King's College London

THIS VACANCY IS OPEN TO INTERNAL APPLICANTS ONLY

About us

This role will be based in the Department of Psychological Medicine, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN).

The IoPPN aims to change and shape how we understand, prevent and treat mental health and other conditions that affect the brain. We work to transform care for people who are affected by mental health and neurological conditions, through world-class research to serve or communities locally and globally.

About the role

The research assistant will work specifically within the team supporting the operation and application of the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) platform. CRIS was developed within the NIHR Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and provides authorised researchers with regulated, secure access to anonymised information extracted from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust electronic clinical records system.

CRIS currently accesses records on more than 500,000 patients and has supported more than 400 peer-reviewed publications. CRIS is a broad infrastructure including not only the mental health records data but also a range of linked external data resources, and a suite of over 100 bespoke natural language processing (NLP) algorithms, allowed the extraction of entities recorded in text fields. CRIS infrastructure is providing the base for the recently developed LUCI platform which feeds live-processed information back to the clinical record interface. Finally, CRIS and its applications receive oversight and guidance from lived experience experts through a variety of initiatives and regular meetings.

The post-holder will support the CRIS team in a range of tasks. These will include assisting in the development of NLP algorithms and the management of data linkages, as well as helping to deploy new NLP and data linkages to address questions focused on mental health research. The post-holder will assist in the setting up and management of groups and events that enable lived experience input on CRIS strategy and dissemination, and they will support a portfolio of research studies using CRIS, participating as co-authors and assisting the translation of analysis output to manuscript submission.

There are 3 positions available, all will be offered on full-time, fixed term contracts for 6 months.

Research staff at King’s are entitled to at least 10 days per year (pro-rata) for professional development. This entitlement, from the  Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers, applies to Postdocs, Research Assistants, Research and Teaching Technicians, Teaching Fellows and AEP equivalent up to and including grade 7. Visit the  Centre for Research Staff Development for more information.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Bachelor’s degree with Honours in a relevant subject for the proposed role
2. Experience of working with CRIS or a similar anonymised electronic patient records system
3. Experience of working with natural language processing development
4. Experience of supporting research output from health records data
5. Well-developed verbal and written communication skills
6. Well-organised and able to plan and prioritise own workload, escalating issues to line manager where appropriate

Desirable criteria

1. Experience in patient and public engagement and involvement in research
2. Data analysis skills (e.g., using software such as Stata, R or SPSS)

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information of what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

We pride ourselves on being inclusive and welcoming. We embrace diversity and want everyone to feel that they belong and are connected to others in our community.

We are committed to working with our staff and unions on these and other issues, to continue to support our people and to develop a diverse and inclusive culture at King's.

As part of this commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion and through this appointment process, it is our aim to develop candidate pools that include applicants from all backgrounds and communities.  

We ask all candidates to submit a copy of their CV, and a supporting statement, detailing how they meet the essential criteria listed in the person specification section of the job description. If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible. To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

[HR use only – as indicated in the job description} This post is subject to Disclosure and Barring Service and/or Occupational Health clearances.