Overview

This programme will:

• help you acquire the theoretical understanding and skills to advance and promote knowledge in the speciality, as well as develop your leadership skills
• promote your understanding of how advanced technologies and innovative clinical trials represent the next step towards tailoring diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to individual subsets of patients

• encourage you to think beyond the available modalities and synthesise information, hypotheses, and approaches to fill in the gap of unmet needs in musculoskeletal sciences

You will be taught by leading experts from the Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology (EMR), which has been awarded Centre of Excellence status by the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) for its outstanding contributions to rheumatology and improving patient care. 

You can choose to take the shorter Postgraduate Diploma or Certificate.

What you'll study

The fast-evolving landscape of MSK sciences and healthcare has a pressing need for clinicians, biomedical scientists and allied health professionals with up-to-date knowledge and skills to contribute to the establishment of productive MSK health. 

The Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology (EMR) within William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) and Queen Mary University of London’s Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, which delivers this programme, is one of the top research centres for rheumatology in Europe. It has been awarded Centre of Excellence status by the European Alliance of Associations for Rheumatology (EULAR) for its outstanding contributions to rheumatology and improving patient care. 

This masters programme integrates precision medicine to promote your understanding of how advanced technologies and innovative clinical trials help tailor diagnostic and therapeutic strategies to individual subsets of patients. Such solid understanding will encourage you to think beyond the available modalities and synthesize information, hypotheses, and approaches to fill the gap of unmet needs in MSK sciences.

Teaching

Teaching is delivered through a blended learning approach, which includes in-person teaching blocks approximately every four to six weeks on campus alongside online study. The programme contents will be made available online before lectures and regularly reviewed by the E-learning unit to ensure accessibility and optimise dissemination. To aid revision of the learning material at your convenience, lectures are recorded, and the recordings are released immediately on QMPlus after the lectures.

Self-directed learning is a major component of each module, and you will have access to personal mentors with whom you can discuss issues and plans.

You will also be assigned an Academic Adviser, who will guide you in both academic and pastoral matters.

Facilities

• The William Harvey Research Institute offers state-of-the art core facilities, including a Genome Centre, a flow cytometry and cell sorting station, and in vivo imaging facilities
• Medical libraries located at the Royal London and St Bart's hospitals and at the main university campus at Mile End

• Access to the Postgraduate Reading Room

William Harvey Research Institute

The William Harvey Research Institute (WHRI) places a high value upon training the next generation of researchers. We are part of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at Queen Mary University of London, which is ranked joint seventh in the UK for the quality of our research (REF 2021).

Our primary research focus and excellence lies in our cardiovascular, inflammation and endocrine research themes. In addition, we achieve international excellence in critical care and perioperative medicine research. We aim to combine talents from different disciplines such as genomics, cell biology, and pharmacology, with translational bench-to-patient studies and large-scale clinical trials.

We are currently the largest pharmacological research institute in the UK University sector, and one of the largest in Europe. The Centre employs 530 clinicians and scientists from 45 countries.

Career paths

The Precision Musculoskeletal Sciences programme is designed to enhance your employment opportunities and diversify your skill sets to enable you to flourish in your future work environment.

The national and international reputation of Queen Mary University of London, William Harvey Research Institute, and The Centre for Experimental Medicine and Rheumatology together with their extensive industrial connections will inform employers about graduates' qualities and skills. Moreover, the programme provides medically qualified and intercalated medical students with substantial evidence that supports their commitment to progress in the specialty which gives advantage when applying for specialist training or promotion. In addition, graduates will have sound theoretical and practical skills in translational medicine, clinical trials, bioinformatics, tissue imaging and analysis which all have expanding markets nationally and internationally.

We also encourage our graduates to progress onto PhD programmes.