Campus
Birmingham (Edgbaston)
Course overview
Chronic Disease Management is an essential module for postgraduate healthcare professionals seeking to lead and innovate within modern UK healthcare. Long-term conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, arthritis, and chronic respiratory illness now dominate NHS activity and expenditure, demanding a shift from reactive treatment to proactive, preventive, and integrated care.
This course explores how national priorities — including the NHS Long Term Plan, the Major Conditions Strategy, and the development of Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) — are transforming approaches to chronic disease management across clinical, community, and digital settings.
You will critically examine the implications of these policies for clinical practice, workforce planning, and patient engagement strategies. Through real-world case studies and evidence-based analysis, participants will deepen their understanding of multimorbidity, health inequalities, and self-management, and gain the tools to implement person-centred, culturally responsive, and system-aware interventions.
By the end of the course, you'll be equipped to translate policy into practice, influence service redesign, and drive improvements in outcomes for people living with chronic illness.
Course delivery
This course involves a variety of teaching methods including lectures, workshops, seminars, and e-learning that is designed in a way to enhance application of learning to the clinical environment.
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Demonstrate an integrated understanding of the altered anatomy and pathophysiology of common chronic diseases along the disease continuum.
- Critically appraise and demonstrate synthesis of knowledge of the hierarchy of evidence which inform national guidelines relating to the diagnosis, treatment and monitoring of common chronic diseases.
- Apply synthesis of clinical knowledge to formulate comprehensive clinical management plans for individuals living with chronic disease, with a view to promoting optimisation of self-care and management through pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions and social prescribing.
- Explore social, economic and environmental factors that impact on the prevalence and distribution of common chronic diseases at a local, regional and national level with reference to public health initiatives to prevent disease.
- Critically evaluate the impact of current health and social care policy on the organisational management of healthcare services for chronic disease management, including engagement across the primary and secondary care interface and their influence on the patient experience (and their families) living with a chronic disease.
Course dates
- 9th, 10th, 23rd and 24th October 2025
- 6th and 7th November 2025
Assessment
3,000-word essay (100%)
Credits
20 credits
Teaching staff
Dr Kanta Kumar
Associate Professor
Staff profile for Dr Kanta Kumar, Associate Professor in the School of Nursing and Midwifery, College of Medicine and Health.
Entry requirements
Please contact the Programme Administrator at acp@contacts.bham.ac.uk
Fees and scholarships
Fees for 2025 entry
Microcredential (Home): £1,211
Non-credit: £1,011.20
Please note the Microcredential is not open to International students.
Application process
You can choose to study this course as either a microcredential or a non-credit short course.
Why choose a Postgraduate Microcredential short course?
- Microcredentials offer the perfect opportunity to boost your CV without the commitment of a full degree
- Usually taken from existing modules within a Masters, they can be used as standalone credentials with some also counting as academic credits at postgraduate level
- Add a postgraduate level qualification to your CV
- Develop the specialist skills you need for your career goals
- Alumni status with the University of Birmingham
- Learners will have the same access to our student support and campus facilities as our students on full degree programmes.
Please note the deadline for submitting an application:
- Applicants eligible for Home fees are to apply a minimum of 6 weeks before the module start date.
- Applicants eligible for Overseas fees are to apply a minimum of 3 months before the module start date.
Please note that once registered for the microcredential you cannot swap for the non-credit short course version.
Non-credit short course
The microcredential and the non-credit short course follow the same course structure, the difference between them both is with the non-credit short course you do not take the assessment at the end therefore you will not receive credits but will receive a certificate of completion, this certificate cannot be converted to credits.
Please note if you apply for the non-credit short course, you cannot swap to the microcredential version once registered.
Places on the non-credit short course are limited so please enquire before if spaces are available.