Course overview

Are you good with people, interested in health and wellbeing, curious about digital technologies?

By studying WMG’s new BSc in Digital Healthcare Science, you will learn how to support individuals to help themselves to better health and wellbeing, and to use leading-edge science and technology to contribute to improving health services for individual users. The degree has been developed as a result of a recognised need from our NHS partners for a new type of Health Science Practitioner.

With four sciences – behavioural science; healthcare and physiological sciences; science of digital healthcare; science of shared clinical decision-making – interwoven throughout the programme, this course will provide a breadth of scientific training. This will include high-level consultation skills; a holistic, evidence- and values-based approach to shared decision making; and clinical physiology. You will also develop the knowledge and skills to work with the digital technologies that play an ever-increasing role in supporting health and wellbeing.

The course will be a mix of taught sciences and practical placements. Teaching will be blended in each of the first two years, into five concentrated learning blocks, blended into five concentrated learning blocks. Between these blocks, you will complete a programme of activities including a clinical placement. . Your third year continues to build on this and addresses practice and research in more depth.

---

Course structure

Four sciences are interwoven throughout the programme:

1. Behavioural Science
2. Healthcare and Physiological sciences
3. Science of Digital Healthcare
4. Science of Shared Clinical Decision-making

This course will give you a breadth of scientific training including high-level consultation skills; a holistic, evidence- and values-based approach to shared decision making; and clinical physiology. You will also develop the knowledge and skills to work with the digital technologies that play an ever-increasing role in supporting health and wellbeing.

The theme for Year One is 'individuals, wellbeing, choices and decisions'. You will be introduced to the concepts of digital healthcare, and of personalised health and wellbeing. You will gain an understanding of the science of wellbeing; nutrition, metabolism and physical activity; health behaviour; and clinical decision-making.

In Year Two you will learn to support people within their context, and to optimise digital healthcare technologies as part of that support. From big data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and the design of digital healthcare systems, to applied behavioural science and the psychology of mental health, you will be able to understand the importance of context and personalisation and the digital systems that can support this approach.

Year Three continues to build on this and addresses practice and research in more depth.

---

How will I learn?

The course will be a mix of taught sciences and practical placements.

The course will be a mix of taught sciences, blended into five concentrated learning blocks each year. Between these concentrated blocks, you will complete a programme of activities including a clinical placement.

Before each teaching block, you will study a virtual case designed to integrate the different strands of science learning on that block. This case-based learning will incorporate personal and group study, web-based discussions and tutor interaction.

The third year comprises four taught modules, a placement-learning project, and a 30-credit work based project/dissertation.

---

How will I be assessed?

The course has been designed so that your learning is integrated across the sciences and a Personal and Professional Development (PPD) strand. Your assessments will also be integrated to reflect that.

In the first two years you will complete three written assignments per year, as well as being marked on the quality of the work demonstrated in your learning log, which you will maintain throughout the course. At the end of each year there will be a practical examination known as an 'Objective Structured Science and Clinical Examination'.

Throughout the course you will have formative tests to help you ensure that your learning is on track. You will also have regular tests within your Health placements:

• Case-based Discussions (CBD) where you will talk about someone you have engaged with in the workplace, showing your supervisor that you have a grasp of the important points
• Directly Observed Practical Skills (DOPS) where you demonstrate your competence to an educational supervisor.

Your third year research project is assessed not only through your written report, but also by your presentation. You will also be expected to engage in a professional discussion with an assessor and in an 'Observed Clinical Event'. This is to demonstrate your handling of a typical situation that might be encountered by a health and wellbeing scientist.