A systems approach to modelling care pathways and policies in burn injury
The North West Institute for Bio-Health Informatics (NIBHI) invites applications for a 3-year full-time PhD studentship seeking to develop complex longitudinal models for the analysis and improvement of care services in the area of burn injury.
Funding provides full support for tuition fees, associated research costs and an annual tax-free stipend of £13, 590 (aligned with minimum Research Council rates). The project is due to commence April 2011 and is open to UK/EU nationals only due to the nature of the funding.
The methodological challenge is to build computational models of healthcare with sufficient complexity to enable 'what if' scenario planning and the discovery of unanticipated healthcare outcomes. The Systems Research theme of Greater Manchester CLAHRC and MRC IMPACT projects are developing related methods using a framework of probabilistic graphical models to reflect disease and care pathways spanning prevention and specialist treatment. The successful PhD candidate will work with this group to develop new ways to analyse care pathways from anonymised, linked healthcare records.
The overall objective is to enable clinicians and policy-makers to improve healthcare services for defined populations by using not only international literature and national guidance, but also complex, contemporary patterns of local healthcare. Published care pathways (assumed best practice) will be compared with the patterns found in electronic healthcare records (integrated across primary and secondary care) and linked disease registers, with variations from expected care then studied. In addition, scenarios of changes to care pathways will be studied by simulation.
The project would suit highly numerate individuals with the ability to apply themselves to complex clinical problems through mathematical modelling.
Research will be conducted within NIBHI in collaboration with clinical partners across Greater Manchester NHS. Extensive training will be provided in clinical epidemiology, health informatics, biostatistics, Bayesian inference & machine learning and health systems modelling.
Upon completion, progression into post-doctoral research posts in clinical epidemiology, health services research, biostatistics or health informatics would be anticipated.
Applicants should hold a minimum upper-second honours degree (or equivalent) in statistics, mathematics, physics, computer science or a health-related science (with a strong quantitative component). A Masters qualification in a similar area would be a significant advantage. Aptitude for computational thinking and basic software engineering skills are desirable attributes.
Please direct applications in the following format to [log in to unmask] :
* Academic CV
* Official academic transcripts
* Contact details for two suitable referees
* A personal statement (750 words maximum) outlining your suitability for the study, what you hope to achieve from the PhD and your research experience to date.
Any enquiries relating to the project and/or suitability should be directed to Professor Iain Buchan at [log in to unmask]
Applications are invited up to and including Monday 14 February 2011.
www.healthimpact.org.uk
http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk/
OurRef:BuchanCLAHRC
Funding Notes
Applicants must be UK/EU nationals resident in the European Union.
Further PhD opportunities within the Faculty can be found on our 'PhD Opportunities' database:
http://www.mhs.manchester.ac.uk/postgraduate/studentships/
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