Do you want to use data and technology to tackle the biggest health challenges of our time?

Public health is entering a new era, one defined by electronic health records, machine learning, genomics, and the intelligent use of vast health datasets. The ability to analyse and act on complex information is reshaping how we understand, prevent, and treat disease.

This course prepares you to be at the forefront of that transformation. By combining statistics, programming, informatics, and epidemiology, you’ll learn to bridge disciplines, lead interdisciplinary teams, and help shape the future of data-driven public health, making a genuine impact on people’s lives worldwide.

Health Data Science at LSHTM

LSHTM is a world leader in the use of health data for research, with expertise in the creation, linkage and analysis of a wide range of data sources, encompassing data on environmental and social factors as well as ‘omic data, both human and pathogen. In addition, LSHTM has global reach and a large international network of partnerships enabling data science collaborations worldwide.

Our electronic health records (EHR) work encompasses pharmacoepidemiology, phenotyping, vaccine effectiveness/safety, health policy assessment, and infectious disease surveillance. We have expertise in using national audits for quality improvement and developing NHS performance indicators. Our work is underpinned by an internationally recognised group of biostatistical methodologists.

Our expertise in pandemic preparedness, outbreak response and infectious disease modelling is also world-leading, and has played an important role in the UK and international response to epidemics including COVID-19, Zika and Ebola. We routinely use methods and approaches taught in this course to analyse epidemiological and clinical data, forecast outbreak trajectories and model the effects of different intervention strategies.

Is this the right programme for me?

Medical Statistics, Epidemiology, and Health Data Science are closely related disciplines. We offer Master's degrees in each of these disciplines. Here are some of the differences in emphasis between them:

• MSc Health Data Science
  • explores a range of machine learning techniques
  • has a greater focus on computational data skills, including programming and tools for data management
  • has a greater focus on professional skills training (e.g. teamwork, project management, presentation skills)
• MSc Medical Statistics
  • has a greater focus on the theoretical underpinnings of the statistical methods studied
  • explores study design, for both clinical trials and observational studies
  • includes a more in-depth exploration of certain statistical methods (e.g. models for hierarchical data)
• MSc Epidemiology
  • has a greater focus on developing the research question
  • includes an in-depth exploration of study design, protocol development and conducting appropriate statistical analyses
  • emphasises the ability to critically appraise studies and interpret results
  • offers the opportunity to learn about concepts and techniques specific to the study of infectious diseases