Department: Epidemiology and Public Health
Institution: Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
Location: St Mary's Campus, Paddington, London W2
Salary: in the range £18,420 to 23,721 per annum, inclusive of London
Allowance
Applications must be received by: 31 March 2000.
STATISTICAL PROGRAMMER - STATISTICS/STATISTICAL COMPUTING (ALC1/ALC2)
This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a strong background in
science/statistics/computing to join a leading group at the cutting edge of
developments in spatial statistics and epidemiology. Appointment will be on
the ALC1/ALC2 scale according to experience and qualifications.
The main focus of this post is a programme of studies in the UK
government-funded Small Area Health Statistics Unit, and related research
projects in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health [Division of
Primary Care and Population Health Sciences]. The emphasis is on the
development and analysis of the Department’s extensive health and
environmental databases, including implementation of statistical
methodology. This work fulfils a critical role within the department's core
research activities involving epidemiological modelling and
interpretation of routinely collected health and environmental data. The
Department’s web site is at: http://www.med.ic.ac.uk/df/dfhm/index.htm.
THE SMALL AREA HEALTH STATISTICS UNIT (SAHSU)
SAHSU was first established following the identification of a 'cluster' of
childhood leukaemia near the Sellafield nuclear plant in 1983, and has been
based in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health since April 1996.
The remit of SAHSU includes the investigation of disease near sources of
environmental pollution and the study more generally of disease variation
across small areas in Great Britain.
The Unit holds national data, including individual records of births (from
1981), deaths (from 1981) and cancer registrations (from 1974) in Great
Britain, and data on hospital admissions, stillbirths and congenital
abnormalities. The key to the geographically-based analyses is the postcode
of residence which is now added routinely to health events including deaths,
cancers and hospital admissions. There are currently around 2 million
postcodes in use in the UK. Data on population and socio-economic
characteristics are also held for around 130,000 small areas (enumeration
districts) from the 1981 and 1991 censuses. The database holds in excess of
12 million records per year.
The SAHSU research programme includes both methodological developments as
well as substantive
epidemiological enquiries. The research programme is agreed with a Steering
Committee representing the Funding Government Departments (led by the
Department of Health) and its external scientific advisers. There is the
potential for future studies to
involve (as necessary) environmental and/or biological measurements as well
as the analysis of routine health statistics.
In addition to the Director and Assistant Director, SAHSU staff include an
epidemiologist at senior lecturer level, three researchers in statistics, an
environmental scientist, a research assistant in epidemiology, two GIS
(Geographical Information Systems) experts, a computing officer, a database
administrator and an administrative manager. A number of other
post-doctoral research staff in statistics and epidemiology also work on
SAHSU and related projects.
Terms of reference of SAHSU are as follows: to examine quickly and advise on
reports (formal or
informal) of unusual clusters of disease, particularly in the neighbourhood
of industrial installations; to carry out detailed epidemiological enquiry
of the routine health statistics, and, where available, relevant
environmental data, particularly in the neighbourhood of industrial
installations; in collaboration with other scientific groups to build up
background information on the distribution of disease amongst small areas so
that specific clusters can be placed in proper context; to explore and
develop methods for the study of the available statistics in order to detect
reliably any unusual incidence of disease; and to develop the
methodology for analysing and interpreting statistics relating to small
areas.
Current and recent studies include clinical lead poisoning in England,
health effects of environmental cadmium exposure, magnesium in drinking
water supplies and mortality from acute myocardial infarction, hospital
admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular disease near cokeworks, excess
winter mortality in relation to temperature, outdoor air pollution &
socio-economic deprivation, and geographical epidemiology of testicular
cancer, prostate cancer & cryptorchidism. Methodological developments
include papers and reports on Bayesian model selection criteria, development
of methodology to analyse matched case-control studies in relation to line
sources, errors-in-variables in environmental epidemiology.
Studies related to the SAHSU programme, and funded separately, include
small-area mapping and
statistical analysis of variation in disease risk and possible explanatory
factors in the Thames regions; methods for quantifying and explaining
socio-economic and geographical variation in health; statistical analysis of
large geographical health and environmental databases; Northamptonshire air
pollution study; a small-area study of birth prevalence and environmental
risk factors for hypospadias; and a population-based case control study of
hypospadias in three health regions.
The group is at the forefront of developments in Bayesian statistical
analysis, including development of the widely-used BUGS (Bayesian inference
Using Gibbs Sampling) software.
THE DEPARTMENT
The Department has around sixty staff working under the departmental head,
Professor Paul Elliott, and has an excellent track record of securing high
levels of programme and research grant funding across its three main areas
of work. These are Environmental Epidemiology & Small-Area Health Statistics
(including SAHSU), Reproductive Epidemiology & Sexual Health,
and Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology.
The Department is located in refurbished offices in South Wharf Road on the
St. Mary’s (Paddington) site, and has a computing facility networked to
Imperial College.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
· strong background in science/statistics/computing or related discipline
· ability to prioritise jobs and organise work effectively;
· a proactive, self-starter with the ability to learn new skills quickly;
· able to work with a minimum of supervision;
· good, proven inter-personal communications skills
· able to work effectively with staff of all grades
· appropriate computing/technical skills
· experience of using some or all of the following software packages would
be helpful, although not essential: (C, databases,Oracle SQL, PL/SQL, Pro*C,
Unix, statistical programming using S-Plus,Stata and/or BUGS/WinBUGS, GIS
packages suchas ArcInfo/ArcView).
DUTIES
You will work as part of a team, supporting statistical analysis of several
SAHSU studies. This will include:
· Spatial and temporal analysis of large geographical, environmental and
epidemiological datasets.
· Statistical programming using S-Plus or C to carry out tasks such as
probabilistic data matching, statistical modelling etc.
· Use of Geographical Information Systems and relational databases for
processing and manipulating large health and
environmental datasets and for producing maps and other graphical data
summaries.
· Collaboration on the development/implementation of appropriate statistical
methods to deal with the complex spatial and
temporal structure of these datasets, and to adjust for problems such as
missing data and measurement errors.
· Other duties as may be required by the Head of Department
ACCOUNTABILITY
The successful applicant will be accountable to Professor Elliott, with
day-to-day responsibility to lead investigators on the
various research projects.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
The appointment will be on the ALC1/ALC2 scale, in the range £18,420 -
23,721 per annum, inclusive of London Allowance. The appointment will be for
one year in the first instance, with a probationary review at six months.
Closing date: 31 March
2000.
APPLICATIONS
Please send a CV and covering letter to Simon Sheffield, Departmental
Manager, Epidemiology and Public Health, Imperial College School of
Medicine, Norfolk Place, London W2 1PG, or by fax to: 020 7402 2150, or by
email to: [log in to unmask] (please use Microsoft Word and save as
version 7 for Windows 95 - preferably as a .rtf file).
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