MSc Digital Healthcare

James Harte Assist. Prof. of Biomedical Engineering and MSc coordinator

Institute of Digital Healthcare, WMG

University of Warwick

The application of appropriate technologies for the promotion of health, prevention & management of disease or delivery of health services; developing enhanced healthcare provision and promoting wellness.

Digital healthcare a definition…

Clinical case study

Lives alone, no relatives living

nearby

History of hypertension/high

blood pressure

Overweight with some

mobility problems

Case study – medical history

Mr Ben Müller, age 77

Smart environments for

independent living

Smart environments for independent living

The Wrist Wearable Unit android based wrist worn mobile phone

The Wrist Wearable Unit android based wrist worn mobile phone

Tri-axis accelerometry; GPS; Camera

ADL; Falls; Messaging; HR

Part of a wider system so can perform

communications and messaging function

Outdoors – GPS for geofencing/ activity

Data automatically

transmitted to emergency

department

Resuscitation unit alerted

Emergency department

Diagnosis agreed on with

remote specialists

Cerebrovascular accident

Rapid loss of brain function

due to disturbance in blood

supply

Transfer to hyper-acute

stroke unit

Normally administered

thrombolysis to break up the

blood clot

Ischemic stroke clinical diagnosis

Physiological/vital signs

• Extremely high blood pressure

• Risk of excessive bleeding

Electronic health record

• Current prescribed medication

• Medical history

• Hypertension

Drug database

• Risk of adverse interaction effect

Portable vital sign sensors

Automatic alerts

Discharge &

rehabilitation

Mr Müller

Physiotherapy

Occupational health

Social services

Community nurse

GP

Stroke unit

Remote cognitive and physical rehabilitation

programme

Progress monitored and reviewed remotely

Research & variational analysis of

patient journey

All data regarding Mr Müller’s stroke is

logged

Database compiled on 100s/1000s of

patient experiences

Improvements to care pathway

University of Warwick why study with us?

Top UK university for teaching and

research (ranked 5th in UK by Guardian 2012)

Strong international reputation (Top 50

World University, QS rankings)

Vibrant international student community (120 nationalities; 33% of student body is International)

Award winning campus and facilities

Outstanding reputation with employers (1st in UK for employability according to High Flyers Survey

2013; Joint 4th in world for employability, QS rankings)

WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) who are we?

Largest academic department in the Faculty of Science, University of

Warwick

Established in 1980 to bridge the gap between industry and academia

One of the world’s leading research groups using applied cutting edge

research and effective knowledge transfer to work collaboratively with

hundreds of industrial partners

High research content in the Masters course enables students to develop

expertise in their field of interest (dissertation topic)

The Institute of Digital Healthcare

A world-class £4M 5-year

funded partnership between

the NHS, WMG, WMS and

other organisations

who are we?

MSc in Digital Healthcare course structure

Full MSc awarded for successful completion of 10 x 1-week

long modules (assessed by PMA) + Research project (50%)

– MSc Digital Healthcare

– MSc Digital Healthcare (engineering)

– MSc Digital Healthcare (clinical) [2014 start]

Both full-time (1 year) and part-time (3 years) registration

available

Also offering PgCert (6 modules) & PgAward (3 modules)

Engineering + physical scientists

Clinicians + allied health professionals

Inter-disciplinary team-based learning

Core modules

• Intro. Biomedical engineering

• Intro. Medical informatics

• Research methods

• Contemporary topics in digital healthcare

• Going beyond lean: Healthcare delivery system models

Elective modules (Oct. 2013)

• Leadership

• Management of change

• Organisations, people and performance

• Project planning, management and control

• Service design and delivery

Engineering focus (Oct. 2013)

• MATLAB programming for signal analysis

• Biomedical signal processing for digital healthcare

• Computational intelligence techniques for biomedical signals

Clinical focus (expected 2014)

• Exploring & improving public understanding of health and disease

• Clinical knowledge & decision support

• T.B.C

Employment opportunities

Product & service development – Point of care telehealth/telecare solutions

– Patient management programmes

– Monitoring technologies (i.e. wrist-worn activity monitors; mobile app

development)

– Rehabilitation technologies (i.e. Hearing aids/cochlear implants)

Public/private healthcare providers – Commissioning of technology/services (i.e. rehabilitation, telecare,)

– Service evaluation/improvement

– Primary/secondary care professionals