Clinical Neuroscience Practice

The module provides a foundation to understand the organisation and function of the human nervous system, emphasising that pathologies tend to affect specific locations and can therefore produce predictable clinical effects. The module will focus on common neurological disorders and common psychiatric disorders, detailing their underlying pathophysiology, symptoms, diagnosis and treatment. The module will also emphasise that experience of neurological illness comes about through the combination of neuropathology with the individual patient’s beliefs, personality and social milieu and their cognitive, affective and behavioural responses to symptoms and impairments. The module will also explore the relationship between race and ethnicity and neuroscientific knowledge and health disparities for individuals with common neurological and psychiatric disorders.

This module will equip students with a comprehensive understanding of the complexities of modern healthcare provision as it applies to neurological and related fields. Teaching content will cover, through a range of methods including lectures, workshops, Q&A sessions and tutorials, three core elements:

1. The commissioning, structure, staffing and monitoring of neuroscience clinical care (including the use of service user feedback)
2. The relevant quality and safety standards and guidelines and how these are produced, including the underlying evidence base
3. The wider context including integration of specialist, community and social care, social determinants of neurological health and the prevention of neurological disease.

This module will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the principles and practice of clinical psychology within neuroscience settings. Teaching content will cover, through a range of methods including lectures, workshops, group work, and ‘meet the practitioner’ sessions, three primary topics:

1. Psychological aspects of major neurological conditions, including in the domains of cognition, emotion and behaviour
2. The clinical assessment of cognitive function
3. Clinical neuropsychological rehabilitation and interventions.

A key emphasis will be how the discipline contributes to improving patient care and service delivery for the diverse communities we work within. Assessment will be via a group presentation relevant to the role of the psychologist in the clinical neurosciences, and an essay that addresses the integration of theory and practice in clinical neuropsychology. Students completing the module will have a sound critical appreciation of the relevant theoretical models and principles that underpin clinical neuropsychology, alongside an appreciation of their practical implementation, which will be excellent preparation for undertaking clinical work in multidisciplinary neuroscience settings as well as applied research in this domain.

This module will teach you how to critically appraise research literature relevant to your field of study, covering the principles of critical appraisal, techniques and models for critiquing papers, as well as reviewing relevant research designs and analysis methods and appraisal of key papers in the relevant specialist field, including educational research.

When you have successfully completed the module, you will be able to:

• Identify the research paradigms and theoretical foundations underlying published research papers
• Critically evaluate the design, methods, analyses and conclusions of published papers
• Identify the strengths and weaknesses of contrasting approaches to research questions adopted in published papers
• Critically assess the contributions made by published papers they have evaluated to the current state of knowledge in their specialist field
• Make recommendations for further research resulting from an analysis of published work which they have evaluated.

This module will enable you to develop skills in understanding, critically interpreting and extracting data. You will be taught appropriate qualitative and quantitative data analysis methodologies, and how to communicate and present results appropriately in plain English. You will learn about both quantitative and qualitative data. Topics covered include graphs and descriptive statistics, confidence intervals, tests, regression, and the practical collection of qualitative data using interviews and focus groups.

This module will give you the skills to:

• Critically analyse and apply a range of qualitative and quantitative approaches to data analysis, and select the most relevant approach for a given research question scenario
• Plan and implement practical analyses of both qualitative and quantitative datasets using a range of techniques, and using computer packages where appropriate
• Critically interpret the results of qualitative and quantitative data analysis, with reference to underlying methodology, study design, method of data collection, rigour and validity
• Synthesise theories of research designs with the relevant data analysis
• Identify, evaluate and select appropriate methods for presenting the results of qualitative and quantitative data analysis.

This module will introduce you to a range of research approaches and methods. You will learn how to:

• Critically evaluate the characteristics of high quality, ethical research
• Set realistic and appropriate aims, objectives and research questions for research projects
• Identify different types of study design, evaluate their strengths and weaknesses and select appropriate designs in practice
• Critically evaluate the importance of a range of study design issues including those related to evaluating and ensuring rigour in research
• Systematically review the published research evidence for a specific research question.

This module covers the knowledge, attributes and skills required to succeed as a professional researcher as defined in the Vitae Researcher Development Framework (RDF), which is endorsed by organisations including Research Councils UK.

The module addresses the key RDF domains:

• personal effectiveness;
• research governance and organisation;
• engagement, influence and impact.

It will help you further develop the critical responses and skills necessary to plan and execute projects successfully and in a timely manner, as a first step to seeing yourself as a researcher helping to advance your area of study.

