Postdoc/ Junior Epidemiologist/ Statistician in Rare Diseases epidemiology 80-100 %

The Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine (ISPM) of Bern performs research in a range of disciplines relevant to public health (www.ispm.unibe.ch). Groups cut across divisions, facilitating an interdisciplinary approach to research in the fields of clinical epidemiology, social and behavioral health, biostatistics, and international and environmental health. The ISPM is highly reputed for its expertise in health effects of environmental exposures, the spread of infectious disease, and the health of vulnerable groups including children and the elderly.
The Child and Adolescent Health group, headed by Prof. Dr. med. Claudia Kuehni conducts population-based and clinical studies in child health. Within this group, PD Dr. Myrofora Goutaki leads several projects on rare diseases, mainly focused on Primary Ciliary Dyskinesia (PCD), a rare multi-organ disease.
Would you like to improve knowledge about rare diseases and contribute to better care of people with PCD? PCD is a rare genetic disease with a prevalence of about 1 in 7, 500 that affects multiple organ systems. Among rare diseases, PCD research has seen an impressive boost in the past years and several collaborative projects have contributed to improvements in diagnosis and care. Yet we have much still to learn and recent studies exploring research priorities for PCD identified critical evidence gaps. Within our project, we analyse data from two large cohort studies to characterise the course of upper airway disease and predict risk of disease severity among people with PCD and explore social and psychological well-being and treatment burden among people with PCD and their families. The project draws on high quality data, combines quantitative and qualitative state-of-the-art methods, and explores patient-reported outcomes and standardized clinical information. The results are relevant to improving patient care and informing targeted, personalized, multidisciplinary management of disease. We look for an enthusiastic early career researcher with experience in data analysis and study management to join the team and develop a leading role!

• Analyse large observational databases on PCD and other rare diseases using standard and advanced statistical methods.
• Present own work at international conferences and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals.
• Collaborate with an interdisciplinary team of clinicians, epidemiologists, psychologists, and patient partners.
• Contribute to study management and coordination of tasks and support the supervision of students.
• Participate in the preparation of further funding proposals in collaboration with the team leader.

• PhD degree in a relevant discipline, including epidemiology, medicine, applied statistics, or similar.
• At least 3 years of experience in health-related research with strong research track record.
• Experience in management of large databases, advanced statistical analyses (i.e. prediction modelling, time series analysis), and programming skills in R or STATA.
• Experience with project and staff management, leadership skills, capable of providing feedback in a supervisory capacity.
• Organizational skills and ability to work efficiently in several parallel projects, independently and with interdisciplinary teams.
• Excellent knowledge of English and German, written and spoken.