Postdoctoral Scholar – Medicine

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JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

The Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Medicine in Hershey, PA is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar. Dr. Pichardo-Lowden and her research team are looking for an enthusiastic and inquisitive individual to join an innovative and collaborative research team. The role of this team member is to work on the management of an NIH R01 funded study addressing optimization strategies for diabetes care. This work capitalizes on the science of clinical decision support within health informatics. It incorporates health service, education, qualitative research, implementation science. The role will focus on data inquiries and management to support the study of primary and secondary outcomes of the project, leading to our subsequent research proposal. This position offers the possibility of combining remote and on-campus work.

Overview

This position will assist in the design and description of research inquiry related to the study’s primary and secondary endpoints, the coordination and management of study data from a rich existing database, and the interpretation of findings and active writing of scientific manuscripts. This new team member will interact with co-investigators and research support members to facilitate meeting the project’s goals.

Project Description

Funded by an NIDDK K23 program, we developed, validated and piloted GlucAlertCDS. This is a real-time, Health Informatics resource within the domain of Clinical Decision Support.  Embedded in the electronic medical records, our tool recognizes gaps in glycemic care and advises clinicians about evidence-based recommendations in the context of practice. Our work contributed to reductions in rates of glucose abnormalities and shorter length of hospital stay in a previous pilot study. This evidence supported our current NIDDK R01 project. This NIH grant funds our current clinical trial to study clinical, economic and practice performance outcomes of diabetes related to our clinical decision support tool across care settings within the health system.

Our research team capitalizes on concepts of health informatics, health systems science, quality improvement, education and qualitative research, health economics, population health and implementation science. Our multidisciplinary team incorporates members from academic and community hospitals including experts in diabetes, clinical practice, health informatics, data management an implementation science, health economy, and biostatistics.

The impact of our collaborative work relies on evaluating the impact of this innovative approach to help optimize the care of diabetes and glucose abnormalities in the hospital setting and transitions of care.  In doing that, we are contributing to identifying potential solutions in clinical practice that can impact the care of a large number of patients across a health system and that can be extrapolated to various health settings. Our study capitalizes on a rich database that support the main and secondary research questions of the program.

Postdoctoral Scholar overarching roles :

• Lead work related to the scientific inquiry or primary and secondary endpoints of the study.
• Lead data queries and data management, and contribute to interpretation of findings pertaining to the program.
• Lead the pursuit of scholarly products and collaborate with ongoing publications of the study.
• Outline milestone and provide recommendations that impact the direction of the research program and regular operations.
• Participate and contribute to short and long-term planning of activities supporting subsequent grant proposals
• Identify potential disruptions of milestones achievement and propose corrective actions.
• Consistently and proactively assess project’s and self-goal achievements.

Regular responsibilities:

• Coordinate study data queries and data management from our study database, based on predetermined scientific questions in collaboration with the study’s PI.
• Lead work and scientific inquiry design supporting primary and secondary endpoints of the project
• Organize resources, processes and activities, and evaluate progress and efficiency related to data queries, management, analysis, interpretation and scholarly reporting. 
• Lead, coordinate, and evaluate milestones of scholarly products to completion.
• Interact with team members for collaborative steps of the project.
• Contribute to revisions and recommendations of other scholarly products of the program.
• Present regular reports of milestone achievement (at frequency to be determined) and present weekly summary of study goals planned and met.

The ideal candidate will:

• Have experience designing, coordinating and managing research inquiry.
• Have experience writing and preparing scholarly manuscripts.
• Demonstrate competency in oral and written communication.
• Have computer skills including experience with graphic design, Word, Excel and other Microsoft. Office or other software, and/or willing to learn new skills.
• Be organized, responsive, attentive to detail, and possess a professional demeanor.
• Be flexible with changing priorities and able to communicate in a diplomatic manner.
• Be team and goal oriented.
• Possess excellent research integrity attitude.

A PhD or MD is required in a science related field with experience in clinical and/or translational sciences, including qualitative and quantitative research, is preferred. 

Applicant must submit examples of published writing, and references along with resume and application.

This is a limited-term appointment funded for one year from date of hire.  

Employment will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University polices. 

The Pennsylvania State University is committed to and accountable for advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in all of its forms. We embrace individual uniqueness, foster a culture of inclusive excellence that supports both broad and specific diversity initiatives, leverage the educational and institutional benefits of diversity, and engage all individuals to help them thrive. We value inclusive excellence as a core strength and an essential element of our public service mission. 

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Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies. 

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