Entry requirementsFor entry onto the programme students will need either: * An appropriate life sciences degree or degree equivalent from a recognised academic institution Or * An appropriate professional qualification or experience acceptable to the Programme Director and Institute Postgraduate Tutor.
Academic titleMSc/PG Dip Healthcare Research Methods
Course descriptionMSc/PG Dip
One year full-time, two to five years part-time
Programme description
Over the last 30 years healthcare research and drug development have been transformed from peripheral activities carried out on an ad hoc basis to become core activities that require trained, professional, staff. However, the education and training of staff involved in healthcare research and drug development has not kept pace with the scientific and regulatory changes that have occurred over this period. For this reason the Clinical Pharmacology Centre of the William Harvey Research Institute, in association with the Barts and The London NHS Trust and Hammersmith Medicines Research, has developed modular postgraduate programmes in healthcare research and in clinical drug development. The programmes are designed to give individuals the necessary academic background and specialist skills needed to carry out clinical drug development or healthcare research in a contract research organisation, pharmaceutical industry or Health Service environment.
Our target audience is graduates, nurses, medical doctors and other health professionals working in contract research organisations, the pharmaceutical industry and healthcare.
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Programme outline
The modular nature of the programme is designed to fit in with the needs of those students who are in full-time employment. The taught elements of the modules are delivered in three-day blocks every six weeks.
Core modules
* Clinical Study Design
* Practical Aspects of Clinical Research and Early Drug Development
* Ethics and Regulation
* Data Management and Statistics
* Specific Topics in Clinical Trial Design
* Elective Dissertation
* Health Outcomes and Pharmacoeconomics Marketing Healthcare
* Research Project/Dissertation
Study options include
* Health and the Human Body
* Healthcare Organisation and Decision Making
* Drug Discovery and Preclinical Research and Development
* Toxicology
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Assessment
For a Postgraduate diploma, students must complete and pass eight modules. Successful completion of a further four modules, two of which will comprise of a critical dissertation of approximately 20,000 words, are required for the MSc award.
The assessment of the taught modules is 100 per cent by continuous assessment with submission by the student of either essay-style answers or a series of shorter answers or a mixture of both. These are marked and returned to the students according to a timetable specified in the Programme Handbook. There is no formal examination.