Swansea University’s Master’s Award in Health Informatics has become the first degree programme in the UK to be accredited by the United Kingdom Council for Health Informatics Professions (UKCHIP).
The UKCHIP Education Quality Assurance Scheme (UKCHIP EQAS) is an education and training accreditation scheme. Health Informatics courses and modules that are relevant to healthcare are eligible to be recognised under the scheme.
A central element of the scheme is that, to be accredited, a course or module must show that the majority of the learning outcomes within that course or module can be mapped to UKCHIP competency standards for registration and is therefore demonstrably health informatics focussed.
In addition, delivery and assessment must be in a healthcare context and quality assurance procedures must be satisfactory.
Tony Paget, lecturer on the MSc Health Informatics degree at Swansea University’s College of Human and Health Sciences said: “Accreditation with UKCHIP is something that I believed very important for the Health Informatics programme.
“In the application for accreditation I had to demonstrate that the programme met education quality standards, and that it could be successfully mapped to the UKCHIP national competencies.
“Students can now be assured that the quality and content of the course has been recognised by the only health informatics registration body in the UK, and that their learning will be aligned with national standards for health informaticians. They will also find that they will have achieved many of the competencies required for registration with UKCHIP on completion of their degree – which is a great start for their employability prospects.”
Current part-time Health Informatics student Paul Solloway has recently been appointed as Head of IT in his NHS Health Informatician role.
He said: “I enrolled on the Health Informatics programme to gain a thorough grounding in the field for my technical working role. I also wanted to gain recognition from my peers and a mastery of the subject which I could directly apply in my working life.
“Now the degree is accredited by UKCHIP, I am confident that the degree programme is closely aligned with the profession of Informatics, and that the course content is relevant and up-to-date.
“I hope that my studies will enable me to contribute to the development of my organisation’s Informatics strategy through a greater understanding of the latest thinking and also enable me to progress to Assistant Director level in my workplace.”
“Health informatics is a new and developing profession. The value of quality information in health care has never been recognised more. Even in the context of tightening health budgets, the need for the right information getting to the right person at the right time is more important than ever,” added Tony Paget.
“I am delighted to have received the first ever accreditation from UKCHIP and look forward to continuing to work towards and alongside their high standards for education.”
Further details of the accreditation scheme can be found at http://www.ukchip.org/?q=page/EQAS-Home.
And for more information about the MSc Health Informatics at Swansea University, visit www.swansea.ac.uk/pgcourses/humanandhealthsciences/mscpgdpgchealthinformatics/.
