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Research assistant / co-ordinator for the Design-a-Trial project Based at UCL, London. Salary on the RA1A scale (c. £16,800 + London weighting £2,700) We are looking for a graduate research assistant / co-ordinator to assist in the development of a new version of Design-a-Trial. This knowledge-based computer program helps doctors to design clinical trials and was developed by Jeremy Wyatt with the assistance of Doug Altman and others and programmed by the IBM Scientific Centre, Winchester. The required qualifications are a degree in any scientific discipline including psychology, familiarity with experimental methods, ability to use a computer and ability to liaise with computer scientists, doctors and statisticians, to arrange and minute meetings and to use the scientific literature. Additional useful attributes would be some knowledge of medical statistics and an ability to design and analyse questionnaires. The RA post is one of two funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Health Informatics programme; the other is for a computer scientist to implement the new version of the program. Software development skills are not necessary for this post, but familiarity with word processing, data analysis and electronic mail on the PC or Macintosh are required. This post holder will liaise closely with the computer scientist at the Eastman Dental hospital in Central London, though occasional travel to Oxford and elsewhere may be required. The main duties will be: o To help refine the specification for the new version of DaT by conducting small surveys, literature reviews and co-ordinating a group of potential system users to review the strengths and weaknesses of prototypes in "user-centred design" sessions o To help identify and summarise relevant literature, for example about clinical trial design checklists or existing computer-based tools to assist in trial design. o To assist the computer scientist to resolve enquiries about how the system should look and function, provide material to populate screens with advisory text, etc. o To report progress and problems weekly to the project steering group and arrange, attend and minute monthly steering group meetings o To liaise with other relevant groups such as the Cochrane Collaboration, specialist medical societies, etc. o To help evaluate new versions of the software by arranging for subjects to use it and collecting data about their experience and opinions o Other tasks including project co-ordination and correspondence as necessary The post will be for 18 months in the first instance, starting as soon as possible. During this time, the appointee will be working alongside leading statisticians, computer scientists and medical informatics workers and can expect to co-author at least one research paper describing the work. Informal enquiries about this post should be addressed to Dr Jeremy Wyatt (0171-209-6668; Internet: [log in to unmask]) Pippa Bark Principal Research Fellow Centre for Health Informatics and Multiprofessional Education (CHIME) Holborn Union Building, Archway Campus Royal Free & University College Medical School Highgate Hill London N19 3UA Tel: 020 7288 3383 Fax: 020 7288 3389