MSc in Applied Digital Health
This MSc is a one-year, full-time course, designed to teach the interdisciplinary knowledge and skills needed in the fast-growing area of digital health.
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Course aims
The interdisciplinary expertise and skills taught in this MSc programme all underlie one unifying concept: the use of digital tools to improve health outcomes in the real world. You will learn how to critically evaluate, harness and advance the tools, practices and process of digital health care. Whatever your previous academic background – be it clinical medicine, software engineering or any number of other fields – our aim is that upon graduation you be well placed to do pioneering work in the digital health sector.
multidisciplinary and expert led
The course draws on the expertise of faculty from across the University to create an interdisciplinary learning experience, spanning medicine, social and behavioural science, economics, engineering, artificial intelligence and data science.
The course is further enriched by linking to the department's Oxford Institute of Digital Health, National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Oxford & Thames Valley Applied Research Collaboration (ARC), which is hosted by NDPCHS (led by Theme Lead John Powell, Academic Co-Director for this MSc), as well as the NIHR Community Healthcare MedTech and IVD Cooperative and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Center.
Who is this course designed for?
Aimed at early or mid-career professionals, entrants to this course will come from a wide range of backgrounds, including clinical medicine, public health, medical sociology, psychology, statistics, computer science and engineering. While no pre-existing knowledge is assumed, you must have an interest in both the social and technical aspects of digital health.
Course outline
This course consists of eight compulsory modules, each spanning a two-week block, and a dissertation. The academic year is split into three terms of eight weeks, however, assignments are not restricted to term time only.
The content will take a broad perspective on digital health, equipping students to be future researchers, policymakers, technology specialists or health practitioners. Wherever their particular interests may lie, we believe course graduates will be well placed to do pioneering work in the digital health sector.
Module 1: Foundations of Digital Health Explore the potential of and limits to digital technologies and digital data, examining how the technical (eg computers, data, algorithms) combine with the social (people, groups, organisations and societies) to help realise or thwart the use of digital health technologies. | Module 2: Harnessing Big Data for Clinical Decision Support Explore how routine healthcare data is used to develop clinical prediction rules that support diagnosis and prognosis. Learn about statistical models, machine learning, prediction versus causality and the challenges of translating models into real-world tools, including ethical considerations. |
Module 3: AI for Efficient Healthcare Systems Examine how artificial intelligence (AI) can improve healthcare efficiency, covering methods such as large language models, explainable AI and federated learning. Learn about combining AI and statistical methods, managing bias and applying these tools in real-world healthcare settings. | Module 4: Remote Monitoring and Digital Diagnostics Learn about digital tools for diagnosing conditions and remotely monitoring patients. Study the techniques behind these tools and explore study designs and statistical methods for generating clinical evidence, including usability, acceptability and regulatory considerations. |
Module 5: Supporting Health Behaviour Change Using Digital Tools Investigate how digital tools can support health behaviour change in areas such as mental health and long-term conditions. Explore behaviour change theories, intervention design, evaluation in real-world settings and ethical issues related to behaviour change. | Module 6: Digital Transformation of Primary Care Explore how digital technologies are reshaping primary care delivery. Focus on barriers and facilitators to implementation, using principles from implementation science. Learn about planning, evaluating success and weighing the costs and benefits of digital health tools. |
Module 7: Economics of Digital Health Understand how to assess whether digital health tools offer value for money. Study the economic principles behind digital health evaluation, different stakeholder perspectives, types of data needed and emerging challenges in economic evaluation methods. | Module 8: User Focused Design and the Lifecycle of Digital Health Innovation Learn how to design digital health tools that people will actually use. This module introduces Interaction Design (IDE) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), blending theory with practical design activities to explore the full digital health innovation lifecycle. |
Upon completion of this course, students will be able to:
- assess and debate current issues for health systems seeking to harness digital health
- summarise the state-of-the-art in digital health tools – including digital therapeutics, digital diagnostics, learning health systems and those that facilitate automated care pathways or improved patient (self)management – and describe how they work
- identify and formulate a response to the ethical, policy, regulatory and practice challenges facing digital health
- identify and discuss the drivers, enablers, barriers and challenges to digital health innovation, both generally and for real-world examples
- explain the requirements for user-focused development, meaningful evaluation and successful implementation of digital health tools, and propose the actions and processes needed to meet these requirements
- understand the main qualitative and quantitative research methods used in the study of digital health, and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each
- use existing literature to explore a specific digital health topic and be able to contextualise that learning in terms of the wider digital health eco-system
Course delivery
The teaching is delivered via a range of methods, including lectures, seminars, workshops, presentations, self- directed learning and study, with all theoretical learning underpinned by real world case-studies.
Admission status
The application window is now closed
Key facts
First meeting: October
Duration: 12 months full-time (from 2025/2026)
Location: Oxford
Oxford Institute of Digital Health: Seminar Series
The Oxford Institute of Digital Health has developed a seminar series in partnership with the NIHR: Applied Research Collaboration Oxford and Thames Valley and Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences.
Places are free and open to anyone interested in the challenges and opportunities in digital health.
Student blogs
Faculty
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Lei Clifton
Clifton
Oxford Institute of Digital Health
As members of Oxford Institute of Digital Health, DPhil and MSc students specialising in digital health training and research will be eligible to apply for range of opportunities such as conference places, travel expenses, poster prizes and funded places on short training courses. The opportunities will be advertised internally and highlighted on the Institute's webpages.
Digital Healthcare Research
Digital healthcare is a core research theme across the department, building on digital-first community care, involving people being increasingly cared for in their own homes, monitored by wearable devices and using online consultations and smartphone apps for health advice and to check symptoms.