Data Manager
and Project Co-ordinator
TAZAMA HIV
Cohort Study, NIMR, Tanzania
Department of
Population HealthWe
have an exciting and challenging vacancy for an experienced person with both
data management and project co-ordination skills to maintain and develop our
work in Tanzania. LSHTM is a partner in
the TAZAMA project, which monitors a population in a rural
area of north west Tanzania. Information is collected on the demography of the
population, and their vulnerability and response to the HIV epidemic.
Based at the National
Institute for Medical Research, Tanzania (Mwanza branch) , the postholder will
be a member of the LSHTM team that supports the TAZAMA HIV cohort study
conducted in the Kisesa cohort study. The
work is funded through a grant from the Global Fund for AIDS, TB and Malaria
(GFATM) and held by NIMR.
The postholder will provide technical support for all aspects of the
TAZAMA HIV cohort study conducted in Kisesa ward. This will include the organisation and
supervision of sero-survey activities, together with the data management tasks
associated with the production, implementation, processing, archiving and
distribution of sero-survey data. S/he
will contribute to the analysis and writing up of the sero-survey
findings.
The workload will be demanding.
The successful applicant will have strong data management and practical
project-coordination skills, experience of managing, training and mentoring
staff, and the ability to apply those skills creatively in a developing country
The post is full-time, on Grade 6 of the
professional support scale, with a starting salary between £35,661 and £40,499
per annum. The post is available immediately and is
funded until 31st August 2015 with the possibility of extension to
March 2016 if further funding is available.
Applications should be made on-line via our website
at http://jobs.lshtm.ac.uk and should
include a CV and the names and e-mail contact details of two referees who can
be contacted immediately if shortlisted.
The reference for this post is BZ10. Any queries regarding the application process
may be addressed to jobs@lshtm.ac.uk. Please
quote reference BZ10. The
closing date for receipt of applications is 10pm on Thursday 18 October
2012.
The London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is committed to being an equal opportunities
employer.
FURTHER PARTICULARS
THE SCHOOL
The London School of Hygiene &
Tropical Medicine is one of Europe’s leading schools of Public Health and a
leading postgraduate institution worldwide for research and postgraduate
education in global health.
Part of the University of London, the
London School is the largest institution of its kind in Europe with a remarkable
depth and breadth of expertise encompassing many disciplines. The School was
ranked one of the top 3 research institutions in the country in the Times
Higher Education’s 'table of excellence', which is based on the 2008 Research
Assessment Exercise (RAE). In 2009, the
School became the first UK institution to win the Gates Award for Global
Health.
The School’s environment is a rich
multicultural one: there are almost 4000 students from 100+
countries following 22 taught masters courses delivered either in London (~650)
or through distance learning (~2700), and undertaking research degree training
(~400). Over 40% of these students are from non-European countries. The largest growth has been in distance learning students
(>40% over 3 years), though the London-based student population (where
accommodation limits growth) is at its highest level ever. Alumni are
working in more than 180 countries. The School has about 1500 staff drawn from
over 60 nationalities.
There are research collaborations with
over 100 countries throughout the world, utilizing our critical mass of
multidisciplinary expertise which includes clinicians, epidemiologists,
statisticians, social scientists, economists, molecular biologists,
immunologists, ophthalmologists, anthropologists, virologists, pharmacologists
and nutritionists. At any one time around 100 School staff are based overseas,
particularly in Africa and Asia. We have a strong commitment to partnership
with institutions in low and middle income countries to support the development
of teaching and research capacity.
The School has expanded greatly in
recent years. Its research funding now exceeds £67M per annum, much of it from
highly competitive national and international sources. The commitment of staff
to methodological rigour, innovative thinking and policy relevance will ensure
that the School continues to occupy a leadership position in national and
global health, adapting quickly to new challenges and opportunities.
Mission
To improve health and health equity in the UK and
worldwide; working in partnership to achieve excellence in public and global
health research, education and translation of knowledge into policy and
practice.
THE FACULTY
The Faculty of Epidemiology & Population Health (EPH) houses a large group of epidemiologists, demographers, statisticians
and nutritionists working on issues of major public health importance in the UK
and globally. EPH has approximately 330 staff members organised into four
research departments.
- Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
- Department of Medical Statistics
- Department of Non-communicable Disease Epidemiology
- Department of Population Health
The Faculty has a teaching programme consisting of ten MSc courses:
Epidemiology, Demography and Health, Medical Statistics, Public Health in
Developing Countries (run jointly with the Faculties of Infectious &
Tropical Diseases and Public Health & Policy), Nutrition for Global Health,
Reproductive & Sexual Health Research, Veterinary Epidemiology (run jointly
with the Royal Veterinary College), Global Mental Health (run jointly with
Kings College London - Institute of Psychiatry) and the Distance Learning
courses in Epidemiology and Clinical Trials. The Faculty also has approximately
149 research students studying for an MPhil, PhD or DrPH degree. The Head of
Faculty is Professor Laura Rodrigues.
