Biostatistician

General Summary/Purpose

We are seeking to hire a full-time Biostatistician for the Johns Hopkins University research unit working on cardiorenal epidemiology projects with a focus on large electronic health record (EHR) data. This biostatistician will interface with faculty in the departments of epidemiology, biostatistics and medicine and work on a range of health systems including the OPTUM data warehouse and other health systems in the US and abroad. The analyst will also interface with the more biologically driven multiple “omic” projects including metabolomics and proteomics. The biostatistician in this position will also contribute to our upcoming COVID-19 related initiatives within these electronic health records, playing a critical role in allowing these analyses to be done in a timely manner for publication.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

• Active collaboration with investigators to design analyses of study data for papers, grants, and presentations;

• Conduct of analyses for cross sectional, cohort, and case-cohort study designs;
• Assisting in the interpretation and writing of statistical results for manuscripts and other reports;
• Assisting in developing, writing and implementing statistical analysis plans;
• Guide faculty and students in appropriate use of the data including documentation of information on a shared network drive and collaboration with administrative and IT staff;
• Collaboration with statisticians at other study research units and Coordinating Centers regarding study designs and analyses;
• Implementation of novel analytic methods when appropriate in collaboration with faculty in the Department of Biostatistics;
• Participation in regular seminars and meetings;
• Collaboration with faculty members and trainees in epidemiology, biostatistics and medicine.

The ideal candidate for this position will have outstanding quantitative skills and a strong interest in collaborative epidemiologic and biostatistical research. Data management, organizational, and large electronic health record system analysis skills are important. The Cardiorenal research group including its analytic cores are based the Welch Center for Prevention, Epidemiology and Clinical Research (http://www.jhsph.edu/welchcenter), is affiliated with the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Training Program (www.jhsph.edu/cvdepi), and has strong ties to multiple departments including epidemiology, biostatistics and medicine and other training programs at Johns Hopkins.

CKD Prognosis Consortium (CKD-PC) Data Coordinating Center:CKD-PC is a research group composed of investigators representing cohorts from around the world. Investigators share data for the purpose of collaborative meta-analyses to study prognosis in CKD (www.ckdpc.org). CKD-PC was established in 2009 and currently consists of over 80 cohorts including over 10 Million participants, which arise from electronic medical records and research cohorts from the general, high-risk, or CKD populations. Datasets include the OPTUM claims and electronic health record data. Analyses include survival analysis, propensity score matching and preparation of datasets suitable for minimizing bias and maximizing validity. The CKD-PC data coordinating center analyzes data from a large range of studies and works closely with investigators at Hopkins and elsewhere to translate important scientific questions into sophisticated analyses. To date, the CKD-PC has published over 15 high impact papers focusing on analyses which have important implications for the definition, staging, and management of CKD.

The ARIC Study:The ARIC Study has collected data from nearly 16,000 participants at four sites examined multiple times with a ~30-year follow-up over multiple visits. The primary research topics are in heart disease, kidney disease, and diabetes although investigators utilize these data for a broad range of topics. The study includes a large number of ancillary grants including genetic research. Core investigators of the Johns Hopkins ARIC Study research unit have faculty appointments in the Schools of Public Health and Medicine (~50 investigators and students at Hopkins collaborate with other sites; ARIC publishes >100 papers a year with ~10-30 per year led by Hopkins investigators). Specific work on this study will include integration of genetic (SNP arrays, whole exome sequencing, whole genome sequencing), longitudinal proteomic, metabolomic, and epigenetic data with rigorous collection of phenotype and outcome data on >10,000 ARIC participants. Active R01s relevant to this work, include multi-omic investigations of kidney disease and dementia. Affiliated projects which may lead to collaborative work focus on diabetes, coronary calcium, cardiovascular risk, nutritional epidemiology including its metabolomic and proteomic signatures and pharmacoepidemiology.

Kidney disease studies: Large cohort studies with multiple omic datasets and longitudinal follow-up as well as associated R01s include the AASK and CRIC studies. The AASK clinical trial randomized approximately 1,000 participants and was extended to a longitudinal cohort study with approximately two decades of follow-up. Active R01 funded research is connecting metabolomic and genomic data to investigate risk factors for chronic kidney disease (CKD) progression and mortality. CRIC data include over 5,000 participants followed for nearly two decades with multiple exams and multi-omic studies. The CKD Biomarkers Consortium U01 grant connects these and other cohorts for investigations which encompass both targeted marker research and multi-omic investigations (focused on metabolomics and connecting to genomics and proteomics). Work may also benefit from collaborations with the large CKD Prognosis Consortium led from the Welch Center which includes over 80 cohorts with longitudinal data on over 10 Million participants.

Other omic datasets: External omic databases, such as genomics expression databases will be imported and used for further interrogation, validation, and meta-analysis to provide evidence for definitive papers integrating statistics and biology.

Collaboration: The work environment in the Welch Center Cardiorenal Group is highly collaborative across multiple funded projects. Principle investigators have longstanding supportive collaborations forming highly productive, thoughtful, rigorous teams across a range of projects. Project often overlap staff and faculty and leadership encourages information sharing, mutual support and interactions.

Minimum Qualifications

• Master’s degree in computer science, math, biostatistics, statistics, epidemiology, biomedical engineering, or quantitative field desirable
• One year of related experience required
• Demonstrated ability on significant graduate project or additional doctoral education may substitute for experience to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency formula.
• Experience in programing required; Stata, SQL, SAS, R, Python, and/or other or the ability to learn them rapidly.

JHU Equivalency Formula: 30 undergraduate degree credits (semester hours) or 18 graduate degree credits may substitute for one year of experience. Additional related experience may substitute for required education on the same basis. For jobs where equivalency is permitted, up to two years of non-related college course work may be applied towards the total minimum education/experience required for the respective job.

Preferred Qualifications

Preferred 1 or more years of data management experience, requiring advanced skills with Stata, SPSS, SAS, or R. Education may substitute for experience.

Special Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

Experience in statistical analysis using Stata, SAS, R, Python, SQL, and/or other statistical package is required

Classified Title:Biostatistician
Working Title: Biostatistician ​​​​​
Role/Level/Range: ACRP/04/MD
Starting Salary Range:$52,495 - $72,210, salary commensurate with experience
Employee group: Full Time
Schedule: Monday-Friday, 8:30am - 5:00pm; 37.5 hours/week
Exempt Status: Exempt
Location: 05-MD:School of Public Health
Department name: 10001101-Epidemiology
Personnel area: School of Public Health

The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check.

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The following additional provisions may apply depending on which campus you will work. Your recruiter will advise accordingly.

During the Influenza ("the flu") season, as a condition of employment, The Johns Hopkins Institutions require all employees who provide ongoing services to patients or work in patient care or clinical care areas to have an annual influenza vaccination or possess an approved medical or religious exception. Failure to meet this requirement may result in termination of employment.

The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those employees who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.

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