Research Associate

We are seeking an outstanding early-career researcher wishing to contribute to an innovative mixed-methods research project with direct clinical application in the management of motor neuron disease (MND), funded by the MND Association of England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

You will join Dr Haris Stavroulakis (Lecturer in Clinical Neuroscience) within the research group of Professor Christopher McDermott at the Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN) to work on a 40-month project to explore the implementation of personalised care predictions into clinical practice, information provision, and service planning, in the context of the UK healthcare service.

Our research team has developed a novel approach to optimise time-to-event prediction including cutting-edge machine learning tools. We envisage to create a user interface which will help clinicians, and patients, access personalised predictions about two significant clinical milestones (i.e., time to gastrostomy insertion need and time to wheelchair use need / loss of ambulation) and provide high quality information to support the decisions they will have to consider about their care.

We will employ a mixed-methods approach, combining the existing evidence in the literature, questionnaire surveys and semi-structured in-depth interviews and/or focus groups with relevant stakeholders (e.g., patients, informal carers of patients, healthcare professionals, representatives of patient organisations) to achieve the following objectives:

• Elicit stakeholder values, experiences, preferences and expectations regarding care prognostic information and modelling.
• Explore potential clinician use of the tool and how services would use predictive information to be anticipatory rather than reactive.
• Develop a web-based user interface which will combine the prediction model together with information content to support users, following an iterative process, adhering to the principles of user-centred design.
• Evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the web-based user interface in clinical practice.

The post provides an excellent opportunity to undertake high quality research within a stimulating multi-disciplinary context working directly with a team of healthcare professionals and researchers from the University of Sheffield and our collaborators at the University of Sussex.

You will primarily work on delivering the objectives of this project. This will include writing protocols and other relevant supporting documents; leading submissions for ethical, governance and regulatory approvals; leading participant recruitment and informed consent; collecting and analysing data gathered using mixed methods; and supporting dissemination of research findings. You will also be invited to join an active clinical research group focused more widely on improving care and quality of life for people living with long-term neurological conditions.

You should have a PhD in a relevant discipline (or equivalent experience). Experience of previous research or work experience with people with long-term conditions and their families is essential for this role, preferably within the healthcare sector.

We build teams of people from different heritages and lifestyles from across the world, whose talent and contributions complement each other to greatest effect. We believe diversity in all its forms delivers greater impact through research, teaching and student experience.

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