The Healthcare Innovation Programme is a set of three new successive part-time courses designed to fit with the demands of full-time employment, leading to PgCert, PgDip and Master of Studies qualifications. Applications for the first year of the programme are closing in April.
The objective of the programme is to provide knowledge and understanding of the healthcare system and the technologies applicable to this sector, giving students the expertise and skills needed to innovate successfully in healthcare.
The course is suitable for those with a background in medicine, engineering, or a related area.
The Healthcare Innovation Programme is delivered through a combination of face-to-face sessions requiring attendance in Cambridge, online sessions, and self-directed learning, and is supported through a virtual online environment.
Students will be equipped with the skills necessary to understand how biomedical engineering impacts upon populations, health conditions and clinical outcomes, and learn how to work across the boundaries of engineering, design and healthcare in an effective manner.
The programme is structured such that students can progress from the Postgraduate Certificate in Healthcare Innovation (PgCert), through the Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Innovation: Engineering, Systems and Improvement (PgDip) and then on to the Master of Studies in Healthcare Innovation: Engineering, Systems and Improvement (MSt) in a flexible manner, enrolling each year for the corresponding award if they choose to progress, with breaks allowed along the way.
The main driving force of this programme is the ambition to enhance the ability of people to innovate in the healthcare sector, requiring a challenging set of skills and knowledge. Innovators in healthcare are presented with many barriers to the implementation of their ideas, from technical difficulties, regulatory and environmental sustainability concerns to a multitude of difficulties in navigating the NHS and wider healthcare system. Subsequently, a great many of these ideas fail. Hence there is a need to interweave the development of new technologies with the surrounding healthcare system to allow them to be deployed widely and to operate successfully. This course aims to help innovators to engage with the practicalities of applying these technologies in the healthcare ecosystem.
"The challenges of innovation in healthcare span both technical issues and navigating the complexities of the healthcare system. I am very excited to be launching this suite of courses which will provide people wanting to work in this sector the broad range of skills needed to succeed in helping improve people's health." Michael Sutcliffe, Professor of Biomedical Engineering.
The programme is targeted at both mid-career and new graduates who wish to develop their knowledge and skills in the healthcare innovation field, while continuing with their current employment. The courses are broadly based and inter-disciplinary and students from any technical or healthcare-related discipline are welcomed.
It is expected that an applicant’s first degree will be in a subject relevant, or related to, life sciences, medical sciences, computation or engineering, but other backgrounds will be considered. The courses are structured to accommodate a range of backgrounds, but enthusiasm for learning new methodologies, technologies and approaches to healthcare innovation will be important.
The course is a collaboration between the Department of Engineering and the Department of Public Health and Primary Care.
For more information about The Healthcare Innovation Programme of courses and how to apply visit the Healthcare Innovation: Engineering, Systems and Improvement website.
Applications close on 17 April 2023 for the first year of the course (starting in September 2023).
Other Healthcare Innovation courses offered by the University of Cambridge:
- Engineering Better Care (short courses in a systems approach to design/improvement)
- MSt in Healthcare Data: Informatics, Innovation and Commercialization (currently paused, but likely to be relaunched for 2024)
