Graduate Certificate Programme in Health Services Innovation (GCP-HSI)
Background
Healthcare professionals require the skills and confidence to lead health services research. Clinical staff and service managers face challenges that will not go away. They must respond to population growth and aging, increasing prevalence of chronic diseases, which are costly to manage under current configurations of services, and they must reduce waste and inefficiency.
Innovation to improve the performance of health services is increasingly relevant, yet delivering this innovation requires specialised knowledge and the ability to collaborate with existing Health Services Research groups.
The Graduate Certificate Programme in Health Services Innovation was approved by Ministry of Education in February 2020 to build capacity for innovation, build relationships with researchers and promote services that provide value.
The specific objectives of the Graduate Certificate Programme are:
i) To build a sustainable training programme in health services innovation;
ii) To increase skills and confidence for health services research;
iii) To train a workforce to identify opportunities for improvement, measure and improve patient outcomes, demonstrate and improve value for money, and implement evidence into practice sustainably.
Modules
The Graduate Certificate Programme offers four modules:
Module 1: Implementation Science (4 modular credit)
This module will introduce health care professionals to the principles of translating evidence for better services into a clinical setting. Participants will learn processes and factors associated with successful integration of evidence-based interventions within a particular setting, assess whether the core components of the original intervention were faithfully transported to the real-world setting and gain new knowledge about the adaptation of the implemented intervention to the local context.
On successful completion of this module, students will be able to:
- Design interventions based on community, patient, clinician and organizational inputs to translate findings into clinical practice, policy and public health
- Design evaluations of interventions that translate evidence into practice
- Develop better proposals
- Develop a design for a research implementation and/or a dissemination and evaluation project
Module 2: Research Methods for Health Services Research (4 modular credit)
This module is about the basic principles of research and how they apply to health services research. It will include a discussion of hypothesis testing, the different types of data used for research and a formal treatment of Fisherian inference will be provided. The theory will be shown in practice with worked examples and there will be a general discussion of the reproducibility crisis. Different approaches to assess causality and associations are taught. An introduction to qualitative research methods is provided and participants are taught how to design good surveys.
Upon completion of the module, students should be able to:
- Articulate the research process and formally state a hypothesis
- Understand Type I and II error
- Be able to critique published research that uses a range of study designs
- Understand the different approaches to assessing causality used in health services research
- Apply the methods of qualitative research
- Understand the requirements for good survey design
Module 3: Health Technology Assessment, Economic Evaluation and Decision Making (4 modular credit)
You will learn about Heath Technology Assessment and Cost-Effectiveness Analysis, and how they relate to decision making for health services. Health Technology Assessment is a well-established tool used when decisions need to be made quickly. Often there is no time for new data collection or a dedicated research effort. It is an exercise in synthesizing current evidence and responding appropriately. Economic evaluation, and cost-effectiveness, emerge from welfare economics and offer a theory based approach to informing choice and trade-offs given scarcity of resources. Often, new data are required or a more formal research approach is used. Various modelling approaches are used to complete economic evaluations.
Upon completion of the module, students should be able to:
- Complete their own health technology assessment project and understand the rationale and methods for doing one.
- Understand the principles of welfare economics, market failures and how they apply to the supply of health care services.
- Be able to build and evaluate a cost-effectiveness model
- Be able to read and interpret a published cost-effectiveness study, able to collaborate with a health economist for a new study.
- Understand the scientific paradigms of decision making and how they come into conflict with traditional scientific approaches.
Module 4: Healthcare + Data Science (4 modular credit)
This module exposes students to the foundation concepts, case studies and applications, some mathematics behind data science models and algorithms. There will also be practical sessions for model development, training, validation and tests. Students will acquire new knowledge of data science techniques. The new knowledge from this course will enable predictions to be made about likely diagnoses, prognoses of health conditions and risks of adverse events.
There will also be a mini-project and healthcare case studies to demonstrate the applicability of data science as a key enabler for improving the delivery of health services.
Upon completion, students should be able to:
- Understand the value and application of data science for the future of health services
- Develop the ability to independently conduct health data science projects
Eligibility
We seek doctors, nurses, allied health and professional staff from health services. Both Singaporean and International applicants are welcome. To be eligible, you need a Bachelor’s Degree in a Health, Information Technology or a Management discipline. Work experience instead of a Bachelor’s Degree can be considered on a case-by-case basis. The goal is to help develop future clinical and non-clinical leaders to drive innovation, engage in research and redesign services. We seek enthusiastic participants willing to join a high performing cohort and have impact on health services.
Teaching
Two modules are run each year, and the programme lasts 2 years. The modules are 5 full days taught for 3 days, a month break then 2 days. Assessment is by short class exams, individual assignments and group work. All modules are fully stackable into a Master’s programme.
Contact
If you are interested in the Graduate Certificate Programme, please feel free to contact Prof Nicholas Graves (n.graves@duke-nus.edu.sg).