Job opportunity

THE HENRY M. JACKSON FOUNDATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF

MILITARY MEDICINE

 

Position Description

Clinical Research Fellow

 

Position No:                                                                            FLSA Status:  Exempt

Grade:                                                                                    EEO Category/Job Group: 

 

JOB SUMMARY:  Fellowship position fostering individual growth and development following receipt of a Masters degree while supporting the Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program (IDCRP), located at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USUHS) in Bethesda, Maryland.  Responsibilities are to assist with development, execution, management, and oversight of IDCRP HIV and STI clinical research programs by providing direct support to the senior scientific leadership.  This 1-3 year position provides a multifaceted opportunity to employ new Masters level knowledge and gain experience with scientific program management while also directly participating in clinical research from study design to publication of final results. 

 

 

ESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:                                                                                      95% of time

1.      Assists scientific leadership with research program development including supporting strategic planning, research program evaluation, and calls for and receipt of new research proposals

 

2.      Supports execution and management of clinical research programs by directly and indirectly monitoring, evaluating, and reporting on progress of research protocols against program scientific and operational goals and timelines

 

3.      Collects, organizes, and disseminates research program information in reports and briefings as well as through the IDCRP website, annual report, and in other ways as needed

 

4.      Supports the development and execution of  specific clinical research proposals; assists in the writing of protocols and associated documents, coordination of the related submission and review processes, and assists with management of protocol activities

 

5.      Conducts literature reviews and drafts scientific and technical documents under the direction of program leadership

 

6.      Assists with preparation of grant/funding applications, contracts with vendors, progress reports for sponsors, and other documents

 

7.      Communicates routinely with IDCRP clinical research managers, investigators, statisticians, and others

 

8.      Adheres to legal, professional and ethical codes with respect to confidentiality and privacy

 

9.      Schedules and manages meetings and conference calls as needed

 

10.  Supervised by the IDCRP Deputy Science Director

 

NONESSENTIAL JOB DUTIES:                                                                              5% of time

11.  Performs other duties as needed.

 

 

JOB SPECIFICATIONS:

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:  Knowledge of federal and local regulations and policies pertinent to research involving human subjects; excellent interpersonal and computer skills; ability to communicate effectively and to work with individuals of all levels.  A writing sample will be required.

 

Minimum Education/Training Requirements:  Masters degree in epidemiology, public health, or other scientific discipline

 

Minimum Experience:  Completion of Masters Degree with exposure to clinical research during training; completion of independent clinical research project preferred

 

Physical Capabilities:  Long periods of sitting and standing; some bending, lifting, and walking

 

Required Licenses, Certification or Registration:  N/A

 

Supervisory Responsibilities/Controls:  N/A

 

Work Environment:  Laboratory, office or clinical/hospital environment; possible evening and/or weekend hours.

 

Any qualifications to be considered as equivalents, in lieu of stated minimums, require the prior approval of the Director of Human Resources.

 

Justin Yang Program Manager Infectious Disease Clinical Research Program jyang@idcrp.org Office: 301-881-2342 Cell: 301-686-4084

Job Opportunity

Integrated Health Associate

https://eriefamilyhealth.applicantstack.com/x/detail/a2a0hjxo53d9

General Summary: The Integrated Heath Associate position requires someone who enjoys working independently and as to part of a team to support behavioral health and internal and external community health programs. This position requires someone who is bilingual in Spanish and English. An ideal candidate would have an interest community outreach, behavioral health and data entry. This position provides care management services for patients, in which an individual’s needs are identified and the behavioral, mental health and medical services designed to meet those needs are located, coordinated and monitored in collaboration with other clinical staff. The Health Promotion Associate works closely with the Manager, Community Programs and other members of the health center to implement a variety of health promotion, outreach and data entry activities.

An ideal candidate would have strong oral communication skills and could communicate effectively with patients, health care providers and community members. This position requires someone with a close attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple projects and deadlines.

Principal Duties and Responsibilities:

Establish and maintain relationships with identified service providers to enhance community support and integrated health services for patients.

