Blog
The convergence of human science and data science in academia
Dr Joseph Kim, Head of IQVIA’s European Data Science Hub and Honorary Associate Professor at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
Sonya Patel, MSc, Epidemiologist, European Data Science Hub, IQVIA
Alessandra Venerus, MSc, Senior Statistician, European Data Science Hub, IQVIA
Jul 09, 2020

Shaping the next generation of experts

IQVIA has collaborated with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, in conjunction with other life sciences organisations and the public sector, to develop and deliver a new MSc graduate degree programme to support the next generation of data scientists.

When health data science meets human data science

Many have recognised the unique requirements needed to produce a new generation of professionals (“health data scientists”) who can drive the information and technology innovations, requiring specialised training that spans multiple disciplines in medicine, science and information technology. However, the demand for health data scientists currently outstrips supply, restricting the much-needed ability to implement analytics on large healthcare data.

A recent NHS report, “Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future”, articulated the need for new training programmes for health data science to support the needs of the UK healthcare system. Indeed, the demand for real world evidence has been growing in the life sciences ecosystem to improve the effectiveness and safety of medicines and is now being used to inform clinical trial design and pharmacovigilance planning, further improving treatment outcomes.

It’s critical to apply domain expertise to data science and technology to generate clinically relevant insights and reveal more about human health. IQVIA, The Human Data Science Company™, is partnering with the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to deliver their new MSc in health data science. IQVIA is providing technical and subject matter expertise to support the curriculum and contribute healthcare data and real-life worked examples, as well as face-to-face instruction on good practices for data management and the use of machine learning to generate real world evidence.

Through this collaboration, IQVIA aims to unlock the potential of big data in healthcare to advance human health, by helping to produce the next generation of health data scientists.

Accelerate improvements in healthcare outcomes

Supported by Health Data Research UK, the MSc programme is purpose-built for graduates who wish to pursue a career in either academia or industry, focusing on a range of skills, including epidemiology, biostatistics, data management of large healthcare data, machine learning as well as foundational skills in consulting and project management.

New students of the MSc in Health Data Science will matriculate in September 2020. They will be ideally placed to work in a wide variety of settings, across industry, academia and the public sector, excelling where the use of large healthcare data and advanced analytics are required as part of their job.

To learn more:
  1. - Visit the MSc Health Data Science webpage
  2. - For a limited time, to accelerate learning that addresses the transformation of healthcare systems in the COVID-19 era, IQVIA is waiving data access fees for academic researchers to two IQVIA data technology platforms, E360 and SMART: to learn more and apply, Human Data Science Research Collaborative
  3. - Read IQVIA’s blog “A Day in the Life of a Human Data Scientist"
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