Open Positions (2)

-1-

Statistical Programmer and Clinical Research Data Manager

Boston University, Section of Rheumatology has an opening for a Statistical Programmer and Clinical Research Data Manager. The candidate will have the opportunity to join an internationally leading NIH-funded research team of supportive and collaborative researchers that include faculty members, students, postdoctoral researchers, residents, fellows, and external collaborators.

This position is responsible for the systematic documentation, maintenance, and management of datasets including existing epidemiological cohort such as Multicenter Osteoarthritis Study (MOST) and clinical datasets among others. The candidate will carry out programming using R and SAS to perform statistical analysis of data for the Section’s research projects that include research studies with a focus in rheumatic and musculoskeletal disease. Other significant area of responsibility is to extract data and develop project-specific analytic datasets from existing cohorts, large-scale electronic health records, or administrative databases such as MarketScan or Medicare to meet the programming needs of senior programmers and other analysts, investigators, or external collaborators. The candidate would need to attend the Section’s regular meetings and communicate effectively with investigators on developing analysis plans. The candidate may need to train junior programmers or investigators. Other tasks may include development and analysis of preliminary data for grant applications, reporting and interpretation of data by writing summaries of statistical analyses and generating tables and graphs, writing abstracts and manuscripts, or presentation of findings in institutional, reginal, national, or international conferences.

The candidate needs to have a Master’s degree or higher in epidemiology, statistics, or quantitative sciences with 1-3 years of experience. Advanced R and SAS programming skills, familiarity with R Base and R packages, SAS Base and Macros, strong written and oral English language, and the ability to work independently and as a part of a team to meet deadlines in a fast-paced multi-project environment are required. Expertise in linear, non-linear, survival analysis, and modeling of correlated data including mixed-effects modeling are desired. Familiarity with causal inference methods and epidemiology concepts such as confounding and collider bias are preferred. Other competencies include experience in working with large insurance claims databases. Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States

This position will report to Chief, Section of Rheumatology (http://www.bumc.bu.edu/rheumatology/). Interested candidates should send CV to Dr. Jafarzadeh (srjafarz@bu.edu). Additional documents such as Cover Letter, programming samples, and one published paper sample are optional.

We are proud to be an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Posted 012/8/22

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QUALITY ASSURANCE AND CLINICAL RESEARCH DATA MANAGER

We have an opening for a Quality Assurance and Clinical Research Data Manager. This position will manage clinical and epidemiological research studies in arthritis, musculoskeletal disease and pain using large existing datasets. We are an internationally leading NIH-funded research group. The candidate will have the opportunity to join an outstanding group of supportive and collaborative researchers tasked with how to prevent and treat these common disabling conditions.

The Quality Assurance and Clinical Research Data Manager will have advanced expertise in SQL or R/SAS SQL programming and will be responsible for developing programming tasks related to complex study-specific data extraction with SQL or R/SAS SQL programming, data cleaning and processing with R or SAS to generate study-specific calculated variables, data quality control, regular data systems documentation, routine databases maintenance, and the training of project investigators and staff in its use. This position will directly work with statistical programmers and analysts and will perform the preparation of data for the Boston MCRC Research ACCELERATOR projects and grants, and will work closely with PIs to program and maintain the distributed data entry and editing systems for study measurements and management of data. This position will respond to all quality control analysis, report requests, data preparation for statistical programmers and analysts, ancillary study subject selection, and biospecimen selection requests from the senior project director and investigators. An important task for this position is preparation and processing of data and the development of related documentations for public data sharing, in addition to tracking a detailed documentation of all final analytic data files and variables. This position is not primarily focused on data analysis, but familiarity with basic statistical packages and knowledge of statistics is needed. The Quality Assurance and Clinical Research Data Manager will report to the Chief of the Section of Rheumatology.

Responsibilities:

Develop data collection, extraction and cleaning, and real-time online quality control/tracking reports. Provide technical assistance, consultation, data management and analytical solutions for clinical staff and Boston University Analytical Center.
Prepare and release customized data sets and related documentation for approved analysis plans and anonymized data sharing to external investigators for public usage worldwide.
Lead or collaborate with the team of Data Coordinating Center analysts and programmers in tasks required for various study development phases, e.g., study start up with complex data collection system infrastructures using optically-read (Teleform) and electronic data capture (REDCap) data collection forms, and various reading center databases.
Contribute to ancillary studies including but not limited to: sub-study design and sample selections based on multiple criteria for matched and random samples, selection plan and documentation, blinding/unblinding reading center results, statistical analysis strategy to address potential study design biases such as selection bias.
Develop templates and reports for committee meetings including OSMB, Steering Committee, Executive Committee, Quality Assurance Committee, and Publications Committee Data Analysis Working Group.
Perform data extraction and preparation for investigators using MOST Clinical Data and various reading center data: coded medication, image readings (x-ray, MRI, CT, DXA, hand photo), gait assessment, plantar pressure, sEMG, muscle strength, physical activity and accelerometer data, photo and video reading parameters, nutritional analysis, biomarkers, etc., including quality control analysis and identification of potential outliers, reliability analysis, descriptive statistics, flow charts and diagrams, graphs and bar charts, choosing adequate statistical technique and methodology.
Collaborate with and provide support to statistical programmers and data analysts in performing advanced-level statistical models: hierarchical, weighted, bootstrap, cross-sectional and longitudinal regression model and writing methods and analysis sections for various abstracts and publications.
Provide full technical and statistical support, and customized solutions for external investigators (worldwide) who submit MOST Online Collaboration requests for anonymized public data.

Requirements:

Master’s Degree or higher in epidemiology, statistics, or quantitative sciences
5 Years’ Experience
Excellent SQL, R and SAS skills with strong written and oral English-language, the ability to meet deadlines in a fast-paced multitasking environment, the ability to work independently and as part of a team are required.
Expertise in observational data extraction and preparation of final analytic cohorts and datasets for analysis.
Familiarity with statistical analysis to support Statistical Programmers and Analysts.
Applicants must be legally authorized to work in the United States.

Interested candidates should send CV with a cover letter to rheum@bu.edu.

Posted 02/2021