Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Spatial Epidemiology at the University of Abuja

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOW IN SPATIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY

Position Overview:

The University of Abuja seeks an excellent Postdoctoral Research Fellow with expertise in disease mapping and epidemiology to join the PACTS Consortium. This is a full-time position, funded for 24 months and based at the University of Abuja. The successful candidate will be expected to start in spring 2024.

Job Description

This is an exceptional opportunity for an ambitious postdoctoral researcher to work on epidemiological data collected with standardised protocols in three Sub-Saharan African countries: Ghana, Nigeria and Zambia. As reflected by the competitive salary, we need an excellent and highly-skilled candidate for this position.
The post is part of a Global Health Research Group (GHRG) consortium, funded by the UK National Institute for Health & Care Research (NIHR) and co-led by Professor Imelda Bates, Liverpool School of Medicine (UK), and Professor Obiageli Nnodu, University of Abuja (Nigeria). The focus of the GHRG is on patient-centred sickle cell disease (SCD) management in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The overall aims of this project are:

1. to improve well-being and health outcomes for SCD patients in SSA through earlier and improved detection of SCD and optimised implementation of known evidence-based clinical interventions, using a patient-centred approach; and
2. to enhance individual and institutional capacity to conduct and manage high quality implementation research to overcome barriers to optimising SCD care, and improve public knowledge about SCD

The specific role of this post is to explore the barriers faced by SCD patients in accessing care by mapping and analysing data collected through RedCap questionnaires in the three countries. Geography is likely to be an important element, alongside socio-economic and cultural barriers. More specifically, the successful applicant will use and expand existing list of health facilities and use GIS data to geolocate all health facilities (including those that provide blood transfusions) within catchment areas of the teaching hospitals in Abuja, Kumasi and Lusaka. Using the questionnaires, they will then document and model geospatial factors affecting participating communities’ physical access to SCD care (e.g. distance from health facilities and blood transfusion facilities, and from suppliers of penicillin, and hydroxyurea). This work will require a collaborative approach with researchers based in the three partner countries as they have expert local knowledge of context specific characteristics.

The work will be conducted under the supervision of Dr Frédéric B. Piel (Imperial College London, UK) and in collaboration with researchers from the Liverpool School of Medicine (Prof Imelda Bates), the University of Abuja, Nigeria (Prof Obiageli Nnodu), the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, School of Medicine and Dentistry, Kumasi, Ghana (Prof Alex Osei-Akoto), the University of Zambia, School of Medicine (UNZA-SOM)/ University Teaching Hospitals (Dr Catherine Chunda-Liyoka), and Syracuse University, USA (Dr Bernard Appiah).

Responsibilities:

• Checking, processing and analysing anonymised data collected in the three partner countries
• Conduct original research in the areas of disease mapping and epidemiology to help better understand barriers to care for sickle cell disease
• Collaborate with faculty and researchers on PACTS and related projects
• Comply with strict data governance requirements associated with the project
• Analyse and interpret research findings
• Travel to the UK for further training and work with UK PACTS researchers
• Contribute to build capacity in mapping and epidemiology in Nigeria, Ghana, Zambia and beyond
• Contribute to annual reports required by the funder of the study
• Prepare and publish research papers in reputable journals

UNIVERSITY OF ABUJA, ABUJA
Centre of Excellence for Sickle Cell Disease Research & Training (CESRTA)

• Any other specific responsibilities

Qualifications:

• Ph.D. in Epidemiology, Data Analytics, Statistics or a related quantitative discipline.
• Strong background in quantitative analysis.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Rigorous and paying high attention to details

In addition to the above, previous experience with the following would be useful

• GIS (e.g. ArcGIS, QGIS)