Research Medical Officer II - Clinical Epidemiology / Implementation Science (Neonatal Team) at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

JOB DIMENSIONS:

The Health Services & Implementation Cluster comprises a multi-disciplinary team based in Nairobi. It works closely with the Kenya Paediatric Association, the University of Nairobi, the Ministry of Health and multiple county hospitals in a collaboration called the Clinical Information Network (CIN). The CIN has worked for 10 years to improve paediatric and neonatal inpatient care. Going forward the CIN would like to extend its work to develop a better understanding of the quality of neonatal care and the outcomes of those admitted to newborn units while also developing and testing implementation strategies to improve care.

The CIN (Neonatal) team are looking for a medical officer to help develop new areas of neonatal research. The individual will work with a team of scientists and under the supervision of clinical and non-clinical post-doctoral scientists leading CIN and related research. In particular, the individual is expected to help sustain the collection of high-quality routine data by collaborating with CIN hospital clinicians and hospitals’ information officers so that the CIN platform can support improvement work and evaluation of outcomes and interventions. To do this they will liaise with senior hospital staff and policy-makers and managers at county and national levels too. While doing this they will be expected to learn the principles of data management, data quality assurance, quality measurement and quality improvement.

The individual will also be expected, under supervision, to conduct formative research that will support the development of new research proposals. Potential topic areas include: pragmatic clinical trials (eg.of emollient therapy or antibiotic regimens); implementation of bedside diagnostic technologies, or implementing better clinical practices (eg. optimizing newborn feeding). Specific roles will include:

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Help manage the CIN-N data collection process, ensure the high quality of data, continue to improve the data systems and ensure these are adequately documented and ensure the production of timely hospital feedback reports and aggregate hospital reports for sharing with hospitals and other national stakeholders.
• Help update / adapt the CIN-N data collection system so that it meets the needs of CIN hospitals and new projects
• Work closely with CIN team members and assume some supervisory responsibility for ensuring hospital clerks are effectively managed. This work may include travel to county hospital sites and hardware installation and management.
• Liaise with senior CIN team members, county hospitals’ hospital management teams, paediatricians, senior nurses and HRIOs to ensure the smooth running of the CIN-N
• Ensure the production of reports using CIN-N data for Principal Investigators and for project funders as required
• Help present the data emerging from the CIN-N at internal meetings, in hospitals, and to national and international partners
• Develop one topic and draft a report / scientific manuscript using the CIN-N data to develop analytic and scientific writing skills
• Develop a specific epidemiological / implementation research project as guided senior team members and work towards developing a proposal for future research

As part of a wider contribution to the KWTRP research programme in Nairobi the post-holder may partake in or help conduct internal epidemiological methodological workshops and shared learning sessions and will be expected to contribute to and help organise internal seminars and journal clubs and provide peer review of emerging proposals within KWTRP together with other senior scientists.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• MBChB or equivalent and should have completed internship
• A licensed Kenyan Medical practitioner
• At least two years post-qualification experience in medical practice
• Current registration Kenya Medical Practitioners and Dentists’ Board
• Demonstrable experience in research including roles in data collection, health data analysis and report writing.
• Good Clinical Practice (GCP) training and certification

DESIRABLE:

• Strong practical foundation in data collection and quality control, data management, data visualization
• Completion of at least 1 year of work as a medical officer
• Some skills in use of a statistical programme (‘R’ is preferred)
• Experience of using REDCap or of similar data capture tools
• Understanding of DHIS2 and the Kenyan Health Information System
• Evidence of ability to write scientific proposals or for peer-reviewed research publications
• Clear interest in health services or implementation research
• Prior work on team based projects and demonstrable organizational skills and experience managing junior team members