Health care delivery is changing rapidly. Digital technologies are having an enormous impact on individual health and society’s well-being. New innovations are needed to solve the future challenges of health care delivery.
Health Care Technology master’s programme gives you the skills and interdisciplinary knowledge to implement new technologies in health care and provides practical examples of health care innovation and digitalization.
The studies include best practices of e-health implementation from Estonia and abroad and provide you the relevant change management skills to contribute to health care systems’ improvement.
There are many great examples, where digital and e-health services operate well and bring value. For example, the Estonian digital prescribing system provides seamless prescription management to the whole population and the country-wide EHR connects 100% of all health care providers for efficient patient data sharing. There are also growing digital health start-ups, of which a number have been founded by previous students of Health Care Technology master’s programme.
There are a lot of possibilities for better use of new technologies in health care. Human society is only doing its first steps in implementation of digital technologies and AI in health care. Secondary data use is at a low level and new services for better personalization, prevention and earlier detection of diseases are needed fast.
This is the reason why this curriculum exists. You will be the one to help to change healthcare! You will acquire the knowledge about health systems, managing change and digitalizing health care for better value. You might co-found new digital health start-up, continue to do a PhD, start working as a hospital Chief Innovation Officer or start leading a nationwide health-tech cluster. These are a few examples of what are alumni are doing.
Degree: Master of Science in Engineering (MSc)
Duration: 2 years
Faculty: School of Information Technologies
Study Load: 120 ECTS (view curriculum)
Mode of Study: Full-time study
Language: English (view English language requirements)
Tuition Fee: non-EU: 6000 EUR/year, free for EU students
Tuition Fee Waivers: Available for best candidates
Scholarships: Different options available
Admission: Admission for 2020/2021
Students for TalTech international study programmes are admitted based on the admission threshold. Online interview will be conducted only to candidates who have passed preliminary evaluation. The maximum score is 20 points, the threshold score for admission is 10 points.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent in Health, Social, Natural Sciences, IT, Public Administration, Economics or Law.
In order to qualify for the studies in Tallinn University of Technology an applicant has to have at least 60% of the highest possible CGPA.
Please include the following:
interest of health care technology and e-health and clearly defined motivation to study in the master's program;
analytical argumentation about the challenges that health care systems are facing and your opinion about the possibilities of e-health in overcoming those challenges, including specific examples of successful implementation of e-health services;
possible master's thesis topics and research interests in Health Care Technology;
NB! It is important to properly cite and reference any sources used in your motivation letter (quotations, publications, ideas etc. that are not your own). Neglecting the rules of referencing and citation is considered plagiarism and will result in the disqualification of your application.
Positive scale: 5-10 points
The aim of the interview is to understand your academic potential, motivation and suitability for your chosen course.
Questions are composed to assess your:
problem-solving abilities;
intellectual flexibility, communication and analytical skills;
motivation to study;
abilities of methodical and creative thinking.
Duration of the interview is 10-20 minutes.
Positive scale: 5-10 points
Health Care Technology (HCT) is a unique Master’s programme in Europe that provides interdisciplinary knowledge on digital technologies, innovation and change management of health care. It relies on the best practices of health care digital transformation and e-health innovations from Estonian e-health system and international successes.
Skills and knowledge for implementing new innovative technologies in health care.
Experience and examples of countrywide e-health implementation in Estonia.
You learn to understand how healthcare, IT and medicine interact.
Most of the lectures will take place in the Business and Innovation Centre Mektory.
Events and have site-visits help you to get first-hand experience from different healthcare, medical and digital health companies.
Basics of e-Health
The course provides knowledge about electronic data reflecting human health in the health care system. Gives overview of electronic health care services and creates an understanding of the structure of health data and application limits of e-Services in health care. Gives an overview of digital and analogue processes in health care. Introduces different international e-Health experiences.
