MSc Health Data Science / Course details

Central to any efforts to build an efficient health care system, or in supporting evidence-based medicine, is the need to capture information around patient diagnosis and medical treatment. At the core of this activity is the development of electronic patient records.

Good quality electronic patient records require us to have systematic and unambiguous tools for recording the health state of a patient, and the treatments they receive. This unit provides a basic introduction to the development and use of electronic patient records, their long history, and the challenges still to be overcome.

Part 1: Coding

• Introduce students to basic concepts in coding systems used in health care
• Examine the history of coding schemes in medicine
• Explore some of the current coding schemes in detail (Read codes) and discuss future developments (Snomed)
• Examine some of the issues and problems around the use and maintenance of coding schemes
• Discuss the development and deployment of electronic patient records (EPRs)
• Explore some of the current coding schemes in detail SNOMED CT, ICD, and their evolution from previous systems (Read codes).

Part 2: Sharing

• Introduce students to basic concepts in of interoperability in health care
• Introduce basic messaging concepts, including an overview of HL7 FHIR
• Introduce issues and problems around data interoperability
• Examine strategies for data integration

Part3: Human Factors 

EPRs in practice

• Introduce students to basic concepts in of organisational and human factors in e-health
• Explore issues of EPRs in practice
• Introduce basic concepts around qualitative research methodologies
• Introduce basic concepts around useability in healthcare
• Introduce concepts around organisational change in the health service

• Basic understanding of electronic patient records. An understanding of the complexities and problems in capturing clinical data. An understanding of the ethical and privacy issues surrounding medical data governance.

• An understanding of the theoretical underpinning of coding schemes and data sharing protocols. Critical evaluation of health care literature around EPRs

• Basic familiarity with the process of medical coding. Ability to understand the processes involved in mapping between different coding schemes. Ability to understand the processes involved in medical data sharing. Ability to critically evaluate current literature on EPRs.

• Interdisciplinary teamworking.  Self-directed learning. Reflection upon learning.

Students work in groups exploring health informatics issues around a particular disease pathway. During each day of the course groups will report back on two occasions on the work they have done - and on which they will receive formative feedback from the course tutors. Students will keep a record of their groupwork activities and make this available to their tutors. Students will, as a group, develop a presentation file showcasing their groupwork. Students will receive formative and summative feedback on their groupwork and presentation (30 marks total) The main (70%) assessment is an individual report which may be based on this work or on any patient-centric aspect of Health Informatics applications, bringing in the themes of this course. Students will be given detailed feedback on any report plan before the final report is written.