King's College London

About Us

An exceptional opportunity has arisen for a highly skilled statistician, public health researcher or epidemiologist with an interest in pharmaco-epidemiology, drug safety and data linkage to provide crucial support to the UK-Irish Atopic eczema Systemic TherApy Register (A-STAR).

A-STAR is a flagship observational register of adult and paediatric patients receiving systemic medication for atopic eczema under the leadership of Professor Carsten Flohr, Chair in Dermatology and Population Health Sciences at King's College London.

Find out more information about the A-STAR project here: https://ppopderm.org/project/a-star/

A-STAR’s main objectives are to study the treatment effectiveness, safety and cost of systemic immuno-modulatory therapies, both conventional immuno-suppressive drugs but also novel biologics and small molecules. The study is now open in 65 sites across the UK and Ireland. To fulfil its full potential, A-STAR needs a robust data analysis strategy and data linkage with national healthcare data providers.

These include Hospital Episodes Statistics (HES), mortality, and NCRS (National Cancer Registry Service) such as by NHS Digital in England, for long-term follow up.  The data from data linkage will supplement the data that is acquired via the A-STAR platform in order to provide a more comprehensive picture of each participant’s health.

The A-STAR team already has a senior statistician and junior and senior data managers, and this post will provide additional dedicated expertise and support to facilitate the data analyses, linkage, and pharmaco-epidemiological activities.

For further information about this position, please contact Professor Carsten Flohr, A-STAR Chief Investigator; carsten.flohr@kcl.ac.uk.

About the role

This role involves a range of responsibilities across data management, pharmacovigilance, and administrative support within the A-STAR programme. Key duties include data cleaning and analysis of linked data, such as running regular cleaning queries to ensure the quality and consistency of data, identifying areas where additional cleaning is required, and assisting with data cleaning prior to analysis and company report generation, with support from A-STAR data managers. The postholder will also prepare Data Monitoring Committee outputs and other pharmacovigilance reports, and contribute to pharmaco-epidemiological analyses relating to drug safety and effectiveness under the supervision of the A-STAR Senior Research Fellow.

Responsibilities also encompass data processing and linkage, including collating, entering, and updating study information onto the A-STAR database, and supporting the establishment of data linkage in collaboration with NHS Digital under senior supervision. Regular updates on data processing activities will be presented to the wider A-STAR team. Pharmacovigilance duties include processing events received from data linkage, ensuring that all serious adverse events (SAEs) are identified and claimed, reviewing and coding adverse events (AEs) using MedDRA terminology, managing duplicates appropriately, and handling additional clinical information received via Events of Special Interest forms and related communications. The role also involves supporting reporting processes, such as sending and filing SAE reports and receipts.

Additional responsibilities include proficiency in MedDRA coding and coding comorbidities using ICD-10, contributing to governance through maintaining and adhering to A-STAR pharmacovigilance SOPs, and effective communication with clinicians and companies to obtain further information where needed. Broader duties involve attending and presenting at meetings and conferences, supporting data monitoring site visits when required, and adhering to all relevant University and Trust policies.

This is a full-time role (35 hours per week) offered on a fixed-term contract for one year.

About You

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

Essential criteria

1. PhD qualified in epidemiology, public health, or statistics *
2. Good programming skills and experience in R, specifically in handling large data sets. These include data preparation, management, cleaning and conducting statistical analysis for large dataset
3. Good understanding of research design and skills in critical appraisal of research
4. Good writing and presentation skills which demonstrated by previous experience of contributing to publications/presentations and presentation in academic conferences
5. Good understanding of The Data Protection Act, the principles of information governance, the awareness of Good Clinical Practice and Research Governance Framework
6. Flexible approach to hours of work and duties
7. Able to work on own initiative and in a team as well as able to work with and communicate effectively with people from a wide variety of disciplines and organisations
8. Willingness to travel to support A-STAR presence at conferences and events

Desirable criteria

1. Publications in academic journals
2. Experience of mentoring junior researchers
3. Experience of pharmaco-epidemiology or drug safety research
4. Experience in dermatology research

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.

* Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6. 

Further Information

 

At King’s, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King’s guidance.

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.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is evolving rapidly, and we recognise its growing role in professional work. Applicants may use AI tools to support preparation of their application, for example to research the role or structure written responses. However, applications must reflect the applicant’s own work and experience. AI tools should not be used during interviews or assessment activities unless this has been agreed in advance as a reasonable adjustment. Further guidance on the use of AI in recruitment can be found here.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ‘How we Recruit’ pages.

Interviews are due to be held at the end of June.