Opportunities

Programmer

We have an exciting opportunity for a Software developer 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, mobile app development and assisting with the conduct of the studies (such as monitoring recruitment and scheduling participant follow up). 

Click here for more information.

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

Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in Health Research

Short online course for professionals working in or managing health research projects.

Our PPI in Health Research course is aimed at professionals who work in health research and would like to improve their understanding of patient and public involvement.  

The course is run by staff from the internationally recognised Health Services Research Unit (HSRU) - awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Award for sustained excellence in health services research.  

The course is an introduction to

• patient and public involvement in research and why it is important; 
• what patients and the public can contribute at different stages of the research cycle; 
• who to involve and how to find them; 
• current debates about involvement; 
• the practicalities of involvement;
• practical tips on how to involve people when face to face meetings aren’t possible.

The course is fully online which will allow you some flexibility to fit your learning around other commitments.  

Your online learning will be supplemented with a practical and interactive session allowing you to opportunities to discuss your challenges and experiences with leading experts in the field and fellow course participants.

When: Regular dates through the year – TBC

Format: Online 

Cost: Free limited places conditional on completing post course questionnaire.  We will run a waiting list for those who would still be interested when this becomes a fee-paying course

Duration: Approx: 20 hours over 1 week 

To register your interest contact: hsru-ppie@abdn.ac.uk

Course Coordinator

Kirsty McCormack

Course tutors 

Katie Banister, Louise Locock, Beatriz Goulao

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. 

We have 2 PhD opportunities at the moment:

Serving the under-served: improving equality, diversity and inclusion in randomised trials (Competion Funded)  Supervisors will be Professor Shaun Treweek and Dr Katie Gillies.  Application Deadline: 26 March 2021

Improving patient and public involvement in numerical aspects of trials (Competition Funded) Supervisors will be Dr Katie Gillies and Dr Beatriz Goulao.  Application Deadline: 26 March 2021

Please click here to view all current University of Aberdeen opportunities.  You will find more details of our opportunities here too.

Below are our current HSRU ongoing PhD projects.

Ongoing projects

• Behavioural interventions to improve clinical trial recruitment and retention - Taylor Coffey
• 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
• What are the personal, clinical and social impacts of longer waiting times? A multi-methods study - Elisabeth Kirchner

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

We offer summer student work placements to current University of Aberdeen students wishing to improve their knowledge and experience in a research-focused environment.  So far this year we have welcomed a number of interns.

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

You can find out more here

You can also contact our Patient and Public Involvement Co-ordinator Katie Banister