THE DEPARTMENT
The Department of Population Health (DPH) aims
to increase global access to effective treatments and public health
interventions, and is a centre of excellence in the measurement and analysis of
global consequences of population change. DPH is home to 5 major research
groups: Nutrition Group: addressing
major nutrition and food-related problems that affect human development, with
expertise in under-nutrition, immunity & infection, nutritional genetics,
nutrition-related chronic diseases, and agriculture & health; Global Mental Health: conducting
research and capacity building in policy, prevention, treatment and care for
people living with mental, neurological & substance use disorders; Maternal & Child Health Intervention
Research: conducting intervention trials to improve maternal, new born
& child survival, and child growth development; Clinical Trials Unit: a fully registered CTU under UK Clinical
Research Collaboration, co-ordinating and conducting clinical trials in low,
middle and high income countries; Population
Studies Group: conducting research in reproductive & sexual health, the
demographic impact of AIDS in Africa, family demography, health & ageing,
and methodological work on measurement of health and technical demographic
analysis.
DPH hosts the network
for Analysis of Longitudinal, Population-based data on HIV/AIDS in Africa
(ALPHA), the Cochrane Injuries Group, and the Transport & Health Group, and
has strong links with many overseas research groups. DPH
provides world-class opportunities for postgraduate training; offering four
masters courses: MSc Nutrition for Global Health, MSc Demography & Health,
MSc Reproductive & Sexual Health Research, and the new MSc Global Mental
Health.
The Head of
Department is Dr Phil Edwards.
THE POST
JOB DESCRIPTION
Post: Data Manager and Project Co-ordinator, TAZAMA
HIV Cohort Study, NIMR, Mwanza
Responsible to: Jim Todd, Senior Technical Advisor, TAZAMA
Grade: PSP 6
Faculty: Epidemiology&
Population Health
Department: Department
of Population Health
Start date: ASAP
Hours: Full-time
Location: Mwanza,
Tanzania
Duration: 36 months to 31
August 2015 in the first instance, with the possibility of extension to 30
March 2016 subject to the availability of funding
This post, which is based in Mwanza, Tanzania, is part of the LSHTM team
that supports the Kisesa cohort study at the Tanzanian National Institute for
Medical Research (NIMR), Mwanza branch.
The post-holder will provide technical support
for all aspects of the TAZAMA HIV cohort study conducted in Kisesa ward, Mwanza
region, Tanzania. S/he will work
closely with other Mwanza-based LSHTM Department of
Population Health colleagues: Chifundo
Kanjala (who is responsible for abstracting data from the Kisesa survey for use
in the ALPHA network pooled dataset) and Alex Vanobberghen (responsible for
setting up a data archive for scanned images of historical data). S/he may
receive advice on technical matters from an IT consultant, Dr David Beckles,
who helped set up the data systems. On local administrative and financial
matters s/he will liaise with Mark Urassa, NIMR, director of the cohort study
and holder of the main GFATM grant.
S/he will be
responsible for all data management tasks associated with the production,
implementation, processing, archiving and distribution of sero survey
data. The data are stored as a mix of
SQL, Access and CSPro files, and the post holder will be expected to be
competent in these packages, and to develop expertise in the packages used for
analysis, such as Stata. The data
manager will be responsible for all aspects of the life cycle of all the data
associated with the sero survey (including questionnaire data, lab data,
clinical data and administrative data) and will need to participate in the
design of all data collection instruments. This will include reviewing the
documents for logical error, aiding in formatting and laying out the documents,
preparing the document s for printing with serial numbers and documenting them
in DDI. After the data collection
instruments have been finalized the sero data manager will be responsible for
developing the data entry and processing system. This will entail developing
edit specification documents, creating data dictionaries, data entry
applications and a batch editing applications.
The sero-survey data needs to be linked to the demographic data, and it
is the data manager’s responsibility to ensure this is done by producing the
required clinic registers and invitation slips.
The post-holder will also be responsible for accounting for and managing
the lab testing protocol, including developing systems for managing and
ordering confirmatory tests, selecting quality control samples. The management of
the lab data will also include cleaning lab identification numbers to ensure
that they link to questionnaire data.
On
the project co-ordination side, the post-holder will take responsibility for
organising, supervising and maintaining all activities to do with the sero
surveys. S/he will ensure all Standard
Operating Procedures and guidelines are written for field, data and lab
activities, and will develop timetable for these activities, and organise staff
and logistics (lab supplies, drugs, etc) for field work for sero surveys. During fieldwork s/he will liaise with the
lab staff to ensure that all specimens and samples from the sero surveys have
been correctly accounted for and tested.
