PhD Studentships
NIBHI & Community Based Medicine
Faculty of Medical & Human Sciences
A systems approach to modelling care pathways and policies in vascular healthcare
Professor Iain Buchan
The Greater Manchester CLAHRC (Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care) invites applications for 3-year fully funded PhD studentships commencing from October 2010.
Available PhD projects will address a common methodological challenge, each applied to one of four areas of vascular healthcare: stroke, chronic kidney disease, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The studentships provide full support for tuition fees, associated research costs and an annual tax-free stipend starting at £13, 590. Each project is due to start in October 2010, with flexibility to start in January 2011 should this be preferred.
Applications are welcomed from both EU and non-EU nationals.
The common 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 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 candidates will work with this group to develop new ways to analyse care pathways from anonymised, linked healthcare records. Clinical research questions will be addressed within each of the four vascular healthcare themes.
The application challenge is to enable clinicians and policy-makers to improve healthcare services for defined populations by using not only international literature & 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, and the variations from expected care will be studied. In addition, scenarios of changes to care pathways will be studied by simulation.
The projects would suit highly numerate individuals with the ability to apply themselves to complex clinical problems through mathematical modelling.
Each study will be conducted within the North West Institute for Bio-Health Informatics (NIBHI) in collaboration with clinical partners across Greater Manchester NHS. The successful candidates will develop expertise in clinical epidemiology, health informatics, biostatistics, health economics, health services research, Bayesian inference and 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, or expect to obtain, a minimum upper-second honours degree (or equivalent) in statistics, mathematics, physics, computer science or health-related science (with a strong quantitative component). A Masters qualification in a similar area is essential. Aptitude for computational thinking and basic software engineering skills are desirable attributes.
Please direct applications in the following format to [log in to unmask]
* A CV, including full details of all University course grades to date.
* Contact details for two academic or professional referees.
* A personal statement (750 words maximum) outlining your suitability for the CLAHRC study, what you hope to achieve from the PhD and your research experience to date.
Any enquiries relating to the projects and/or suitability should be directed to Professor Iain Buchan at [log in to unmask] Applications are invited up to and including Thursday 29 July 2010.
Examples of potential project titles are:
* "Simulation of the population impact of introducing Dabigatran to prevent stroke in people with atrial fibrillation"
* "Large scale modelling of the outcomes of natural variations in stroke care"
* "Identification of treatment-related risk groups for liver disease among type 2 diabetics, using machine learning methods and routine healthcare records";
* "Dynamic modelling of renal function in relation to diabetes care"
http://www.nibhi.org.uk
http://www.healthimpact.org.uk
http://clahrc-gm.nihr.ac.uk
Prof. Iain Buchan
Director, Northwest Institute for BioHealth Informatics
1.311 Jean MacFarlane Building, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
+44 (0)161 275 5160
www.nibhi.org.uk
You may leave the list at any time by sending the command
SIGNOFF allstat
to [log in to unmask], leaving the subject line blank.
|
