SWITZERLAND DIGITAL THINKING GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
Postgraduate / MSc Pathways Programme Code 235 Health Informatics & Computational Biology

MSc in Health Informatics

An applied Swiss-inspired curriculum combining algorithmic rigour, systems architecture, digital trust and practical engineering capability for modern technology leaders.

Duration 2 Years (4 Semesters)
Curriculum Model Postgraduate Degree Candidate
Delivery Mode Full-Time / Hybrid Delivery
Next Intakes October & February
CURRICULUM ARCHITECTURE

Academic Overview & Learning Objectives

The MSc in Health Informatics at Brookfield School of Computing is engineered to provide deep competency across core computer science, systems design, and targeted domain applications. Students develop fluency in software craftsmanship, distributed architectures, algorithm optimization, and data governance.

Instruction balances rigorous theoretical foundations with practical code repositories, laboratory simulations, and ethical technology review aligned with modern international computing standards.

Modular code development & test coverage
Secure systems design & vulnerability mitigation
Distributed computing & cloud orchestration
Ethical technology & algorithmic transparency
MODULAR SYLLABUS

Curriculum Structure by Academic Section

Semester 1
9 Modules
Code Module Title Type Discipline & Learning Outcome
HLT711 Computational Molecular Biology & Genomic Data Science in Health Informatics Theory Evaluate high-throughput sequencing technologies, Burrows-Wheeler alignment, variant calling and phylogenetics.
HLT712 Bioinformatics Pipelines & High-Throughput Sequence Lab Practical Construct automated genomic pipelines using Nextflow, Snakemake, SAMtools and GATK on high-performance compute clusters.
HLT713 Biomedical Data Standards, Interoperability & FHIR Architectures Theory Model clinical information models, HL7 FHIR resource schemas, LOINC, SNOMED CT and OMOP common data models.
HLT714 FHIR Server Implementation & Clinical Data Integration Lab Practical Deploy HL7 FHIR REST servers, transform raw EHR data into standardized FHIR bundles and query patient cohorts.
HLT715 Statistical Genetics, Genome-Wide Association (GWAS) & Linkage Theory Formulate logistic regression for case-control GWAS, linkage disequilibrium, Bonferroni corrections and polygenic scores.
HLT716 GWAS Data Analysis & Statistical Genetics Studio (PLINK) Practical Execute quality control, population stratification PCA and association testing on large genetic datasets using PLINK.
HLT717 Empirical Clinical Research Methodology, Biostatistics & Trials Theory Design randomized clinical trials, survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier, Cox proportional hazards) and power calculations.
HLT718 Medical Image Processing Lab (DICOM / ITK / 3D Slicer) Practical Preprocess DICOM CT and MRI scans, apply intensity normalization, spatial registration and 3D segmentation masks.
HLT719 Swiss & Global Health Data Privacy, Ethics & Medical Device Law Theory Examine the Swiss Human Research Act, GDPR health privacy, HIPAA regulations and EU Medical Device Regulation (MDR).
Semester 2
9 Modules
Code Module Title Type Discipline & Learning Outcome
HLT721 Deep Learning in Medical Imaging & Diagnostic Radiology in Health Informatics Theory Evaluate 3D convolutional networks (UNet), vision transformers and attention mechanisms for anatomical lesion detection.
HLT722 Medical Image Segmentation & Diagnostic Deep Learning Studio Practical Train and validate 3D UNet models for tumor segmentation on volumetric MRI scans using PyTorch and MONAI.
HLT723 Structural Bioinformatics, Protein Folding & AlphaFold Modeling Theory Deconstruct protein tertiary structure prediction, evolutionary co-variance, Evoformer blocks and molecular docking.
HLT724 Molecular Docking & Computational Drug Discovery Workshop Practical Execute molecular dynamics simulations and virtual screening docking campaigns using AutoDock Vina and PyMOL.
HLT725 Electronic Health Records (EHR) Data Mining & Natural Language Processing Theory Analyze clinical information extraction from clinical notes using medical transformers (ClinicalBERT) and BioMedNLP.
HLT726 Clinical NLP & Information Extraction Studio Practical Fine-tune clinical language models to extract named entities, adverse drug events and diagnosis codes from hospital notes.
HLT727 Digital Therapeutics, Remote Patient Monitoring & Wearable IoT Theory Architect physiological signal processing pipelines (PPG, ECG), artifact rejection and wearable telemetry security.
HLT728 Biosignal Processing & Time-Series Anomaly Detection Lab Practical Process raw continuous ECG/EEG sensor streams, extract spectral features and detect arrhythmias using neural networks.
