Postdoctoral Researcher in Data Analytics

  • Dublin
  • Rcsi
Summary of Post DIAMOND (Developing Innovate Analytical Methods for research ON Deprescribing) is an ambitious research programme supported by a €2.4m Career Development Award from Wellcome. This is part of Wellcome’s Discovery Awards, which aim to transform our understanding of health and disease and develop methodologies, frameworks, tools or techniques of benefit to health-related research. DIAMOND will harness the large amounts of information already collected as part of routine healthcare, such as during GP and hospital visits, to understand the effects of reducing or stopping (i.e. deprescribing) medications which may no longer be needed or causing more harm than good. The programme aims to develop and advance novel methods from the field of pharmacoepidemiology to research deprescribing using big data, and to apply these methods to generate new evidence on the benefits and harms of stopping medications. This research has the potential to inform the decisions of patients and their healthcare professionals as the focus of healthcare shifts to more personalised medicine. Ultimately, this will help people age better with medicines that are right for them. The programme will focus on identifying deprescribing as it currently happens in routine practice and developing methodological approaches for causal inference on the effects of deprescribing, which will be applied to common medication classes. It will also focuses on quantifying risks of adverse effects from a range of medications, including antidepressants and anti-platelet drugs, and exploring how this information may be used to target deprescribing to provide greater benefits. We want to recruit a postdoctoral researcher who will primarily focus on health services research elements of the research programme. The role will involve conducting systematic/umbrella reviews, a Delphi study, user testing of software outputs (using qualitative approaches) and providing input on quantitative epidemiological studies. The candidate will also support Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) within the programme, including evaluating how to best implement PPI in big data studies. The position will provide opportunities for the successful candidate to undertake training and development, as well as to develop and pursue their own research ideas relating to the programme.