Are you passionate to combine research and healthcare? Do you have a keen interest to gain insight in mechanisms of changes in healthcare? And are you able to work both, from a detailed perspective as well as with a helicopter view? Then, this project might offer an excellent opportunity for you to jumpstart your academic career as a PhD candidate.   
 
This PhD position includes the evaluation of the healthcare innovation DementiaNet. With DementiaNet we aim to reduce the burden of dementia on individuals, healthcare services and society via network-based care. We tackle the current shortcomings in primary care for dementia patients by effectuating a transition from ad hoc collaboration towards integrated network-based care with increased dementia expertise. We designed our approach with a strong focus on sustainability of the networks, self-organisation and integration of formal and informal care. The current PhD position includes an ambitious project to evaluate DementiaNet as an exemple of organizing sustainable network-based care, from the perspective of complexity science. 

You will be working in a multidisciplinary team with clinicians and researchers,  and will be in contact with primary healthcare professionals in the DementiaNet networks and other parties involved (i.e. IT company).

Tasks and responsibilities
You will be part of the DementiaNet team including clinical and research staff with extended experience in healthcare innovations and aligned research to design and evaluate complex innovations. Since 2015, over 25 networks have already been established. This initial movement towards better dementia care has been evaluated as the first implementation phase. The current project will focus on continuous and long-term evaluation of the established and future networks, with development of IT tools to promote durability of the DementiaNet approach.
 
As PhD-student, you will be responsible for:

• Co-designing the evaluation study on continuous and long-term evaluation of DementiaNet networks;
• Data collection and analysis on different DementiaNet networks;
• Co-designing of the automated IT tool (Dashboard);
• Supervision of research assistant(s);
• Writing of reports to sponsor and papers for (inter)national journals;
• Presenting on (inter)national conferences.

We are looking for a highly motivated candidate with a MSc Degree in any of the following or related fields: Biomedical Sciences, Health Sciences, Sociology or Epidemiology.  
 
The PhD candidate should have:

• A keen interest in healthcare and research;
• Master’s degree;
• Independent and well-structured working style;
• Good writing skills;
• Well-developed social skills directed to work in a team and to work interdisciplinary with healthcare professionals;
• Experience from previous work on projects with similar topics (i.e. evaluation of/ in clinical practice, mixed methods, systems dynamics) is an advantage;
• Understand (and preferably speak) Dutch language.
• Personal profile: curious, analytic, creative, persistent and an involved pragmatic. A helicopter view, conceptual thinking and insight in the coherence of infra components are also key competences.

You recognise yourself in the Radboud way of working.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

• Scale 10: max €58838 gross per year at full employment (incl. vacation bonus and end of year payments)
• The project will appoint a PhD candidate for 4 years in total. As regular in the Radboudumc your performance will be evaluated after 1 year. If the evaluation is positive, the contract will be extended;
• You will be ranked in the Dutch university job-ranking system (UFO) as a PhD-student (promovendus);
• International candidates who feel they qualify for the job are encouraged to apply, however the nature of the job requires proficiency of the Dutch language;
• An assessment is part of the procedure:
• Upon commencement of employment we require a certificate of conduct (Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag, VOG). Radboud university medical center’s HR Department will apply for this certificate on your behalf.

Read more about the Radboudumc employment conditions.

Radboudumc (university medical center)

Radboudumc strives to be a leading developer of sustainable, innovative and affordable healthcare to improve the health and wellbeing of people and society in the Netherlands and beyond. This is the core of our mission: To have a significant impact on healthcare. To get a better picture of what this entails, check out our strategy film.

Our key strength is medical life-sciences and clinical practice, with an impressive infrastructure comprising state-of-the-art technology platforms and (translational) research facilities. The Radboudumc is therefore uniquely positioned in the emerging Euregio and Dutch healthcare infrastructure to play a leading role in the new healthcare paradigm of prediction, prevention and personalised medicine.

The Radboudumc focuses on scientific health challenges of today, with an eye on emerging diseases of the future.

Read more about what it means to work at Radboudumc and how you can do your part.

https://www.radboudumc.nl/EN/Pages/default.aspx

The project will be positioned at the Department of Geriatric Medicine and at the Health Care Improvement Science research theme of the Radboudumc. The Department of Geriatric Medicine is involved in a large number of projects investigating innovations and better healthcare for older populations, frail elderly and persons with dementia. The department is part of the Radboudumc Alzheimer Centre in Nijmegen, which is nationally and internationally renowned for its interdisciplinary approach, building bridges between research disciplines, health professionals and patients and carers.

Development and evaluation of interventions aimed at improving quality of care for and quality of life of both patients and carers is one of its research priorities, which led to high quality publications in important international journals. As PhD student, you will be part of the  multidisciplinary Radboudumc Alzheimer Centre Research group, who have chosen the ‘complexity theme’ as their connecting focus of interest.