Applications are invited for a position as Research Associate in
Statistics/Biostatistics. The post holder will work on the MRC funded
project: “The Regression Discontinuity Design: a novel approach to
evaluating the effect of drugs and treatments in primary care”, which will
be developed jointly at UCL, LSE and MRC Biostatistics Unit, Cambridge.
The regression discontinuity design (RDD) is an econometric
quasi-experimental design aimed at estimating the causal effects of a
treatment by exploiting naturally occurring treatment rules. This design
can be applied in any context where a particular treatment is administered
according to a pre-specified rule linked to a continuous variable. Such
thresholds often exist in primary care in the context of drug prescription.
The specific objectives of the project are to: (a) develop a RDD design
methodology suited to estimating the effect of prescriptions and
interventions with particular focus on developing RDD methods for binary
outcomes such as mortality; (b) compare the effects of statin prescribed in
primary care to that estimated from randomised controlled trials; and (c)
develop guidelines and software for RDD analysis in epidemiological
research.
The post is available from April 2013 (or as soon as possible thereafter)
and is funded for 30 months, in the first instance.
Candidates should hold or be close to submitting a PhD (or equivalent
qualification) in Statistics or Epidemiology. It is essential that the
successful candidate has the ability to program simulation algorithms and
manage large databases and has programming experience in statistical
software packages e.g. R or STATA. If the successful candidate has not yet
been awarded their PhD, the appointment will initially be made as Research
Assistant on Grade 6 of the UCL salary scale (£28,338 – £29,881 per annum
inclusive of London Allowance), and the appointee will be regraded to
Research Associate on completion of the PhD.
A job description and person specification can be accessed at
https://atsv7.wcn.co.uk/
together with some details about the department. Informal enquiries
regarding the vacancy may be addressed to Dr Gianluca Baio, email:
g.baio@ucl.ac.uk, tel: +44(0)20 7679 1248. For any queries regarding the
application process please contact Dr Russell Evans, email:
russell.evans@ucl.ac.uk, tel: +44 (0)20 7679 8311. Closing date for
application: 14th April 2013.
–
*Gianluca Baio*
*Lecturer in Medical Statistics*
Department of Statistical Science
University College London
1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK
Telephone +44(0)20 7679 1248
Fax +44 (0)20 7383 4703
Website: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/
Blog: http://gianlubaio.blogspot.co.