Evaluation and Financing in Healthcare
To provide an overview of the methods of financing, remuneration and reimbursement in healthcare in connection with evaluation. The course will explore the different evaluation methods that are relevant in the design of health information technologies. The course will help students to design, plan, and conduct independent evaluations of health care technologies. The course also provides practical abilities of economic evaluation methods in health care, and how economic evaluation can be applied to the health care sector to make informed decisions.
Healthcare Data Systems and Analysis
Healthcare data systems and analysis course goal is to introduce students to different data systems used in Estonian healthcare organisations (including central registries and integrations systems) and hospitals. How are the data systems created, what is their purpose, how the systems are integrated, and do they satisfy the end user. Also the different hospital and other healthcare data systems structure, user interface and to see the pros and cons of different data systems.
Medical Law and Ethics
The course gives students depth knowledge of the medical law and ethics. The course will provide a comprehensive overview of other areas of law related to medical law and ethical issues in medicine. Students are given the opportunity to understand and critically evaluate ethical questions in medicine.
Medical Imaging and Signals
To give students knowledge about physical and chemical bio-signals and their registration. To introduce signal registration and analysis processing methods and equipment. Giving overview of imaging methods in health care. To teach different steps of data flow starting from the registration of bio-signals to presentation of image in user understandable mode.;Practical introduction to different imaging and signal processing methods in health care institutions. Introduction to basic models of image, graphs and image series filing, saving and presentation systems in health care. To introduce the use of different signal and image processing methods from the point of view of the clinical question or examined organ system. Also to give overview of the contraindications of the use of diagnostic methods in medicine.
Servicing and change management at health care enterprise
A student having successfully completed the studies has got a systematic overview of the functioning of the health care system on all management levels (quality, strategic, financial and human resource management), and of the objectives of health care marketing and demand. A student is able to apply one’s knowledge and skills to practical work. The course gives students a practical understanding of the different workflow management methods in a healthcare organization. A comprehensive overview of the different methods used will ensure an equal understanding of the relevant processes and their subsequence. The course aims to give students the ability to use a variety of methods to identify the essence of a problem, define what needs to change in order to achieve the desired result. In addition, the students will understand how to assess the costs and benefits of a planned change, as well as how to define if and why a change in a specific process is needed; Finally, the course will give an overview of the methods that support the successful implementation of changes in a health care organisation.
Many research projects of the curriculum are done together with governmental institutions, industry partners, health tech companies and others. Different institutions have suggested the following areas of research subjects.
Health care process optimization
Healthcare quality systems
Value based healthcare
Care integration
User experience of information systems
Evidence based automatic algorithms
Decision support systems
Tele-medicine and tele-monitoring
Digitalisation of population screenings
Digital prescribing systems
Drug-to-drug interaction monitoring systems
Evaluation of e-health services
This list is far from being exhaustive, but provides a direction of what are the areas of expertise needed in the healthcare field. You will get important input from a number of courses on selecting your thesis methodology and methods.
Many of Health Care Technology lectures take place in the Mektory Innovation and Business Centre. In addition to classrooms, HCT students can use the Mektory eHealth Lab. In addition there are 2 interactive learning methods, which help you to get in touch with different industry players.
e-Health Meet-up is a series of events, which started from the cooperation between TalTech and Estonian Connected Health Cluster in the beginning of 2017 with the purpose of bringing together companies and students who are looking for internship opportunities. The wider purpose is to give a larger overview of the field of Health Care Technologies. It’s a great chance to meet a range of experts within the healthcare field and learn about how healthcare and information technology intersects in the transformation of healthcare delivery and management in their work-life.
During the meet-ups, 2-3 presenters from different e-health companies (public sector, start-ups etc.) will introduce their workflow, success-stories and challenges. The students will also have a possibility to engage in a discussion with presenters to find solutions to the presented challenges.
HCT Hackathon is an interdisciplinary collaboration event between TalTech students and representatives from the health care technology field. The event gives participating students the opportunity to test and implement the knowledge they have gained during the lectures.
