An exciting opportunity has arisen to join the NIHR HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation (DTE), as a Diagnostic Evaluation Healthcare Scientist, in a highly rewarding role delivering real impact to patient health.

The HRC DTE, one of fourteen NIHR HRCs, is funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) and is delivered as a partnership between NuTH and Newcastle University. Our remit is to be a catalyst for the development of evidence on in-vitro diagnostic devices, with a focus on performing cutting edge research and methodologies to produce the evidence required for adoption and implementation of novel devices into the UK NHS.

Working within a skilled multidisciplinary team, alongside test developers and other collaborators, you will take the lead on HRC research projects, evaluating clinical tests or medical devices, contributing to project design and delivery. You will develop evaluation methods, contribute to methods development, and respond to challenges around evaluation and test implementation.

• Interview Date Monday, 30 September 2024
• 37 Hours 30 Minutes/Week
• You will be redirected to Trac to apply for the vacancy. Please expand the job details section and read all of the information before applying for the vacancy

Main duties of the job

You will work within the HRC DTE skilled multidisciplinary team, alongside clinicians, test developers and other collaborators, to support the development of medical devices, diagnostics, and digital technologies. You will lead on HRC projects conducting evaluations of diagnostic tests through clinical and economic evaluations which are robustly underpinned by stakeholder engagement. The post provides an exciting opportunity to work on projects that employ innovative approaches to develop and evaluate new clinical tests and medical devices to address a wide variety of challenging clinical needs. The successful candidate will have experience of design and delivery of studies including modelling, care pathway analysis, statistics, health economic modelling and analysing quantitative and/or qualitative data for health care research. Applications from candidates with firsthand experience of working for, or in collaboration with, the UK NHS are strongly encouraged.

About us

Newcastle Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust is one of the busiest, largest and most successful teaching NHS foundation trusts in the country, with around 16,000 staff and an annual income of �1 billion.

We have a long history of providing high quality care, clinical excellence, and innovation in medical research regionally, nationally and internationally.

We're also proud to be the second largest provider of specialised services in the country. This means we support people with a range of rare and complex medical, surgical and neurological conditions, cancers and genetic orders.

Our staff oversee around 2 million patients 'contacts' each year, delivering high standards of healthcare.

Please see attached information on what Staff Benefits we have to offer at our Trust.

We are committed to promoting equality and diversity and recognise the benefit in providing an inclusive environment. We value and respect the diversity of our employees and aim to recruit a workforce which reflects the communities we serve, and is equipped to deliver the best service to our patients. We welcome all applications irrespective of people's race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion or belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

Job description

Job responsibilities

• To work within with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) HealthTech Research Centre (HRC) in Diagnostic and Technology Evaluation (DTE) team, taking the lead on HRC DTE research projects to evaluate diagnostic tests and other medical technologies. This will involve contributing to all aspects of the design and delivery of research projects and ensuring that relevant expertise and resources are brought into the project when these cannot be provided by the HRC DTE.
• To contribute to research projects associated with health technology development and assessment.
• To contribute to the development of evaluation research methods (e.g., care pathway analysis), evaluation challenges (e.g., when the reference standard is imperfect), test implementation (e.g. clinical decision aids) and processes.
• Contribute to the process of continuous development, implementation, and improvement of quality assurance processes for quantitative and qualitative data management and analysis, to ensure that outputs and research are reproducible, auditable and are relevant to the UK NHS.
• Work collaboratively with all NUTH stakeholders, principally the Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle University, the NIHR HRC DTE, other NIHR infrastructures and industry partners.
• To contribute to HRC DTE professional development activities (e.g. internal teaching, seminars, and journal clubs).

You will have a PhD or Masters in a relevant area, with experience of working with UK health data and in conducting research evaluating medical devices or clinical tests. Expertise in quantitative, statistical, or health economic methods used in device and test evaluation is essential, as is evidence of related skills, such as research funding application writing, study design, data analysis, reporting, and dissemination of results.

Wed like to hear from motivated and enthusiastic researchers who have the relevant experience and skills to be involved in delivering this exciting research.

As a flexible working friendly organisation, we want to be sure that you can work in a way that is best for us and for our patients, and for you. Speak to us about how we might be able to accommodate a flexible working arrangement. If it works for the service, we will do our best to make it work for you.

Please note it is a requirement of The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust that all successful candidates who require a DBS for the post they have been offered pay for their DBS certificate. The method of payment is a salary deduction from your first months pay.

Person Specification

Qualifications & Education

Essential

• Relevant postgraduate level qualification to a minimum of Masters level with work experience in evaluating medical technologies (devices, diagnostics, digital)
• Certificate of Good Clinical Practice

Knowledge & Experience

Essential

• Specialist, knowledge of the quantitative, statistical, and health economics methods used to evaluate medical technologies including diagnostics
• Significant experience in conducting research evaluating medical technologies including diagnostics. This should include experience in writing research and funding proposals, and/ or completing and administering research ethics applications, and/or data management and analysis, and report writing
• Experience with R, Python, or other programming languages for quantitative analysis
• First-hand experience of working for, or in collaboration with, the UK NHS

Desirable

• Knowledge of human factors research
• Knowledge of the UK diagnostic landscape
• Knowledge of the methods of evidence synthesis
• Use of library and information resources to find, acquire and disseminate new knowledge
• Experience of working in a healthcare research environment
• Experience of working within a Quality Management System
• Experience of working in or with industry
• Experience of reproducible research methods

Skills & Abilities

Essential

• Good written and oral communication and presentation skills
• Evidence of skills relevant to medical technology and diagnostic test evaluation. This should include skills such as critical appraisal, study design, protocol development, data management, data analysis, reporting and dissemination of results

Desirable

• Skills in systematic reviewing and meta-analysis
• Skills in mapping patient pathways, information flows, and clinical and laboratory workflows
• Skills in health economic evaluations

Employer details

Employer name

The Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Address

Trustwide

317 Trustwide

NE7 7DN

Any attachments will be accessible after you click to apply.

317-2024-24-042-A