Research Fellow

The University of Sydney

RESEARCH FELLOW - HEALTH DATA/POLICY/ECONOMICS
MENZIES CENTRE FOR HEALTH POLICY
SYDNEY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH
REFERENCE NO. 253/0215

Perform applied and valuable work in the health services field

Full-time fixed term for three years subject to performance and ongoing funding; available for immediate start

Remuneration: Academic Level B, starting salary of $93,629p.a. plus leave loading and up to 17% superannuation

The University of Sydney is Australia's first university and has an outstanding global reputation for academic and research excellence. It employs over 7300 permanent staff, supporting over 50,000 students.

The University of Sydney and the Menzies Centre for health Policy has recently joined the Health Program of the Capital Markets Cooperative Research Centre (CMCRC), undertaking research related to the efficiency of the Australian health care system. The CMCRC Health Program is highly interdisciplinary and combines elements of health policy, health economics, epidemiology, public health, data mining, predictive analytics and simulation modeling. The Menzies Centre for Health Policy/CMCRC/NSW Ministry of Health partnership is about providing a better understanding of the efficiency of the health care system and conducting research that can inform policy makers, clinical providers and patients and community members. CMCRC research is also about realising commercial benefits from innovation, and the CMCRC provides direct participation in commercial results for those students and research staff involved in the program.

We are seeking a full-time Research Fellow to support a suite of research projects and associated research activity in health data analytics and applied health economics and policy. You will work with NSW Ministry of Health (and other) data stores to: map private patient inflows and outflows from each Local Health District; Emergency Department utilisation (patient flows; costing analyses; geomapping); methodological development to assist with projections in capital hospital development planning; and, development of tools to support population-based service planning. You will have the opportunity to perform applied and valuable work in the health field, to work with a team of emerging and leading scientists, to supervise PhD candidates, and to interact with the lead industry partner for this work, the NSW Ministry of Health, with research that will be translated into tangible outcomes.

You will split your time between The University of Sydney (Camperdown), the CMCRC (The Rocks, Sydney) and the NSW Ministry of Health (North Sydney).

To succeed in securing this role you will have:

a PhD in relevant health or related discipline (epidemiology, statistics, biostatistics, health economics, basic machine learning, data mining, signal processing or computer science)

proven ability to work with large administrative or survey data sets

experience with Matlab/R; SAS; excellent computer programming skills and be comfortable with the analysis of complex and large data sets

a strong academic record (relative to opportunity) with strong written and verbal communications skills, as evidenced by a track record of publications in peer reviewed journals

a proven ability to work within collaborative research teams

successful research project management experience including delivering projects on time

Desirable but not essential

an understanding of the Australian health care system and a background in health research

experience leading and submitting successful human research ethics applications

designing and implementation of machine learning algorithms.

All applications must be submitted via the University of Sydney careers website. Visit http://sydney.edu.au/recruitment and search by the reference number for more information and to apply.

Specific enquiries regarding the role may be directed to Associate Professor Adam Elshaug at elshaug@sydney.edu.au General enquiries regarding the recruitment process may be directed to Julie Small, Lead Recruitment Consultant on +61 2 8627 1223.

CLOSING DATE: 17 March 2015 (11pm Sydney time)

The University is an equal opportunity employer committed to equity, diversity and social inclusion. Applications from equity target groups, including women and people with disabilities are encouraged. As the University of Sydney has established a scheme to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff employed across the institution, applications from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent are also encouraged.