Healthcare Science careers Scientists in health: making a difference to people’s lives www.healthcareers.nhs.uk

Healthcare Science careers Scientists in health: making a difference to people’s lives www.healthcareers.nhs.uk

Much more than just labs and test tubes Healthcare science staff do a variety of jobs in the NHS, covering: Life sciences (mainly laboratory based, with little direct patient contact, investigating disease, genetic make up, researching new scientific treatments) Physiological sciences (predominantly working directly with patients, measuring the function of a particular organ or body system) Physical sciences and biomedical engineering (some roles involve direct patient contact such as rehabilitation engineering. Others ensure the safe functioning of equipment or researching new devices) Clinical bioinformatics (responsible for developing and improving methods for acquiring, storing, organising and analysing biological data that supports the delivery of patient care. Staff working in clinical bioinformatics use areas of computer science including software tools that generate useful biological knowledge by manipulating ‘big data’)

Life sciences Life sciences staff generally spend most of their time in a laboratory. They: investigate diseases through blood and tissue analysis contribute to identifying and understanding causes of death, sometimes offering support to bereaved relatives monitor patients’ response to certain treatments work to find out the genetic components of illness, for example by studying DNA help collect eggs from patients undergoing IVF carry out research to identify new scientific treatments for cancer and other diseases

Physiological sciences These staff often work directly with patients to measure and monitor particular conditions, for example: carrying out electrocardiograms (ECGs) to check how the heart is working undertaking diagnostic tests to assess lung function measuring eye function and taking images of the eye and its supporting structures assessing hearing and balance function in everyone from tiny babies to the elderly investigating the nervous system to diagnose and monitor things like epilepsy, stroke, dementia and multiple sclerosis helping patients with sleep problems such as sleep apnoea, where people temporarily stop breathing.

Physical sciences and biomedical engineering Roles in this area involve some direct patient contact, for example working with people with a disability to provide the equipment they need such as: wheelchairs artificial limbs electronically assisted speech other robotic aids. Other healthcare science staff work behind the scenes on all sorts of equipment, for example: designing instruments and equipment to monitor patient’s progress maintaining and servicing machinery such as dialysis machines making sure that equipment used in radiotherapy delivers the correct dosages.

Clinical bioinformatics Informatics in health care science is broken down into three unique areas: Clinical bioinformatics (genomics) If you work in genomics, you’ll be in a role that connects computing, biology and medicine. You’ll provide bioinformatics support to ensure data received and generated by the laboratory is used in an efficient, standardised, secure and accurate manner using leading edge technologies and adhering to information governance standards. Clinical bioinformatics (health informatics) Health informatics combines computing science with information science, biology and medicine. You’ll provide support to ensure that bioinformatics data is used efficiently and to required standards. Clinical bioinformatics (physical sciences) Bioinformatics combines computer science, statistics, mathematics and engineering to study and process biological data. Working within the physical sciences of bioinformatics, you’ll be designing the equipment and software that does this processing. 

Myths about healthcare science The healthcare science team don’t work with patients. True or false? False: Many healthcare scientists work directly with patients. This could be monitoring breathing or heart rates through to treating patients with hearing difficulties. Healthcare science staff don’t just work in labs. True or false? True: Some healthcare science teams in areas such as genetics work in labs but many do not, especially in areas where they need to interact with patients. This could mean working on wards or in the community visiting people’s homes. Doctors couldn’t do their job without the support of healthcare science staff. True or false? True: Healthcare science staff are critical to the delivery of patient care. In fact, the healthcare science team are involved in 80% of all clinical decisions in the NHS and develop some of the most amazing clinical technologies. There is no career progression in healthcare science. True or false? False: There is a clear career pathway for staff working in healthcare science. With hard work and a commitment to continuous learning, you could each the level of consultant healthcare scientist, advising doctors on patients’ treatment.

National scientific careers programme Education and training in healthcare science has been revolutionised in the NHS: training is now more coordinated and patient-focused students at all levels get work-based training and experience from day one alongside their academic course apprenticeships, undergraduate and post graduate training programmes are all now available in healthcare science with hard work and a commitment to continuous learning, you might be able to reach re consultant healthcare scientist.

Career and Training Pathways

Find out more Watch the video of current undergraduate healthcare science students at www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/ptp Read about all the training routes at www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/explore-roles Compare different healthcare science roles on the Health Careers website using the compare roles feature Visit www.healthcareers.nhs.uk/coursefinder to find out about healthcare science courses and universities Give Health Careers a call on 0345 60 60 655 to talk through different career options.

Thank you for listening. If you like science and like the idea of helping people, a healthcare science career could be for you! Thank you for listening.