Job Title:  Research Associate in quantitative analysis of NHS data (SM129-11)
		
Department/Division/Faculty:  Department of Primary Care and Public Health/School of Public Health
		
Salary £27,400 - £35,810 per annum
(Candidates with a PhD in a relevant field already awarded will start no lower than £31,300)

Closing Date: 14 November 2011 (midnight BST) 


Dr Foster Unit, Imperial College, 12 Smithfield Street, London, EC1A 9LA and Charing Cross Campus

This is an exciting opportunity for an individual with a PhD or equivalent in Epidemiology, Statistics, Health Services Research or a closely related numerate discipline who is looking to develop their career as a health services researcher. The project has a focus on quantitative analysis of real NHS data. You will join a team studying and developing measures of quality in healthcare provision led by Dr Alex Bottle, Lecturer in Medical Statistics and Principal Investigator. The post is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and will be mainly based at the Dr Foster Unit which is led by Dr Paul Aylin, Clinical Reader in Epidemiology and Public Health with some travel to other campuses.

Using routine NHS hospital admissions data (Hospital Episode Statistics, HES) held and processed by the Unit, the post holder will derive a series of predictive models for mortality, unplanned readmission, unplanned re-operation and non-attendance in outpatients departments. These will cover a range of common diagnoses and procedures. There will be a focus on the measurement of and adjustment for comorbidity, including an update of the popular Charlson index calibrated for use in the NHS. After adjusting for available casemix factors, we will determine the variation in these outcome rates between hospitals to shed light on the performance of the NHS on these key measures.
            
Another key aim is to assess whether machine learning methods such as artificial neural networks and support vector machines outperform traditional logistic regression for risk prediction. Input will come from colleagues from the two mathematics departments who will also support the post holder in the use of these advanced and promising methods.
            
There will be excellent opportunities to present and publish the work to departmental, national and international audiences. Outputs from the project will be of a methodological nature in terms of modelling approaches and of a practical nature in terms of measuring aspects of NHS performance and variations in care.

This full time position is fixed term until 31 August 2013 and will be based at Dr Foster Unit, Imperial College, 12 Smithfield Street, London, EC1A 9LA and Charing Cross Campus located in Hammersmith. 

For further information please contact Dr Alex Bottle ([log in to unmask]). ; do not apply to him directly

Committed to equality and valuing diversity.  We are also an Athena Bronze SWAN Award winner, a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Stonewall Top 100 Employer 2011.
		
Closing Date: 14 November 2011 (midnight BST) 
		
How To Apply:  Our preferred method of application is online via this website. 
http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/employment (search via reference number SM129-11)


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Eszter Vag, HR Assistant – [log in to unmask]

		 
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