This module will give you the skills to:

• appraise the framework for research governance and legislation affecting research;
• examine the need for ethical and other approval before commencing research;
• communicate effectively with supervisors, research participants, research team members and those giving permission for research;
• critically evaluate the implications of their work to health and safety and intellectual property legislation;
• communicate effectively by reflecting on the different perspectives in the research.

This module will introduce you to the underlying principles and structure of statistical thinking, along with the latest methods for analysing data collected using quantitative study designs. It will help you develop the skills to critically appraise the statistical methods used in research papers, interpret the results, and evaluate the conclusions. It will give you confidence in interpreting and discussing methods and statistics in biomedical, healthcare, and clinical literature, and when utilising statistics and statistical methods in your own research.

When you have successfully completed of the module, you will be able to:

• Critically appraise the statistical methods used in research papers
• Analyse and interpret the results of the statistical analyses presented in research papers
• Critically appraise the inferences made based on the statistical analyses presented in research papers
• Choose and critique modern-day statistical techniques in order to analyse quantitative data when undertaking research projects at the postgraduate level
• Propose and synthesise suitable inferences based on the results of the statistical analysis of your own research data.

The first part of this module focuses on malaria, a disease of global importance. Sessions go through a series of case studies that explore very comprehensively the pathophysiology of malaria, plus preclinical and clinical studies that led to the development of antimalarials. The second half consists of presentations and workshops by translational scientists at St George’s talking about their own research.

This module will introduce students to fundamental principles and concepts of clinical trials. Particular attention will be given to randomised controlled trials (RCTs), which are considered to be the most robust approach to testing new treatments. Students will learn how to appraise the validity and reliability of trial results and how trials are managed and conducted in real-world settings. Students will also gain an appreciation of the ethical and regulatory requirements surrounding RCTs.

Students will complete practical sessions each week based on the topic of the preceding lecture. Work from the practical sessions will be documented in a practical session notebook, which will count towards the ICA helping to consolidate learning and knowledge. The final sessions of the module will draw together the key themes explored with a presentation on landmark trials from experts in the field.

Importantly, a one-day face-to-face good clinical practice (GCP) course will form part of the module with a certificate awarded on successful completion. This GCP certificate is a key requirement for those working on clinical trials in any sector. The module thus provides knowledge, skills and a qualification immediately relevant for potential employment in the area of clinical trials management.

In this module, you will learn how mental health can be improved worldwide using different cultural frameworks of mental illness. You will analyse the global development of a mental health framework from an ethical, transcultural and human rights perspective. As part of this analysis, you will explore the theories and principles of humanitarianism. You will also discuss the issues of stigma and the medicalisation of mental disorders, using case scenarios and examples of localised cultural practices in the interpretation and management of mental health.

This module will cover the structure and variations in the human genomics, including fundamental principles of genetics and genomics. Students undertaking this module will review the architecture of the human genome and the functional units embedded in it. Students will also cover aspects of gene regulation and chromatin structure and consider the importance of the epigenome in these processes. In addition, this module will cover DNA sequence variation and structural variation; how this sort of variation is normal but that sometimes it can be associated with disease. Classic chromosomal abnormalities will be described and the mechanisms that lead to them explained. Students will learn about monogenic and multifactorial genetic disorders and how gene mapping and sequencing can be used to identify causal and contributory variants. In essence, this module covers what the genome is, what abnormalities can arise and how they arise, as well as how they can be detected.

This module explores the contribution of genomics to neurological disorders. Students will receive refresher sessions focussed on neuroanatomy and the development of the neurological system followed by an introduction to the key diagnostic tools used in neurology. They will learn about the major neurological disorder categories which have a high genetic contribution. The module will explore the value of the multidisciplinary team in phenotyping, interpretation of results, management and family communication.

This module focuses on the fundamental principles of health system organisation and financing, considering a number of conceptual frameworks for the analysis of health systems in both the global north and south. You will explore issues concerning health system service models and design, including the relationship between supply and demand, models of healthcare resource allocation, and methods to measure and compare health system performance.

In this module you will look at the last decades of swift developments in neuroscience, cognitive science and neuro-technologies from an ethical perspective, and examine some of the most interesting challenges brought forward by modern medicine. Since its conception in 2002, neuroethics as a discipline aimed to address ethical and social challenges raised by the recent boom in neuro- and cognitive science and reflect on the impact of neurotechnologies on patients and the society at large. Brain imaging in clinical practice and research raise issues of privacy, confidentiality and communication of incidental findings.

