Precision Health
Leading the Future of Healthcare Innovation
Application Deadline: May 31
Questions about your application? Please call (403) 210-7051 or email prehgrad@ucalgary.ca
An Innovative Program in a Growing Field
The Cumming School of Medicine Precision Health Program was designed to meet the professional development needs of current and future healthcare practitioners across Canada and internationally. This unique program strengthens students’ knowledge and skills in Precision Health and supports role integration in areas such as advanced clinical skills, data science, entrepreneurship, organizational leadership, research, education, professional development, and consultation to impact patient, provider, and health system outcomes.
Program Specializations
The Precision Health Program is comprised of a Graduate Certificate in Precision Health, a Graduate Diploma in Precision Health, and a Master of Precision Health with four specializations to choose from:
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
How to validate and advance innovation, be an entrepreneurial thinker or entrepreneur, and employ change management to bring novel ideas into the clinical domain.
Quality and Safety Leadership
How to use knowledge in precision health and medicine to design and inform quality and safety initiatives in order to achieve optimal, person-centred outcomes.
Health Professions Education Leadership
How to use an evidence-based approach to curriculum design, delivery, implementation, and evaluation. How to lead and adapt teaching and assessment practices in response to changing contexts, new research, and advancing technologies.
Precision Medicine
How to leverage new technologies to guide clinical decision-making. For example, how can genomic markers be used to personalize prescription drugs and dosages? How will health care professionals use AI to support the delivery of care?
Program Pathway and Delivery
This fully online program provides participants with a choice of two separate, educational pathways:
· Option A: Full-time two-year master’s degree
· Option B: Part-time, three-year “laddered” program Consisting of stackable graduate credentials:
Year 1: Graduate Certificate
Select one of the following four specializations:
Precision Medicine
Quality and Safety Leadership
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
or Health Professions Education Leadership
Year 2: Graduate Diploma
Your second credential is earned by completing four courses:
Health System Leadership
Managing Complex Projects in Precision Health
and two electives of your choice
Year 3: Master of Precision Health
This final stage includes an experiential learning opportunity, research project, or internship in order to integrate theory, research, application and experience.
Option B is ideal for working professionals and those who can only commit to one year of studies at a time, and who also want to receive a recognized graduate credential for each year completed, which build toward a master’s degree.
Courses are the same across both options. See course listings here. (PDF)
Click here to compare the two program options for new students.
Program curricula
The program is delivered through a combination of live/synchronous online classes, as well as asynchronous deliverables so participants can practice and finetune skills with the support of experts in the field. Live sessions consist of lectures, case study discussions, and real-world examples, and allow you to network with a small cohort of skilled professionals.
Master’s Capstone Projects with Community Partners
Participants work with a community or academic organization on a capstone project that relates to their future career goals. Read about one Quality & Safety participant’s project at the Alberta Children’s Hospital (ACH) here: Partnering with Families to Improve Pediatric Patient Safety.
“We are excited about the Precision Health Program because it will provide new opportunities for healthcare professionals to acquire skills in precision health in a flexible, part-time, blended-online format.”
Dr. Geneviève Moineau, MD, FRCPC
President and CEO, Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada
The program offers important opportunities for physicians to increase their understanding and skill in precision health and other areas.
Dr. Dawn Hartfield BScMed, MPH, MD, FRCPC,Assistant Registrar, Continuing Competence & Accreditation
College of Physicians & Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA)
Frequently Asked Questions - Precision Health
Precision Health represents a new and innovative approach to the way health care is delivered, which is tailored to a patient's genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.
Note: There are varying definitions for the terms defined in these FAQs, but for the purposes of this program the above definition will be used.
Precision Medicine is the direct application of “big data” molecular biology and computational tools in the clinical context.
Precision medicine focuses on the patient as an individual, rather than one-size-fits-all medicine. This program was built around the concept of co-production of care, which empowers the patient and health care provider to decide collaboratively how best to meet a patient’s needs.
Personalized Medicine is an older term that is synonymous with precision health, but is becoming less popular these days.
Students can only take one specialization at a time.
The Graduate Certificate in Precision Health is part-time and takes one year to complete. This is one course each semester over the four standard semesters (i.e., fall, winter, spring and summer).
Once you have completed the Certificate and have a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher, you may choose to continue in the Diploma and then Master's programs. Each program is part-time, takes one year to complete, and requires completion of one course each semester over four semesters.
Courses at the certificate, diploma and master's levels will be taught by reputable UCalgary faculty members who are experts in the fields of precision medicine, pharmacogenomics, omics, quality safety leadership, health education, and medical entrepreneurship, etc.
The program is collaboratively delivered by Cumming School of Medicine and Haskayne School of Business faculty members.
High-profile guest speakers will also share their expertise with students.