This information is for the 2019/20 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Elisabetta De Cao OLD.1.11
Availability
This course is compulsory on the Executive MSc in Evaluation of Health Care Interventions and Outcomes, in collaboration with NICE. This course is not available as an outside option.
Course content
When randomised controlled trials are not possible to conduct due to feasibility, ethical, or policy reasons, quasi-experimental study designs can be used to evaluate the causal impact of health programs and policies. The objective of this course is to teach students how to design, critically appraise, and conduct quasi-experimental studies evaluating health policies, programmes, and interventions. The main focus of the course will be on regression discontinuity designs, interrupted time-series designs, difference-in-differences designs, instrumental variable designs, and synthetic control approaches. This module will provide an overview of these study designs and outline the advantages and disadvantages of each approach with specific examples from the health care literature. Suitability of routinely available healthcare datasets for quasi-experimental evaluation studies will be discussed with seminal examples. Computer workshops will provide the students with hands-on experience in conducting quasi-experimental evaluations.
Teaching
12 hours of lectures and 10 hours of computer workshops in the LT.
Given the executive nature of this course, it will be offered as an intensive, accelerated, and compressed module with a one-week duration.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 1 piece of coursework in the ST.
Student will receive detailed feedback on their project report outlines. Feedback received on the project outline will be helpful when developing the final project report.
Indicative reading
Assessment
Project (100%, 3000 words) post-summer term.
Key facts
Department: Health Policy
Total students 2018/19: Unavailable
Average class size 2018/19: Unavailable
Controlled access 2018/19: No
Value: Half Unit
Personal development skills