• Assist patients in accessing community resources.
• Maintain on-going tracking and appropriate documentation of referrals.
• Ensure complete and accurate information in patients’ medical record including patient demographic, current insurance information, specialist consults, and hospital visits.
• Follow up with patients to ensure understanding of disease knowledge, medication compliance, specialty services, and/or any other medical or community services recommended by the care team.
• Act as a system navigator and point of contact for patients and families. May assume advocate role on the patient’s behalf to ensure provision of all services to patient/family.
• Perform follow up with patients of scheduled appointments via mail or phone. Follow up with patients who do not present for scheduled appointments.
• Coordinate Parenting Fundamental classes including participant recruitment/retention and room set up.
• Participates as a member of a multi-disciplinary team towards the development and implementation of integrated health services
• Participates in staff development and training as requested
• Participates in outreach activities including those events held after hours or on weekends

Medical-Legal Partnerships and the Health Justice Project: What a Multidisciplinary, Interdisciplinary Collaboration Looks Like

I received my Master of Public Health degree when the silos among the core disciplines of public health—epidemiology, biostatistics, health policy, social and behavior science, and environmental health—were high, and for leaders in each discipline, quite territorial. Almost a decade later, I find those silos even higher than ever before, and in our academic community of ever-increasing competition (trans. available grant funding!), demarcating the boundaries that separate us often takes precedence over efforts to promote the public’s health.

Consider, for example, a friendly exchange between two of my friends, a prominent physician and a prominent epidemiologist, who were deliberating on whether the clinician’s role in delivering particular services ought to be characterized as “doing public health.” Sadly, neither of my friends read p.46 of chapter 2 of my textbook on public health policy, which articulates my humble opinion on the relationship between medicine and epidemiology as follows:

“The term medicine is given equal weight with epidemiology in the title of this chapter not as an affront to the traditional dichotomy that relates medicine to individual health and epidemiology to population health but rather to emphasize the indispensable role that health care providers, and physicians in particular, play in advancing public health. Physicians are the frontline responders who deliver care, but they also play an integral role in diagnosing illness, offering best practice guidelines, advancing research by identifying potential determinants of health at the biological and even societal levels, and preserving quality and safety in care. These distinct roles are emphasized in this chapter… and in the case studies [that follow]. Of course, the majority of the case studies in this book illustrate the breadth of public health beyond the clinical realm, and the role of epidemiology in elucidating upstream determinants that are removed from the downstream delivery of care. Nonetheless, the role of medicine in public health—and particularly its linkage with epidemiology—is essential.” But this arranged marriage between epidemiology and medicine is hardly radical and often falls back on a biomedical paradigm that I will concede, as a nod to my epidemiologist friend, is not always aligned with overarching public health prerogatives.

So what, then, is an excellent example of a partnership that exemplifies a true multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary collaboration for securing the public’s health? Enter the medical-legal partnership and our very own Health Justice Project (HJP). If there is anyone worthy of being declared a hero of this kind of collaboration, it is the program’s Director, Emily Benfer, who founded and has spearheaded this partnership between the HJP legal clinic through the School of Law, with the Erie Family Health Center, comprised of 12 community-based health centers in Chicagoland, to provide free legal assistance to Erie patients to overcome the social, legal, and systemic barriers that prevent long-term health and stability for low-income individuals and families in Chicago. The HJP has represented over 1200 patient-clients, resulting in $561,553 in payment and forgiveness of medical expenses for clients, and $547,235 in Medicaid reimbursement to healthcare institutions based on the project’s Medicaid successful denials appeals.

This fall, Prof. Benfer piloted the first cross-campus interdisciplinary Health Policy Advocacy course, co-taught by myself, Allyson Gold (School of Law), and Dr. Greg Gruener of our School of Medicine, involving law, medical, and public health students working together to represent a non-profit organization to respond to health disparities on a national level. Given its success and appeal among the students, we will offer this course again in spring 2014.

Prof. Benfer and I also initiated a project that explores the medical-legal partnership as a potential locus of research on social determinants of health. For those familiar with the literature, physician-epidemiologist Michael Marmot, who incidentally delivered the keynote address at this year’s American Public Health Association annual conference, articulated 3 pathways relating social structure to health outcomes vis-à-vis material, occupational, and socio-environmental pathways. Our project builds upon this model to elucidate the precise association of different social, environmental, and material indicators with the development or exacerbation of existent health conditions among low-income communities residing in Chicago. We also submitted two grant proposals of what we hope will be many more to come in the months and years ahead to support these kinds of inquiries.

Our projects draw from the ‘PEEEL’ framework introduced in my textbook, highlighting the role of politics, epidemiology, ethics, economics, and law to effectively address public health policy problems in research, education, and practice. Through these educational, research, and practice initiatives, we seek to further develop what I believe is one of the few multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary partnerships that captures the spirit and service that is public health.

Wishing all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays in the weeks ahead as I sign off for 2013.