What is HSMA?
Our Health Service Modelling Associates (HSMA) programme offers the chance for NHS and social care staff across England to develop modelling and data science techniques to tackle operational challenges in their organisations.
Participating staff first learn skills in data science and operational research and then learn how to apply them to real-world problems facing their organisations. On completing the 15-month programme, they take what they have learned back to their organisations. Alumni remain part of HSMA, contributing to active online discussions, sharing tools and approaches and mentoring newer participants.
HSMA started in 2016 as a small local programme with 6 participants but is now open to participants nationally. The programme has supported more than 300 associates, leading to significant impact for their services and their patients.
The training, accredited by the Association of Professional Healthcare Analysts, is delivered virtually to allow flexible participation, uses all open-source software, and is free to participants through funding from NHS England Digital.
Examples of Impact:
HSMA participants have used their new knowledge and skills in a wide range of areas to make positive change.
For example, learning from the programme contributed to a transformation in performance at UCL Hospitals. By improving flow through the Urgent Treatment Centre, waiting times were significantly reduced at minimal cost.
A model of patient flow at the University College London Hospital Urgent Care Department allowed decision makers to easily understand the impact of possible changes to service design and assess cost-effectiveness. As a result of the modelling, the department was redesigned with a change of space and new staffing rotas to better manage patient flow. The changes led to improved performance against targets, quicker treatment, and improved experience for patients and staff. Similar models are now being developed for use in other Emergency Departments.
Other examples include:
- Identifying a simple approach to speed up neuro-developmental assessments in Oxford Health NHSFT
- Using evidence from geographic modelling to redesign services and reduce cardiac patients’ travel times by the South East Cardiac Network
- Supporting public health and police analysts to map violence involving firearms, with results now used in national intelligence reports
- Building a tool that creates health equity assessment reports for NHS Trusts 80 times faster than the current manual approach.
Learn more about our Health Services Modelling Associates (HSMA) Programme.
Updated June 2025.