Wednesday 21 September 2011

Science and Health


Healthcare science is the applied science dealing with the application of science, technology, engineering or mathematics to the delivery ofhealthcare. [1]
Healthcare scientists are those scientists directly involved in delivering the diagnosis, treatment, care and support of patients in healthcare systems, rather than those individuals whose primary focus is on academic research. [2]
Healthcare science stretches across a wide range of scientific specialisms, encompassing biology, genetics, physiology, physics andbioengineering

Contents

Healthcare Science in the UK

The healthcare science workforce is an important part of the UK's National Health Service. While people working in healthcare science are only 5% of the staff of the NHS, 80 percent of all diagnosis can be attributed to their work.[3]
The volume of specialist healthcare science work is a significant part of the work of the NHS. Every year, NHS healthcare scientists carry out
  • Nearly 1 billion pathology lab tests
  • More than 12 million physiological tests
  • support for 1.5 million fractions of radiotherapy
The four governments of the UK have recognised the importance of healthcare science to the NHS, introducing the Modernising Scientific Careers initiative to ensure that the education and training for healthcare scientists ensures there is the flexibility to meet patient needs while keeping up-to-date with scientific developments. [4]

Roles within Healthcare Science

There are at least 45 different specialisms within healthcare science, which are traditionally grouped into three main divisions:[5]

Physiological science specialisms

Physics and bioengineering specialisms

Posted by Muhammad Ismail at 20:27

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