This course will cover the rationale for, and requirements of, population screening programmes to detect individuals at high risk of particular conditions, who can then be offered diagnostic investigations. Students will work in groups to investigate and report on, a screening programme of their choice from any country.

Semester 2

None

Examination (50%): 60 minutes critical evaluation of screening programme data.

Group presentation: Students will work in groups to present a critical overview of a selected screening programme. Each student will take part in the presentation, with a grade for the overall group scientific analysis and communication (25%), and individual presentation quality (25%).

Reassessments are normally available for all courses, except those which contribute to the Honours classification. For non Honours courses, students are offered reassessment in all or any of the components of assessment if the satisfactory (threshold) grade for the overall course is not achieved at the first attempt. This is normally grade D3 for undergraduate students and grade C3 for postgraduate students. Exceptionally it may not be possible to offer reassessment of some coursework items, in which case the mark achieved at the first attempt will be counted towards the final course grade. Any such exceptions for this course are described below. 

The overall group scientific analysis and communication component is not reassessable (25%).

The aims of this course are to:

■ explore the criteria for introducing screening programmes and methods used to evaluate screening programmes;

■ provide opportunity for students to work in groups to investigate and report upon a current or proposed screening programme.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ critically discuss the criteria required to be met before a screening programme can be introduced;

■ evaluate the effectiveness of a screening programme based on data analysis (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value, negative predictive value, etc), and, where appropriate, suggest strategies for improvement;

■ work as part of a team to investigate a current or proposed screening programme and, with reference to the literature, orally present a critical overview of that programme.

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.