‘Pictures of the brain’ seem to ‘fire up’ not only neurons of research participants but also viewers’ imagination, and facilitate research on the neural correlates of various cognitive functions, sometimes changing our understanding of what it means to have a ‘free will,’ ‘be responsible’ or even ‘be dead’. But how clinical and non-clinical applications of neurotechnologies impact our autonomy, agency and are the benefits of scientific research and access to those technologies justly distributed? Should we engage in cosmetic pharmacology, pharmacological mood brightening or cognitive enhancement? During the module students will engage with those problems, and gain ethical reasoning tools, concepts and perspectives necessary to address those current questions. 

The ultimate goal of personalised, or precision, medicine is to create healthcare strategies that are tailored to each individual patient. This will be achieved by integrating molecular information with traditional clinical and pathological signs of disease. Advances in genomic technologies have provided new perspectives across medicine, particularly in screening, diagnosis, disease classification and treatment. This module explores how this research is being translated intoclinical practice to make personalised medicine a reality.

Personalised medicine is not limited to pharmacogenetics (which examines the effect of genetic variation on drug targets, metabolism, efficacy and toxicity) but looks more broadly at how molecular profiling can influence health outcomes. Examples include molecular therapies used in oncology, advances in pre-natal screening and management of infection. We also consider issues surrounding personalised medicine, including patient responses to genetic testing, the challenge of translating research results into clinical practice, genetic discrimination, and regulation.

Examples are drawn from cancer, infection and a range of clinical specialties.

Population-based policies and changes in clinical practice rely on data analyses of all forms: descriptive and inferential. The latter refers to studies aiming at producing reproducible results or estimates which can be generalised to large populations. Understanding patterns in population health related to disease demographics, lifestyle, socioeconomic features, environmental exposures, and interventions are quintessential in designing evidenced-based public health policies.

This module will equip students with a body of knowledge on epidemiology of public health, study designs, measures of associations between diseases and potential risk factors and associated statistical methods which quantify their magnitude and statistical significance.

This module will walk the students through all phases of research development lifecycle: from initial stage of research question and the importance of pilot and feasibility studies to main complex observational epidemiological settings such as cross-sectional, cohort, case control and longitudinal studies. The associated statistical concepts and techniques will include not only simple hypotheses testing but also basic elements of statistical modelling addressing bias and confounding in observational studies and methods to minimise them.

There are two routes to meeting our entry criteria.

Psychology graduates

You should have or be expected to achieve, a minimum of a second class degree (2:2) in a psychology degree. All degrees must be awarded before 1 August on the year of entry.

Or

Healthcare professionals

You should have all of the following:

• Honours degree (2:2 or above) or primary medical degree (MBBS or equivalent). All degrees must be awarded before 1 August on the year of entry.
• Recognised health-related professional qualification and current professional registration.
• Minimum of 12 months' full-time clinical experience (or equivalent in part-time hours) in health or social care employment.

We accept equivalent qualifications gained in other countries.

Please see our Postgraduate International Equivalencies. For countries not on this list, we use UK ENIC to assess. Please see our International Student Support pages for more information.

If you have any questions, you can contact us at pgenquiries@sgul.ac.uk

This is a Group 1 course.

Full details can be found on our English Language requirements webpages.

You will be asked to outline your reasons for applying for the course in a brief personal statement on the application form.

You will also need to provide two satisfactory references. One of these should be a recent academic reference and the other should be either a second academic reference or a professional/employer reference. For those unable to provide an academic referee a second professional/employer reference will be permitted.

Go to the ‘Apply’ tab for more information.

Interviews

Psychology graduate applicants will be interviewed to assess their suitability for the programme. This will be conducted virtually by a member of the course team.

Applications from healthcare professionals will generally be considered without interview, but the course team might invite applicants to interview where needed to assess suitability.

Fitness to Practise checks

For clinical placements, students will need to be accepted as a Clinical Observer or Clinical Attachment by St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. This requires occupational health screening and might include DBS clearance depending on Trust policy for the specific role being undertaken.

When completing your application, you will be asked to provide contact details of two referees. Please ensure these details are accurate. As soon as you have submitted your application, your referees will be contacted by the university asking them to upload a reference to your online application.

One must be a recent academic reference. The other should be either a second academic reference or a professional/employer reference. They should cover your suitability for the course and your academic ability.

Your referees should know you well enough, in an official capacity, to write about you and your suitability for higher education. We do not accept references from family, friends, partners, ex-partners or yourself.

We will send reminder emails to your referees but it is your responsibility to ensure that contact details are correct and referees are available to submit a reference. References should be uploaded within two weeks of making your application.