Finally, s/he will contribute to the analysis and writing up of the
sero-survey findings, and will liaise with statisticians, data analysts and
other users of the sero survey data, including London-based LSHTM staff, to
ensure completion of agreed tasks.
Job Description:
General
1.
To coordinate all
activities for the Sero surveys, including planning for new sero surveys,
ensuring the quality and timeliness of the data and lab results for the current
sero surveys and the use and analysis of the past sero surveys
2. To manage the work of the IT support teams for the sero-survey,
demographic surveillance studies, and Kisesa clinic-based studies
3. To represent the TAZAMA study at the IT technical meetings within NIMR
and within external scientific networks
4. To advise LSHTM and NIMR staff in Mwanza on problems in the general area
of Data Management
5. To participate in the corporate work of LSHTM
6. Any other relevant duties as may be assigned by the TAZAMA program
director or the LSHTM co-PI on the TAZAMA project.
7. Managing, training and mentoring staff.
Data Management
1. To manage and document the existing data resources of the Kisesa HIV
cohort study, and make data sets available as required by statisticians and
researchers involved in data analysis
2. To integrate new data from ongoing sero surveys and associated clinic
and lab data into the existing data base, developing edit specifications to
ensure that new data are clean and properly indexed
3. To supervise and document all programming activities of the data team,
including version control of all procedures developed, documentation of all
project data forms, and providing advice and guidance to data managers working
on other databases maintained by the TAZAMA project in NIMR.
4. To update and maintain all the software used by the cohort study
5. To archive and maintain the past datasets from the sero surveys,
possibly through the use of DDI or similar.
6. To identify and train staff involved in data management, and to mentor
Tanzanian data managers working in NIMR.
Project co-ordination
1.
Take responsibility for
organising, supervising and maintaining all activities to do with the sero
surveys.
2.
Ensure all Standard
Operating Procedures and guidelines are written and followed for field, data
and lab activities.
3.
Timetable activities for
future surveys, and the analysis of past data from sero surveys.
4.
Develop the materials
(questionnaires, forms, and checklists) for sero surveys, and ensure that all
scientific advisors to the TAZAMA project receive copies of these materials.
5.
Organise staff and
logistics (lab supplies, drugs, etc) for field work for sero surveys.
6.
Check data processes for
all sero surveys activities (forms, questionnaires, lab results).
7.
Liaise with the lab staff
to ensure that all specimens and samples from the sero surveys have been
correctly accounted for and tested.
8.
Contribute to the
analysis and writing up of the sero-survey findings.
9.
Liaise with
statisticians, data analysts and other users of the sero survey data to ensure
completion of agreed tasks.
10. Attend meetings and conferences and present
work and results from the Sero surveys.
Person
specification
Education
1. Higher degree in demography, epidemiology or statistics
2. First degree in computer science, statistics or other quantitative
subject
Experience, essential
1. Substantial experience of data management at a demographic surveillance
site at a senior level with overall responsibility for stewardship of data
resources
2. Advanced use of data management software, including data base
programming
3. Advanced use of operating systems software and office applications
software
4. Experience with preparing data sets for analysis
5. Experience of managing, training and mentoring staff
Experience, desirable
6. Basic understanding of Geographic Information Systems
7. Experience of CSPro or SQL query language
8. Familiarity with field epidemiology studies in Africa (especially HIV
studies)
9. Ability to speak and understand basic Swahili (or willingness to learn)
SALARY
AND CONDITIONS OF APPOINTMENT
The appointment is available immediately, and is
currently funded until 31st
August 2015, with the possibility of extension to 31 March
2016 subject to the availability of funding. The appointment will be made on
LSHTM’s Professional Support Post Grade 6 scale - £35,661 to £40,499) per annum. The post will
be subject to the LSHTM terms and conditions of service. Membership of the USS
Pension Scheme is available.
APPLICATIONS
Applications should be made on-line at our website
at http://jobs.lshtm.ac.uk. The closing date is Thursday 18
October 2012 and the reference for this post is BZ10. Online applications
will be accepted by the automated system until 10pm of the closing date. Any
queries regarding the application process may be addressed to jobs@lshtm.ac.uk. Please quote reference BZ10.
The supporting statement section should set out how
your qualifications, experience and training meet each of the selection
criteria. Please provide one or more paragraphs addressing each criterion. The
supporting statement is an essential part of the selection process and thus a
failure to provide this information will mean that the application will not be
considered. An answer to any of the criteria such as "Please see attached
CV" will not be considered acceptable. Please note that if you are
shortlisted and are unable to attend on the interview date it may not be
possible to offer you an alternative date.
The London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine is committed to being an equal opportunities
employer.
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