Usher Institute

STUDY WITH US: Upskilling with Health Data Science course

Data science is revolutionising how medicine is understood, how biomedical research is conducted and how healthcare is delivered.

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Despite the widely-recognised opportunities that data can bring to biomedicine and healthcare, there is a shortage of data skills in the healthcare sector. This course offered by the Usher Institute at The University of Edinburgh, aims to equip healthcare professionals with the key foundations and data skills that are needed for data-driven innovation. It provides a gentle introduction to key concepts, principles and methods of data science in health, enabling you to explore the potential for data to transform healthcare. You will learn how to use current data science tools to process healthcare data for effective analysis and reporting and gain practical experience in working with data. You will also gain critical understandings of ethical and legal implications of working with healthcare data.

The course is for anyone working in health or social care or computational roles who are interested in starting a career in data science OR graduates who are seeking to develop data science skills that can be applied in health, social and care services. This is an introductory Masters-level course (SCQF Level 11). It provides foundational skills and/or an overview of the subject – no prior knowledge is needed. Masters-level courses are relatively intensive and require independent learning, critical thinking, analysis and reflection.

As this course is designed mainly for health and care professionals, we expect our students to have qualifications or work experience in such environments (e.g. NHS National Services, Acute/Community/Public health), Third sector organisations, Social Services, Nursing homes, pharmaceutical companies, diagnostic laboratories, etc.). An understanding of the fundamentals of maths and statistics (at Higher level) would be advantageous but is not a prerequisite for joining the course. You should be educated to a degree level as this course is catering for those seeking postgraduate academic credit. However, professionals who are involved with managing services and caseloads and have 5 years of work experience may also apply even if they do not hold a degree qualification.

Funded places are available to those who meet Scottish Funding Council (SFC) fee waiver criteria. 

Courses/provision is open to all Scottish-domiciled/’home fee’ students, which is consistent with SFC’s policy for core funded student places. Students from the rest of the UK (rUK) are not normally considered eligible for SFC funding. If however a university is working with a Scottish/UK employer which has a physical presence or operating in Scotland, rUK employees of that employer would be eligible. If your fee status is Scotland Fee Rate, RUK Fee Rate, or EU-EEA Pre/Settled Scotland Fee rate, you may be eligible for a funded upskilling place. To determine this we will look at your fee status, residency information and, where relevant, details of your employer, to confirm whether the employer is based in, or has a significant presence, in Scotland. Funding eligibility will be assessed at the point of each application and  you may be asked to provide further information if you do not meet the general residence conditions.

Please email bayes-training@ed.ac.uk if you would like to discuss your funding eligibility before applying.

Complete this online form to apply for the course that starts on 19 September and lasts 10 weeks