Opportunities

Programmer

We have an exciting opportunity for a programmer to join an experienced team of clinical trial programmers in the Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT).  CHaRT, part of the Health Services Research Unit (HSRU), University of Aberdeen, is a leader in UK clinical trials and the programming team contributes to worthwhile research by providing programming support and data management for multi-centre health care randomised trials and other research studies.  This includes preparing randomisation schedules, setting up databases and online programming applications for data collection and assisting with the conduct of the studies (such as monitoring recruitment and scheduling participant follow up). 

For more information click here.

University of Aberdeen job opportunities can be viewed here.

Experts from our Clinical Trials Unit (CHaRT) and HSRU deliver a 12 week short course on Designing Real World Trials. 

This course takes you through the process of designing a randomised controlled trial (RCT). The course will focus on trials in the evaluation of real-world healthcare and public health settings.  The course aims to develop your knowledge and awareness of how to design a fair test, the appropriate use of trials and alternative trial designs, involving patients and the public, the logistics and practicalities of designing real-world trials and the role of clinical trials units.

To find out more visit the course page or contact Dr Kirsty McCormack

HSRU contributes teaching to the:

• Master of Public Health (MPH) 
• MSc in Global Health and Management 
• Research Methods for Health (PgCert). 

We offer a number of student projects each year to students on the MSc and Intercalated BMEdSci courses.

Our Designing Real-World Trials short course will earn you 15 credits at Masters level (SCQF Level 11).

Staff in HSRU are fully supported in undertaking a PhD.  They are also encouraged to provide supervisory support for full or part-time PhD students. 

Please click here to view all current University of Aberdeen opportunities. 

Below are our current HSRU ongoing PhD projects.

Ongoing projects

• Behavioural interventions to improve clinical trial recruitment and retention - Taylor Coffey
• Ewait: Effects of waiting times on quality of life, leisure activities and support needs in patients awaiting elective surgery in Scotland - Elisabeth Kirchner
• IDENTIFY - The Investigation and Detection of Urological Neoplasia in Patients Referred with suspected urinary tract cancer: A Multicentre cohort study - Sinan Khadhouri
• Interrupted times series (ITS) evaluation - Jemma Hudson
• Optimising the responsible use of antibiotics - Shazia Yousuf
• ‘Soft’ Intelligence and Online Patient Feedback: Using Care Opinion for NHS Quality Improvement in Scotland - Emma Berry
• Towards improvement in care delivery in Huntington's disease (HD) - Daniela Rae
• Understanding family experiences of inherited motor neurone disease (MND) - a qualitative study - Jade Howard

Examples of recently completed projects

• Complex designs in randomised clinical trials – a case study in dentistry - Beatriz Goulao
• What is the best way to avoid recruitment and retention problems in trials? - Adel El Feky
• Making clinical trials more efficient: consolidating, communicating and improving knowledge of patient recruitment interventions - Heidi Gardner
• Development of core clinical outcome measures for glaucoma interventions - Rehab Ismail
• Mobile Bone Density Scanning Services in the UK: an implementation and outcome evaluation - Rosemary Hollick
• The relationship between perceived decision difficulty, decision time and decision quality in General Practitioners’ decision-making - Nicola McCleary

Clinical

HSRU actively mentors NHS Research Scotland (NRS) fellowships.  Recent NRS Clinical Fellows were:

Current

• Dr Callum Kaye, Consultant in Anaesthesia & Critical Care, NHS Grampian - BIS-TBI

Completed

• Mr Jan Jansen, Consultant Surgeon, NHS Grampian - Geospatial Evaluation of Systems of Trauma Care for Scotland.
   
• Dr Andy Keen, Consultant Clinical Psychologist, NHS Grampian - The application of psychological interventions (including mindfulness based approaches) to health and illness.

Non-clinical

HSRU actively encourages the development of staff through seeking prestigious research fellowships. Several funded research fellowships are supported including for example topics on the surgical trial methodology and methodological investigation of decision support for trial participation

Current

• Dr Eilidh Duncan - Improving healthcare through advancing the evolution of audit and feedback

We offer summer student work placements to current University of Aberdeen students wishing to improve their knowledge and experience in a research-focused environment.  Last summer we welcomed 5 interns.  Applications for this year have now closed.

There are lots of opportunities for patients and the public to be involved with our research.

You can find out more here