HLT729 Enterprise Health Tech Case Study & Collaborative System Design Practical Deliver a clinical decision support or digital health architecture design addressing an authentic healthcare challenge in Health Informatics.
Semester 3
9 Modules
Code Module Title Type Discipline & Learning Outcome
HLT731 Frontiers in Multi-Omics Integration & Precision Oncology Theory Critically assess single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq), spatial transcriptomics and multi-modal patient stratification.
HLT732 Single-Cell RNA-seq & Spatial Transcriptomics Lab (Scanpy) Practical Analyze single-cell gene expression datasets, perform dimensionality reduction (UMAP) and annotate cell types in Scanpy.
HLT733 Strategic Healthcare IT Leadership, Clinical Systems & Hospital Agility Theory Formulate hospital digital transformation roadmaps, clinical stakeholder management and health system IT budgets.
HLT734 Clinical Decision Support Systems (CDSS) & Rule Engine Lab Practical Implement real-time clinical alert rules, CDS Hooks and FHIR integration for automated guideline adherence.
HLT735 Federated Learning in Healthcare & Patient Privacy Preservation Theory Evaluate federated learning for multi-hospital collaboration without patient data sharing, DP and secure enclaves.
HLT736 MSc Health Informatics Thesis Proposal Colloquium & Defense Practical Author and defend a formal scientific master's research proposal specifying clinical or bioinformatic datasets.
HLT737 Commercializing Health Technologies, Biotech Patents & Clinical Trials Theory Examine medical software commercialization, FDA/CE mark regulatory clearance pathways and biotech venture funding.
HLT738 Pre-Thesis Health Tech Prototyping & Pilot Lab Practical Construct initial experimental bioinformatic pipelines or diagnostic models and gather preliminary validation metrics.
HLT739 Clinical Engagement & Real-World Health Dataset Validation Practical Validate computational pipelines against retrospective, anonymized clinical datasets under strict regulatory bounds.
Semester 4
9 Modules
Code Module Title Type Discipline & Learning Outcome
HLT741 MSc Health Informatics Dissertation: Empirical Methodology & Clinical Protocol Design Practical Formulate the empirical research design, cohort selection criteria and ethical validation protocols in Health Informatics.
HLT742 MSc Health Informatics Dissertation: Computational System Engineering & Model Design Practical Engineer the complete bioinformatic pipeline, diagnostic algorithm or digital health platform in Health Informatics.
HLT743 MSc Health Informatics Dissertation: Clinical Validation & Statistical Evaluation Practical Execute rigorous cross-validation, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and sensitivity/specificity tests.
HLT744 Critical Literature Synthesis & State-of-the-Art Analysis in Health Informatics Theory Synthesize academic publications from Nature Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, JAMIA and Lancet Digital Health.
HLT745 Scalability Benchmarking, Regulatory Hardening & Security Audit Practical Subject the health tech platform to HIPAA/GDPR privacy stress tests, data encryption audits and scalability benchmarks.
HLT746 Scientific Manuscript Preparation & Peer Review in Health Informatics Theory Author a publication-ready academic manuscript adhering to top-tier biomedical informatics conference guidelines.
HLT747 Executive Strategic Direction & Digital Healthcare Advisory Theory Translate specialized biomedical computing research into actionable hospital executive technology roadmaps.
HLT748 Comprehensive Health Tech Portfolio & Reproducible Pipeline Package Practical Package reproducible workflow scripts, Dockerized analysis environments and technical documentation in Health Informatics.
HLT749 MSc Health Informatics Thesis Oral Defense & Public Academic Examination Practical Defend the novel scientific thesis and biomedical computing models before an academic examination committee.
Pathway Snapshot
  • Target Award Private Master of Science Candidate
  • Study Level Postgraduate / MSc Pathways
  • Language English
  • Delivery Full-Time / Hybrid Delivery
Eligibility Guidelines

Recognized Bachelor Degree in computing, engineering, mathematics, quantitative discipline or relevant technical equivalence. English proficiency IELTS 6.5+ or equivalent.

Institutional Disclosure

Brookfield School of Computing is an independent private education institution in formation. Academic programmes, entry requirements, fees and awards are subject to institutional review and applicable Swiss legal regulations.