained to fully utilise:
  • resources (data) more effectively and efficiently against the backdrop and pressures of austerity, 
  • the demographic shift along with multi-morbidity within the population and enable them to create services that are sustainable.

You will be given the opportunity:
  • to bring together various aspects of the course context such as data governance, 
  • tools for creation, 
  • curation and analysis of the data and knowledge gained about business cases and data sharing to reflect on their combined and interacting effects. 

This will allow organisation to unlock the multiplier effect of data literate middle and senior management staff, collaborating with data scientists in interdisciplinary teams and benefit from the positive impact on the bottomline of the organisations.

You will combine learning in a summative task which applies the course content in an area of their own work or personal knowledge.

The primary learners will be:
  • able to understand the data and information governance and regulations that surround data specific to the health and care sector, gain insight into the power of good data management practices through business cases and case studies, 
  • understand why and how to collect data effectively, 
  • what data should be collected and what the data can then be used for. 

These courses will allow you to understand how you can use the data you collect, share/open/analyse their data to make more informed decisions harnessing more value eg. to develop new services, optimisation of staff, efficiency gains, increase quality or even spot where quality is failing etc.

You will also be able to apply these skills and methods using practical examples and case studies within their domain. In addition you will have the ability to potentially carry out projects around digital transformation and lead your teams into interdisciplinary data projects, brief data scientist departments and partners. The course will enable you to work collaboratively, supporting them to open their appropriate data sets to a more shared model, which could bring mutual service benefits.

Completion of the course including any assessment scores – which staff can include in their portfolios of evidence for CPD etc. Details on the certificate of SCQF level and number of hours of study recognised at this level. This would serve as a form of accreditation. The online course will be assessed and scored for those who successfully complete Module 6.

Creators and Funders

The core course content development team is University of Strathclyde in partnership with UrbanTide. These two organisations interacted with private and public health and care partners and advisors around case study development, data supply, and additional course content needs (e.g. interviews with key experts etc.).

Related Areas

Strathclyde offers 4 MSc programs in related areas that could potentially lead to follow on courses, and the MOOCand online course will also provide a very good introduction to these programs, offering potential students the chance to find out about the wide range and applicability of these techniques. The 4 MSc programs are: 
  • MSc in Data Analytics
  • MSc in Advanced Computer Science with Big Data
  • MSc in Digital Health Systems
  • MSc in Applied Statistics in Health Sciences
We would expect people to progress from the MOOC to the Online Course, with exceptions some online course participants who are confident in their level of skills and understand around data might skip the MOOC and enroll to the online course directly. 

Fees

£350 - or discounted at £280 for University of Strathclyde staff, people who have completed the MOOC, and health and social care professionals in the public sector.

What will you gain from the Course?

The great benefit of participating in these courses will not only give you a greater understanding of why data is playing a more important part in service delivery, digital transformation and future redesign.  Which will impact directly on the way you deliver health and care in the future, but will also give you the knowledge and tools to be able to apply this to your working practices.  To undertake some data analysis which will help you develop better reporting and the ability to brief their data scientist departments and partners and create compelling analytics that will make a real difference in designing new services, business cases and influencing policy.