Senior Research Assistant - Personalized Medicine and Decision Support

Job Purpose

The Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy at Baylor College of Medicine is seeking an experienced part-time Research Assistant for a 5-year project aiming to develop an integrated clinical decision support platform for LVAD therapy for heart failure, combining a patient decision aid (www.lvaddecisionaid.com) with a computer-based personalized risk prediction tool (www.mycora.org). The individual hired will work with an interdisciplinary team of decision scientists, bioengineers, computer software engineers, statisticians, ethicists, clinicians, and specialists in cardiology. The individual will be responsible for interfacing between our research team, database proprietors and software developers in support of developing and testing the platform in a randomized controlled trial (RCT) at 5 partnering clinical sites across the U.S.

Job Duties

• Act as the main liaison among our research teams and database proprietors to update and validate the algorithms driving the decision support platform.

- Develop and maintain relationships with proprietors of critical databases and oversee acquisition and integration of periodic data downloads.

- Oversee validation of a Bayesian prediction model with newly incorporated data.

• Develop and maintain relationships with software developers and communicate to them our research team's vision for the platform in the form of concrete, actionable steps to develop/modify program features.
• Ensure that all work completed by vendors is done within existing project timelines and according to project standards.
• Act as primary point of contact between research teams (Cornell University and Baylor) to coordinate program visions and translate into actionable program developments.

- Assist with translation of findings from qualitative, formative research into concrete changes to the platform.

- Oversee updates to the program interface and integrate a Bayesian risk prediction tool with an online LVAD patient decision aid.

- Ensure program readiness for feasibility and utility testing in Year 2 and subsequent trial testing beginning in Year 3.

• Continue front-end updates to CORA interface including patient and physician interfaces in response to insights from feasibility/utility testing.

- Incorporate any final front-end updates identified during deployment in trial testing

- Help to develop a sustainability plan for ongoing program maintenance and hosting costs.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in a Basic Science or related field.
• Four years of relevant experience.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master's degree in a related field.

Baylor College of Medicine is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Equal Access Employer.

4884

CA; CH