Kenya

The KWTRP Health Services Unit based in Nairobi works closely with the Ministry of Health, the University of Nairobi and multiple county hospitals in a collaboration called the Clinical Information Network (CIN). The CIN has worked predominantly to improve paediatric inpatient care. Going forward the CIN would like to extend its work to develop a better understanding of the quality of neonatal care and the outcomes of those admitted to newborn units while also developing and testing intervention strategies to improve care.

The CIN team are looking for a paediatrician qualified to PhD level to help lead this new area of neonatal research. The individual will be supported by a team of more junior scientists and will work alongside clinical post-doctoral scientists leading CIN work on paediatric care. In particular, the individual is expected to help establish with participating hospitals an information system that will support improvement work and evaluation of outcomes and interventions. They will liaise with senior hospital staff and policy-makers and managers at county and national levels. They will help analyse data and write reports for hospitals as well as writing scientific manuscripts. They will lead the design and conduct of intervention studies, including randomised controlled trials and observational studies, working with collaborating scientists in Kenya and internationally. They will help foster the conduct of multidisciplinary research by engaging in collaborative work with social scientists and also support efforts to build capacity by supervising junior researchers as appropriate.

JOB PURPOSE: The main purpose of the job is to manage the collaborative studies between the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)-Wellcome Trust Programme and Stanley Centre at the Broad Institute, Boston, USA. The data and sample collection will involve several hospitals and schools on the Kenyan coast. The Assistant Research Officer will work in consultation with the PIs for NeuroDEV to ensure that all logistics are performed in good time, to supervise data and sample collection, and to participate in communications and engagement strategy.