This project aims to obtain a better understanding of the current epidemiology of Hepatitis infections in patients in addiction care and explore ways to implement testing and treatment of Hepatitis with addiction care facilities. Chronic Hepatitis C infection (HCV) is highly prevalent among patients who (have) inject(ed) drugs (PWID). The pool of PWID in the Netherlands is estimated to be 3,400 (3,131 HIV negative and 303 HIV positive). From a health provider perspective, access to this population is very difficult, as experience shows that many get lost between referral, visit at the outpatient clinic, initiation of treatment and follow-up. Understanding of the specific provider and patient level barriers is needed to effectively target this population.

This project, Hepatitis C Chain of Addiction Care: CAC, aims to specifically target PWID seen and cared for within Addiction Care facilities. The location of the study will be NISPA, which oversees 5 full serviced Addiction centers covering 65% of The Netherlands. The ultimate goal is to (1) eliminate HCV from the Dutch PWID population and (2) create a CAC blueprint for micro-elimination that is time and environment tested and that can be used in other healthcare facilities. This project will create awareness in addiction care facilities.

Tasks and responsibilities
You will learn how to perform implementation science, and to design appropriate implementation strategies. You will collaborate with scientists and clinicians with varying disciplines, participate in international conferences, and prepare manuscripts for publication as well as a thesis at the end of the project.

1. Masters degree in medicine
2. Affinity with addiction medicine and infectious diseases.

This project requires specific skills concerning working with patients with addiction, medical knowledge, and an interest in implementation science. It requires skills to collaborate with clinicians of different disciplines and planning skills to manage the multiple study sites within the project. We also find it important that you are creative, analytic, highly motivated, able to function well both independently and in a multidisciplinary team, have good social and communicative skills, and that you are willing to collaborate with and interact between different research groups.

Fixed-term contract: 3 years.

The candidate will be appointed as a PhD candidate for a period of three years. The performance of the PhD candidate will be evaluated after 12 months. Should the evaluation be positive, the contract will be extended by 2 years.

Upon commencement of employment we require a certificate of conduct (Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag, VOG) and there will be, depending on the type of job, a screening based on the provided cv. Radboud university medical center's HR Department will apply for this certificate on your behalf.

Read more about the Radboudumc employment conditions and what our International Office can do for you when moving to the Netherlands.

Radboudumc

This project is a collaboration of:

1. The research group of Arnt Schellekens (Department of Psychiatry, and Nijmegen Institute for Scientist Practitioners in Addiction), applying an interdisciplinary approach to clinical addiction research covering bio-psycho-social aspects of addiction.
2. The research group of Joost PH Drenth (Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology) is focused on improvement of quality of care of patients with a liver disease, focusing on translation of experimental knowledge into clinical efforts that improve the quality of life of patients.

All research at the Department of Psychiatry is embedded in the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour. The Donders Institute is a highly dynamic institute with a collaborative atmosphere focusing on fundamental and applied neuroscience research at top level. For further information, please, visit the following websites:
Radboud University Nijmegen
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour
Department of Psychiatry
Department of Cognitive Neurosciences

The Nijmegen Institute for Scientist Practitioners in Addiction (NISPA) is a nation wide collaboration between six regional addiction care facilities, with a focus on the scientist practitioners model. NISPA aims to improve care for patients with addictive behaviors, through multidisciplinary scientific collaboration, as in the current project.

Radboudumc
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.

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