Students will form groups to find solutions to problems raised by relevant experts working in the field (the problem owners). With its clear focus and carefully prepared structure, hackathon enables students to commit themselves to an intense period of focused work on the problem. Throughout the day, the student-teams receive coaching from different experts.
General studies - cover courses on medical law and ethics, entrepreneurship and business planning, and research design. The students will also take part in a project-based master's seminar in which they must work in teams to develop innovative solutions to current health care problems.
Core studies - include basics of e-health, health policy and health promotion, and human anatomy and diseases.
Special studies - consist of specialisation courses in Digital Health Technologies that cover healthcare data systems and analysis, medical imaging and signals, interoperablity and quality management in healthcare, epidemiology, evaluation and financing in healthcare. The studies also include an internship in cooperation with the industry partners.
Free choice courses - students can choose from a wide variety of courses offered by the university.
Graduation thesis - students are asked to write a research paper or a scientific article, in which they must apply their knowledge on healthcare digitalisation through various perspectives.
During the studies, we put a lot of effort in connecting you to different industry partners, digital health companies, government institutions and start-ups.
A high number of our alumni have started work or have interned in digital health companies, IT-companies developing applications and systems in healthcare, in government institutions, in start-ups or in healthcare provider organizations.
Most of the jobs are involved in changing the current processes of health care and digitalising health care delivery for improved quality and access. Many of our alumni are working in or have co-founded digital health start-ups. This shows the need for innovation and new technologies in healthcare.
I would definitely recommend TalTech Health Care Technology for future students. The university provides a wide range of courses in English, which helps more international students study with no need to learn the local language. Moreover, the quality of education and teaching staff is world-class and matches the European standards. TalTech offers several opportunities for students to take part in exchange programs, participate in workshops and encourages them even to set up their start-up with professional mentoring facilitates. So, for future health tech entrepreneurs, Estonia is the place where to go!
I have really enjoyed the student life in Estonia, considering all the opportunities to connect with other people, the internationals. Estonian education system has been more flexible, I appreciate this teaching approach. We had a chance to meet different lecturers from all over the world, not to mention how diverse my class has been. Estonian higher education has increasingly become very international, it welcomes and supports foreign students, such as myself.
Studying at TalTech was one of the best choices of my life. I graduated cum laude from the Health Care Technology. The programme is based on real examples, the students are shown how IT affects the health care system and they study how to build an e-health environment and implement Telemedicine solutions step-by-step. I was also able to participate and develop different projects, the most successful of which was “LifeInU”, a home-monitoring system for pregnant women. This project of ours was very successful and won the Tallinn Tech MEKTORY competition, which gave my group members and I the possibility to go to Silicon Valley, United States.
Nino Chaligava, Georgia
Alumna of the Health Care Technology programme
With the complexity of the healthcare industry combined with the rapid rate of innovative technologies, the topic of healthcare technologies and e-health solutions can quickly become overwhelming. The HCT program offers a good foundation, in order to feel comfortable and acquainted within this field. I do feel student initiative and independence within the curriculum will truly create a foundation for future careers (this is not the right master for you if you do not want to put in the effort to excel and just pass your coursework and get a degree). This master allowed me to become more critical of innovative solutions and their implications for the provision of care.
Marlot Johanna Blaak
Product Design Lead at Re-able; Research Associate, Human Factors at University of Calgary
Health care technologies is a growing industry area, which continuously needs new resources! EU eHealth initiatives, national patient data archives, data sharing across organizations and country borders is here to stay. In this programme you will learn how health care technologies look like in different European countries and even beyond. At the end of the programme you will be ready to apply related jobs in the industry, public sector or research. We welcome you to join!
Hanna Pohjonen, PhD
Associate Professor at the Department of Health Technologies
TalTech international admissions office provides general advice to prospective Bachelor’s and Master’s degree applicants and their advisers about applying to and studying at TalTech.
Contact TalTech admissions office
Student counsellor at School of Information Technologies can help you
with questions about the study programme.
Katri Kadakas
(+372) 620 3544
katri.kadakas@taltech.ee
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