Our flagship national Health Services Modelling Associates (HSMA) programme was selected to be the first course accredited by the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts (AphA) due to its stellar track record of providing analytical training and development to health and social care professionals.
The HSMA programme uses an innovative and flexible mentoring scheme to offer staff working in health, social care, and policing organisations the opportunity to develop skills in modelling and data science and actively apply them to address an important issue within their organisation.
AphA will now accredit and endorse courses to ensure analysts in health and care professions can confidently identify courses and resources that will develop skills and contribute to their professional development. AphA accreditation is intended to be the gold standard quality indicator for training and resources provided for analysts in health and social care.
Dr Daniel Chalk, PenARC Senior Research Fellow and HSMA Programme Lead said:
“The accreditation offered by AphA helps to provide analysts with something tangible to highlight the value of their new skills to their organisations, and further propel the critical value of the analyst within NHS service improvement.”
The HSMA programme, developed by our Operational Research and Data Science Team (PenCHORD) has already led to multi-million pound investments in mental health and urgent care services and improved outcomes for patients and service users across policing, health and social care. It has also seen the development of inter-ARC collaborations to share knowledge and increase service capacity using data science, artificial intelligence (AI) and operational research (OR).
Rony Arafin, CEO of AphA said:
“I am delighted to share a key achievement in our professional journey. We now offer accreditation and endorsement of courses, enabling exciting opportunities for our partners and professionals. Our accreditation plays a vital role in finding valuable training programs that support your professional development and showcase your credibility as a Data and Analytics professional.
“It is excellent that the Health Service Modelling Associate (HSMA) program is the first AphA accredited course. Many AphA members have participated in HSMA and made significant contributions through their analytical work. We aim to accredit more training offerings like HSMA, relevant to our community. This will help you identify suitable opportunities for career advancement and align your learning with the National Competency Framework.”
Dr Chalk added:
“We are delighted that AphA have accredited the HSMA Programme, providing an assurance to analysts of the value of the programme to their professional development. For many years, we have seen analysts who have engaged with the programme unlock their potential, develop significant new skills in modelling and data science and become applied health service researchers who are able to use their new skills to make a real difference for patient care.”
As a next step AphA intends to establish a directory of online resources to support the analytical community’s capacity-building needs and provide easy access to approved learning opportunities for members of the profession. The HSMA programme and future courses accredited by AphA will be assessed against their professionalisation agenda and administered through the Federation for Informatics Professionals (FEDIP).
Find out more
- Sign up for our PenARC Matters newsletter to be the first to hear when the next HSMA Programme launches and to be kept up-to-date with the latest PenARC news.
- Learn more about the Health Services Modelling Associates (HSMA) programme.
- Learn more about the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts (AphA).
- Enquire about AphA accreditation by contacting: accreditation@aphanalysts.org