Postdoctoral Research Assistant - UOD1887

We are recruiting for an exceptional individual to join us as a Postdoctoral (or equivalent) Research Assistant within the Division of Population Health and Genomics to work on the “Data Enabled, Shared Fluid Management Platform in Haemodialysis”(HARMONY) project funded by the European Partnership on Transforming Health and Care Systems. This is a fixed-term appointment for 36 months.

This project is a collaboration between Austria, Galway and Scotland. Fluid status in haemodialysis(HD) is associated with acute symptomatic events, hospitalisation and cardiovascular mortality. Improving how decisions are made around managing fluid status is highly prioritised by clinical staff and patients to address workforce burden,patient well being and patient outcomes. Previous attempts to improve outcomes have been frustrating and practice remains unchanged over many decades. The lack of proven interventions has been linked to a failure to acknowledgement fluid management as a complex intervention. Our collaboration has worked independently in this area over many years and plans to come together to address this challenge. This is based on the following principles:

• Fluid management is a complex intervention with multiple components and interventions should be developed and tested accordingly.
• Current management of fluid status does not make full use of the large amount of routinely collected data linked to volume status and lacks formal acknowledgement of patient preferences. Our digital solution is based on improving the accessibility of routinely collected data to patients and the multidisciplinary clinical team and on enabling routine, simple patient reported outcome collection via mobile applications.
• Patient preference has never been formally incorporated into interventions around fluid management.

We plan to develop a truly patient-centred solution.

We will develop and feasibility test a fluid management platform, assess health economics, impact on workforce and other barriers and enablers of implementation.Working across national jurisdictions, with different digital platforms and supported by broad expertise and stakeholders, we will provide justification for subsequent widespread deployment of data enabled, patient-centred, fluid management.

The post holder will be part of the Division of Population Health and Genomics. We support Early Career Researchers, with active mentoring,and a range of relevant training options for scientific and academic development.

You will be based at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School, one of Europe’s largest teaching hospitals where the School of Medicine provides outstanding opportunities in medical education and training supported by world class research facilities.

Your priorities will include:

• Ensuring all regulatory approvals are in place prior to the start of study activity
• Take informed consent from patients
• Conduct semi-structured interviews with patients
• Conduct semi-structured interviews with relevant stakeholders including health professionals
• Collect quantitative information from patients.
• Ensure that all collected data are recorded and held in a secure manner, following all regulatory requirements
• Contribute to analysis of qualitative and quantitative data
• Data management including the transformation and curation of linked datasets
• Leading and contributing to reports, scientific papers and presentations arising from this work

We’re looking for someone with:

• PhD or equivalent higher degree in a relevant subject
• Understanding of mixed methods research
• Experience of data management
• Excellent organisational skills
• Previous experience of clinical/epidemiological research
• Excellent written and oral communication skills in English
• Ability to work independently, and as part of a team

For futher information please contact Dr Samira Bell s.t.bell@dundee.ac.uk

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