The course provides you with a sound background in statistical theory as well as specialist knowledge in medical statistics and data science skills that are essential to undertake health research studies. The taught component equips you with tools for designing and analysing studies in the fields of drug discovery, epidemiology, public health and disease prevention, in particular to evaluate new treatments, investigate associations between health outcomes and risk factors and develop risk prediction models. On this course you are also taught how to present and interpret results obtained from analysing the data. The research project provides hands on experience with analysis of real clinical data sets and interpretation of the results.
The course is accessible to students with undergraduate degrees in a related quantitative discipline (such as mathematics, statistics, economics, actuarial science), who wish to gain advanced training in theory and application of medical statistics with an aim to enter specialist employment or academic research in this area.
Medical statisticians enable the application of the best possible quantitative methods in health research and assist in the reliable translation of research findings to public and patients health care.
The NIHR and the Medical Research Council have identified medical statistics and data science as priority areas in their capacity building strategy.
Areas of employment include within the pharmaceutical industry, academic research, and the NHS.
Graduates of the MSc Medical Statistics and Data Science in UCL Statistical Science progress into professional roles such as biostatistician, health data scientist, clinical trials statistician, epidemiologist, statistical programmer and health informatics analyst or pursue further academic study.
There is strong demand for medical statisticians in the UK and employment opportunities are excellent. Recent graduates have taken roles in clinical trials units, NHS trusts, universities, and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Amgen and GSK plc. Employer names are indicative and do not constitute a guarantee of employment.
Graduate Outcomes survey carried out by the Higher Education Statistics Agency (HESA), looking at the destinations of graduates in the 2017–2024 cohorts.
One of the strengths of UCL Statistical Science is the breadth of expertise on offer; the research interests of staff span the full range from foundations to applications, and make important original contributions to the development of statistical science.