Public Health (Health Services Research)

This stream provides students with a broad knowledge and understanding of the concepts and methods used in studying health services and systems. Health Services Research is research that seeks to improve the quality, organisation and financing of health services. Its concern extends from the care of individuals through health care organisations to national and global health policies. This stream includes a large research component enabling students to develop their methodological skills.

Graduates from this stream go on to pursue careers in research (including further study at doctoral level) and in health services, government ministries and NGOs.

Objectives

By the end of this stream students should be able to demonstrate ability to apply knowledge of the core disciplines of public health, consisting of statistics; epidemiology; health economics; and social research, to real health problems. In addition, students will be able to:

• understand the strengths and weaknesses of different study designs
• identify, assess and synthesise evidence from research literature
• select and apply appropriate, ethical and feasible study designs to answer questions in health services and health systems research
• show competence in critically evaluating and communicating research evidence
• understand the relationship between research evidence and policy/practice.

Programme specifications - showing which of the various elements of the Course support and achieve each of these specific Objectives.

Term 1

Students take the four compulsory modules constituting the Public Health common core: Basic Epidemiology; Basic Statistics for Public Health & Policy; Introduction to Health Economics; and Principles of Social Research. In addition, students intending to follow this stream must take Health Services. The remaining module can be selected from Environment, Health & Sustainable Development; Health Policy, Process & Power; Health Promotion Theory; or Issues in Public Health.

Term 1 Module details (PDF 165K)

Terms 2 and 3

Students take a total of six study modules, one from each timetable slot. The list below shows recommended modules. Where only one study module is shown this is compulsory.

C1: Health Care Evaluation.

C2: Design & Analysis of Epidemiological Studies; Economic Analysis for Health Policy; Health Impact & Decision Analysis; Qualitative Methodologies; Statistical Methods in Epidemiology. .

D1: Economic Evaluation; Environmental Epidimiology; Medical Anthropology in Public Health; Social Epidemiology.

D2: Reviewing the Literature.

Term 2 Module details (PDF 212K)

E1: Proposal Development.

Term 3 Module details (PDF 109K)

Project Report

Each student will undertake a research project. This may begin during two of the compulsory modules in Terms 2 & 3 (Reviewing the Literature and Proposal Development) and continues full-time after the written examinations in June.

Please see the MSc Public Health overview page for further details.