Research Officer -Technologies and Hospital Care (Health Systems / Services Research) at KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP)

JOB PURPOSE: 

We have an exciting opportunity for someone to contribute to research at the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust Research Programme (KWTRP), a leading research centre in Africa dedicated to investigating the primary causes of ill health and the development of health care systems on the continent. At KWTRP, we are not only committed to advancing scientific knowledge but also to fostering local research leadership.

In a new project, the Health Services Unit at KWTRP Nairobi together with the Kenya Paediatric Research Consortium (KEPRECON) are collaborating with researchers at Oxford University and elsewhere to advance work to examine which technologies are being introduced in Kenya’s hospitals with a particular focus on its County Hospitals. The World Health Organisation has recently provided a classification of Digital Health technologies (https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240081949)  and our team is especially interested in those that aim to support health care providers in their work. We are interested in which are being introduced or are emerging and how these are influencing / will influence service delivery and health worker roles / role redesign or the sharing of tasks between different professional groups. Technologies may change health workers roles, amongst many other ways, by:

• Extending the scope of (new) services available to patients (eg. new diagnostics or decision support tools may result in new therapeutic strategies being provided in FRH)
•  Enabling new forms of shared care for complex conditions (eg. through expert supervision using telehealth)
• Simplifying or standardising processes of care (eg. those that have enabled different professionals to have roles in provision of anaesthesia )

Understanding the effects of technologies on roles and their redesign is especially important in African hospitals as these settings traditionally had very few highly skilled, specialist providers, with most care being provided by generally trained staff, and many countries have a long history of task-sharing between professions in hospitals that include clinical officers, nurses, pharmacists and others. Furthermore, Kenyan and African hospitals often have major overall workforce deficits, so ambitions to extend the scope or scale of services offered driven by technologies my further stretch an already compromised workforce. As well as exploring how technologies may (aim to) change work it is also therefore important that the existing context is understood.

This new Research Officer position is initially offered for a 1-year period, with the potential for renewal, during which the post-holder will:

• Explore the policy and strategy context that is guiding technology introduction in Kenya, SA, Uganda and the wider African technology policy ecosystem?
• Examine what health care provider focused technologies (diagnostics and digital health) are currently in use in Kenyan hospitals and how widespread is their adoption
•  Undertake scoping literature reviews to summarise findings of studies on provider focused technologies and their effects on quality of care and workforce roles in LMIC
• Contribute to horizon scanning of emerging technologies likely to impact county hospitals?
• Contribute to development of longer term work to track exemplar technologies and their effects on health care delivery in county hospitals

The new Research Officer position will be within the Health Services Unit of the KWTRP in Nairobi and will be supervised in Kenya by Dr. J. Oliwa. Additional scientific advice will be provided by Dr. Chris Paton and Prof. Mike English who are based in Oxford. The Research Officer will also join a wider research team termed Africa’s First Referral Hospitals: Innovation and Care (AFRHiCARE) Partnership that seeks to understand the current and future roles of county hospitals in Kenya and District Hospitals in Uganda and South Africa. The AFHRiCARE Partnership is a collaborative effort between well-established researchers from KWTRP's Population and Health and Health Services Units and the Universities of Oxford, Witwatersrand, and Makerere. AFHRiCARE is funded by Wellcome to generate new evidence that will inform the roles, workforce requirements, skill-mix, and use of technologies needed to deliver high-quality healthcare as part of Universal Health Coverage.

We welcome applications from those wishing to develop their skills and a career in health services research or in health systems planning and who wish to make a meaningful impact on healthcare in Africa as part of a dynamic research environment in Kenya that is linked to a wider network of scientific excellence.

Description: 

REPORTS TO: Study PI and Study Supervisor

BUDGET AND RESOURCE RESPONSIBILITY:  Responsible for allocated hardware and software

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

For the Health Services Unit and with wider linkages to the AFRHiCARE partnership and under the direction of the supervisor to:

• Explore, appraise and summarise the policy and strategy context that is guiding technology introduction in Kenya relevant to provider focused technologies and their effects on quality of care and workforce roles in LMIC hospitals
• Conduct a scoping review of literature to summarise findings of studies on provider focused technologies and their effects on quality of care and workforce roles in LMIC hospitals
• Develop and conduct a simple audit based on the WHO typology or an adaptation of this that provides a preliminary understanding of the variety, type, professional(s) that are the users or focus of the technologies and their degree of adoption in Kenyan hospitals 
• Contribute to the development of new research ethics proposals
• Plan, manage and conduct data collection exercises including where necessary developing data collection tools, databases and data quality assurance procedures
• Analyse primary data as appropriate using appropriate quantitative or qualitative methods
• Develop written reports on the policy and literature reviews and the hospital audit 
• Develop peer-reviewed manuscript quality reports for submission for publication
• Collaborate effectively with Kenyan and international team members within the AFRHiCARE partnership and plan, coordinate and summarise the results of meetings or workshops as directed by the supervisor
• Contribute to the wider scientific activities of the Health Services Unit and the Nairobi Programme of KEMRI-Wellcome in Kenya
• Support consultations and collaboration with researchers within the AFRHiCARE partnership and stakeholders in local, regional and national governments and key donors
• And any other duties that may be assigned from time to time.

QUALIFICATIONS:

The successful applicant will have:

• Recognised Postgraduate qualification (Masters) relevant to the field of epidemiological research, implementation science, digital health, global or public health
• First degree in a health-related field, in social science or technology studies
• At least three years of post-graduate experience or collative work experience relating to research.
• Demonstrated experience in planning and undertaking systematic literature reviews
• Demonstrated experience in planning for and collecting, analysing and interpreting quantitative and / or qualitative data.
• Proficiency in one or more statistical packages or qualitative data analysis packages
• Experience in the development of proposals for ethical review
• Highly developed oral and written communication skills
• Experience in undertaking research in a cross-cultural context
• A record of publishing and presenting research results relative to career stage and opportunity.
• Demonstrated interest in health systems / services and knowledge and working experience of the Kenyan Health system.
• Demonstrated ability to act with sound judgement, sensitivity, and flexibility, and to exercise initiative in adapting preferred approaches when and where required.

COMPETENCIES:

• Capability to do policy and scientific literature reviews including use of specific search strategies,  reference management software and critical appraisal tools.
• Experience in developing a proposal for ethics review and planning for and collecting, analysing and interpreting data
• Experience in use of quantitative and / or qualitative analytical software.
• Excellent range of skills across the MS Office suite
• Have high energy, clear goal orientation and a strong work ethic.
• Strong organisation/programme management skills with the ability to prioritise workloads and work within tight deadlines
• Ability to write clearly for a scientific audience and to present clearly to non-academic audiences
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a team environment and to multi-task