Sr Epidemiologist (12mth Contract)

JOB SUMMARY

The Senior/Epidemiologist in the National Public Health and Epidemiology Unit (NPHEU) possesses in-depth expertise in one or more special methodological area(s) of epidemiology with experience to independently apply such expertise in the field of infectious diseases. The incumbent provides epidemiologic input to support the design and implementation of observational studies and surveillance systems, analysis and interpretation of data from both primary and secondary sources, and communication and/or publication of findings to influence clinical and public health practice or policy relating to infectious diseases of public health concern.

The Senior/Epidemiologist will work within multidisciplinary teams of clinicians, scientists, medical statisticians, data/IT professionals and others, in collaboration with partners internal and external to NCID including government agencies, academic institutions, healthcare providers, private corporations, supranational and non-governmental organisations both locally and internationally. The candidate will also be called on to lead project teams that include staff that reports to them, and other professionals joining the project team in roles ranging from project staff to co-investigators and collaborators.

The occurrence of an outbreak or public health event may require the Senior/Epidemiologist to calibrate the workload of routine responsibilities to allow the team to assume additional responsibilities as necessary.

MAIN DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

SPECIFIC

1. Design, plan and conduct epidemiological studies, surveillance programmes and data analyses to build an evidence base of actionable information for public health action, government policy, clinical management and disease surveillance related to existing or emerging infectious diseases of public health importance.

2. Collaborate with clinicians, programme leads, statisticians and data scientists in the design and analysis of epidemiological studies / research projects to frame questions, generate hypotheses, and design new approaches and validate them for implementation.

3. For projects involving secondary data, determine the feasibility of extracting the required data from databases, disease registries and electronic health records in partnership with data analysts, and coordinate the collection of and secure exchange of data between different local agencies including those from other ministries (e.g. environment, defence etc.).

4. Conduct analyses in collaboration with colleagues in the Medical Statistics, Data Science, and other teams in NPHEU, NCID and MOH, and also external collaborators, and then appropriately communicate and/or publish findings to effectively disseminate evidence to the relevant audience.

5. To support the design of surveillance, and disease prevention and mitigation programmes, the candidate may participate in as well as lead project teams to design and conduct epidemiologic studies and analysis, ranging from modelling of protective/risk factors and clinical or other outcomes including transmission, morbidity, mortality, healthcare utilisation (e.g., infections, illness episodes, outpatient consultations, hospital admissions, etc.) and health-related  behaviours, or engage in data and sample collection, including:

• Organizing access (through other agencies and collaborators) to data and samples from the general population, or other special populations (e.g. migrant workers, sexual risk groups). 
• Organize cross-sectional and cohort study designs that recruit directly from populations at-risk so as to survey behaviours, prevalence of symptoms and syndromes, and prevalence of pathogens (e.g. carriage of bacteria or viruses) and relevant immune markers (e.g. antibodies, T-cell responses, pathogens).
• Execute studies using qualitative research methods e.g. focus groups of healthcare providers to solicit factors influencing diagnosis and treatment, in-depth interviews of patients to derive insights into late disease presentations.
• Coordinate linkage of genomic with epidemiological data and apply methods from molecular epidemiology to better assess morbidity and/or provide insights into transmission of different infectious disease, and/or different pathogen strains of a specific infectious disease.

6. During (or in response to, so as to prevent future recurrence of) outbreaks or public health events, the candidate will also draw on the same methods described above to support disease programmes in epidemiologic analyses to inform the public health response or government policy and support resource planning. In addition, the candidate may be called on to also conduct complementary investigations in parallel to disease programmes using approaches beyond the capabilities and/or capacity of the disease teams, for instance by utilizing an ongoing cohort or pre-existing samples to provide a control group comparable to the outbreak population under investigation by the disease programme.

7. Assist others or serve as lecturers and instructors to conduct training in epidemiological methods through lectures and workshops. Examples of audiences and circumstances may include:

• new staff from other disciplines, such as non-epidemiologists belonging to other sections of the same agency, where lectures would have a more general focus.
• existing and new staff within the section and/or disease program where lectures and workshops of a more technical nature; these lectures and workshops may at some point also be extended to epidemiology teams in other institutions within and outside of Singapore.
• impart specific epidemiological skillsets relevant to project teams e.g. train members of disease programmes to properly collect study data (e.g. for disease programme contact tracers to conduct in-depth interviews).

8. Mentor and develop more junior staff in areas of epidemiology and in general career development, ranging from study design, conduct and analysis, presentation skills, writing and publication of scientific manuscripts, and further opportunities for training and higher studies.

9. Play a role in supporting international collaborations, ranging from coordinating the exchange of data, giving scientific inputs as well as co-designing relevant surveys and/or analyzing local and international data sets.

10. Draft and potentially lead applications for additional project funding (e.g. internal project funds, external grant funding) to support new epidemiological studies (e.g. surveys of seroprevalence, pathogen carriage, risk behaviours).

11. Critically review the scope, feasibility, scientific rigor and costing for project proposals from internal and external parties, such as academic centres or commercial entities applying to grants and tenders commissioned by the Ministry of Health for answering specific questions on infectious diseases.

GENERAL

1. Support Quality Improvement and Risk Management activities of NPHEU

2. Provide cross-coverage of colleagues as necessary

3. Carry out any other duties as may be reasonably required by the Director (NPHEU) or the Executive Director (NCID)

Comply with all requirements of NCID, TTSH, NHG, MOH for the proper access to and use of data and IT hardware and software to ensure integrity and safe storage of data as well as personal data protection under the PDPA

JOB REQUIREMENTS

EDUCATION

• Advanced degree in Public Health or Epidemiology - good Master's Degree or Doctorate (PhD) from a reputable academic institution in Epidemiology or Public health.

• First degree in Medicine, Nursing, Allied Health Disciplines (e.g. Pharmacy, Medical Social Work), or Veterinary Medicine is desirable.

EXPERIENCE
 

• 5-10 years of experience in epidemiology in a health-related setting such as hospital, public health organisation, academic institution, research institute or ministry of health. Candidates with fewer years of experience will be considered for the Epidemiologist position.

• Candidates with at least 3 years of work experience in communicable diseases, or whose advanced degrees are specifically focussed on communicable diseases, are preferred.

• Experience in coordinating cohort and cross-sectional community-based studies (either general population or special risk groups), and/or ability to drive mixed-methods studies (including qualitative methods) is desirable.

• Proficient in report writing, manuscript preparation, and presentation with a good record of having authored peer-reviewed publications.

• Proficient in software package relevant to skillsets:
  • For candidates trained in quantitative methods, must be able to use at least 1 software package or programming language for statistical computing and graphics.
  • For candidates trained in qualitative methods, must be able to use at least 1 software package for coding qualitative research data.

• Strong analytical and synthesis skills.

• Good oral and written communication skills.

• Good interpersonal skills and a team player.

• Adaptable, goal-oriented, proactive and able to work under pressure including in rapidly changing environments, e.g., an outbreak.