PRR Project

Summary

Job descriptionHaving an expert researcher in statistical modelling for clinical research in inflammatory bowel disease shall reinforce research in the institution and its transversal connection with the thematic lines of RISE / RISE-Health, in the scientific areas of clinical decision and healthcare innovation, namely in inflammatory diseases, envisioning the promotion of clinical research and healthcare improvement. Therefore, the specific fundamental pillars for the position roles include:Consolidating a statistical expert role in clinical studies, both in the promotion of clinical trials and real-world health data analysis, envisioning an increase in the scientific production of the host institution.Improving clinical knowledge of diseases, considering their temporal interactions, using models of artificial intelligence, data science and advanced analytics, namely in the modeling of secondary real-world health data.Creating intelligent and explainable decision models for clinical use in the real world, developing clinical decision support systems that promote the equitable dissemination of healthcare, with easy-to-use dia-prognostic methods.Consolidating consultancy activities specialized in data analysis and statistical modeling in clinical research, focusing on the development and opening of new activities in the conduct, modeling and analysis of clinical trials and real-world health data.Participating in - and coordinating - research projects with competitive funding, namely by preparing and submitting proposals to national and international entities, and integrating groups of specialized experts in national and international institutions.Creating interdisciplinary research teams in health data science, namely through the guidance of research, doctoral and post-doctoral grants in intelligent analysis of biomedical data for clinical research, within the scope of RISE and RISE-Health activities.Providing statistical support for internal educational activities of the host institution.Promoting and integrating the launch of spin-offs, around statistical consultancy and data analysis activities, expanding the area of intervention to the generation of decision models and extraction of knowledge from biomedical data. Scientific profileThe prospective researcher should have a heterogeneous portfolio of scientific collaborations in different clinical domains, with a solid body of research in inflammatory bowel disease, supported by a sound set of publications and expertise as a consultant in clinical and health services research. Additionally, the researcher should be proficient in applying health data science methodologies in developing clinical decision support systems. Specifically:PhD in Clinical and Health Services Research (or similar) with specific training in statistics or applied mathematics.More than 100 publications in indexed journals, a privilege given to candidates with a heterogeneous body of research regarding the clinical area of application.More than 40 publications in indexed journals in the scientific area of inflammatory bowel diseases.Solid and consistent experience in statistical consultancy for clinical and health services research.Experience in the application of artificial intelligence methods for clinical research and decision support. RationaleRecently, several systematic reviews have shown the existence of multiple factors for the risk of bad prognosis in Crohn’s disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC), which hinder our ability to properly provide the needed care. Parallel to that, novel diagnostic factors have been found, and prognostic models have been developed based on risk factors for CD, UC, and comorbidities in inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD), though with limited applicability and access to target groups where the complexity of the disease is higher.An aging population and better management of chronic diseases, such as IBD, and the development of healthcare in the community led to an increase in the complexity of diseases and the number of patients with multi-morbidity, with 2/3 the patients older than 65 years having two or more disorders at the same time. Thus, different challenges to deal with the increasing disease complexity have risen. Since clinical cases are getting more and more complex, clinical knowledge requires a decent knowledge representation method, such as the application of modeling techniques with alike increasing complexity.Therefore, the host institution requires a permanent position, having the enunciated profile, to tackle the current and future challenges of clinical and health services research, knowledgeable and proficient in intelligent data analysis and complex modeling using artificial intelligence and advanced statistical models, providing a solid basis for multidisciplinary research teams and projects using the wealth of real-world health data available at point of care.