Why join the course?
This credit bearing module will address a range of HealthTech innovations that are transforming the access, provision and delivery to healthcare solutions. This allows healthcare professionals and entrepreneurs to better understand healthcare technologies and to rethink the delivery and design of healthcare services. Students will develop their understanding of HealthTech and how to apply technology to drive change in healthcare systems and services. This module equips learners with a core understanding, application, and critique of innovative technologies that are shaping, or have the potential to reshape global healthcare systems.
Learners will draw on expertise from St George’s, industry experts, peers, and case studies to explore and critique ways to use underlying financial technologies to expand healthcare provision and access. The aim is that the course will nurture and create the next-gen of tech-savvy health professionals that are fully conversant and adaptable with the increasing role and impact of technology in this sector.
Audience
This course is aimed at healthcare practitioners interested in transforming healthcare services, and business or entrepreneurs looking to advance healthcare systems by providing innovative solutions or products.
No specific prior experience in clinical practice is required, but applicants will generally have some background or interest in a relevant health field to apply the learning to their own professional context. Applications from diverse roles within global healthcare systems and other industries would be welcomed as enriching the learning on the course, encouraging innovation where learners are expected to apply learning to their own contexts.
As this is a Postgraduate Level 7 course, candidates must have an undergraduate degree or equivalent relevant experience. Candidates must meet St George’s requirements for English language proficiency.
View all Close all
Today’s digital technologies have seen an unprecedented growth, allowing for smaller devices (wearable devices), increasing access to healthcare data and services (via apps and telemedicine), introducing remote monitoring (cloud-based), and increased access to personalised medicine (using machine learning/AI to make more predictive assessments for enhanced preventative care). Technology is driving a range of innovation and transformation across industries with implications for global healthcare provision and access.
All this comes at a time when there is a recognised need for the healthcare workforce to transform its practice using technology. The Topol Review (2019) explored how technological developments will transform the roles and functions of clinical staff in the next two decades and outlines the imperative that the healthcare workforce is provided with training to develop new skills that reflect these changing roles. The course will align with the NHS Long Term Workforce plan which calls for the use of digital and technological innovation to meet the changing healthcare needs of the population and to improve efficiency, with specific relevance to the use of AI and improved data flows for clinical data such as the Diagnostics Digital Capability programme. Although this alignment is relevant in the UK, such developments are not nationally specific and are of great relevance to other international healthcare systems.
The module will cover a range of innovations within the medical and/or healthcare sectors that are shaping provisions and access to global healthcare including areas of digital financial solutions, healthcare delivery, and key digital enablers. There will be cases exploring challenges in digital transformation across healthcare organisations in the areas of primary and secondary care, health companies, start-ups, insurance, etc.
The module will address a range of innovation within fintech that is shaping provision and access to global healthcare:
-
Key digital enablers (Digital platforms): Information, Analytics, Blockchain, E-Wallet, Digital ID.
-
Digital financial solutions: Digital savings - Crowdfunding (charity donations, mutual aids), Insurtech (micro insurance, specific-case insurance, defined group, outcome-based), Digital lending (point of care lending, P2P lending, microfinance)
These innovations and technologies have multiple roles within healthcare and can shape the approach of both frontline professionals and the underlying managerial and data-driven processes that underpin the healthcare systems. The course will focus on what technological innovation can bring to the delivery of healthcare services. Rather than relating to specific clinical specialties, the course will look at the impact on patient care whether through data analytics that can provide new insights, personalised care, or empower improved patient awareness and agency. It will also examine how the introduction of innovations can deliver improved efficiency within systems and processes, with a resulting benefit for patients and professionals.
Learners completing the module will be able to:
The course will be delivered in a ‘burst’ mode, with on-campus sessions at the start of the course and prior to submission of the assessment. Between these dates, student learning will take place online, using Canvas, the university’s Virtual Learning Environment. You will have the opportunity to use the online tools in Canvas to converse and share ideas with your peers on the module. Development of the assessment will run throughout the module.
Certification
This is a credit bearing standalone module. After successful completion of the assessment, students will receive a transcript for 15 credits at Level 7.