So this is a brand new programme that we're launching this year
at the School and we're really excited about it.
Health Data Science is a pretty new discipline and it's a blend of
epidemiology, statistics, mathematics,
informatics and computer science
so it really is at the intersection of a lot of different disciplines.
The idea of the programme is to create graduates who
are able to manage and handle
really large, messy healthcare data sets
from various sources and to bring them all together
in an analysable format.
And then they need to be able to anaylse the data using
statistical machine learning approaches,
and draw useful insights from the data.
And at that point they need to be able to communicate the results
to various stakeholders. So they need to be able to talk
to other data scientists about the methods they've used,
talk to the clinicians to really understand the disease
they're looking at, to communicate to the lab scientists
who might have generated some of the data that's being analysed,
and most importantly of all,
they need to be able to communicate clearly and transparently
with patients and the public.
Because at the heart of all health data science projects
is the patient or the public. So because
there's a lot of excitement about Health Data Science,
there's several programmes being launched as we speak
across the UK and beyond. And they all have
slightly different focuses. So what's unique
about our programme?
Well firstly, our global focus.
So LSHTM's mission is to improve health and health equity
globally, and that will be really reflected
in the way we teach Health Data Science.
We'll have a very global focus,
so our lecturers will be drawn from several
international experts,
and students will have the opportunity to undertake their summer research projects
with one of our global sites
or global partners. The second
distinctive aspect of this programme is
the strong partnerships with a range of bodies
involved in Health Data Science.
So we have partnerships with pharmaceutical companies,
international healthcare consultancies,
health tech SMEs and multi-national
technology companies,
and our links with these companies will enable us to bring
exciting speakers in to talk about the cutting edge
of Health Data Science, and also allow
our students to have a very wide range of options
about where to do their summer research projects.
We're looking for students who have a very strong quantitative background,
students who have an undergraduate in mathematics
or statistics or a related field would
be ideal. It's really important that any applicant
to the programme has a basic understanding of probability,
linear algebra and calculus,
because those really are the building blocks of everything else we teach
thereon in the programme. We're also looking for students
who have some experience of programming. We don't really mind what
language that's in: R, Python or something else,
but we'd like students who have at least some experience
before they start the programme. So this is a brand new programme,
we're really excited to be delivering it and looking forward
to your questions and applications.
