We seek excellent and motivated candidates for a PhD position in a multicenter and multidisciplinary project encompassing data-science and epidemiology in the field of medication safety.

The RESCUE project is a collaboration between 14 Dutch Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and the Medical Informatics Department of Amsterdam UMC, funded by the Dutch ZonMW program “Goed Gebruik Geneesmiddelen”. This program is directed towards more effective, more efficient, and safer use of medication in day-to-day health care.

The PhD candidate will work at the Department of Medical Informatics and need to have a strong interest in developing algorithms for the detection of adverse drug events (ADEs) in ICU patients and in establishing a body of knowledge regarding the safe use of medication during admission on an Intensive Care Unit. The PhD candidate will collaborate with two other PhD candidates working at the Department of Medical Informatics on topics related to the use of information technology to improve medication safety in ICU patients, as well as with a range of medical, epidemiology and medical informatics experts.

More specifically the ZonMW-funded RESCUE project shall develop algorithms to detect two types of ADEs: 1) drug related acute kidney injury and 2) undertreatment with antibiotics in patients on Continuous Veno-Venous Hemofiltration (CVVH). Novel diagnostic and prognostic models will be developed using machine learning techniques where appropriate. In order to identify patients that potentially have suffered from an ADE, conducting epidemiological research is an important first step. Also, gaining knowledge on medication safety procedures in the participating ICUs will be pursued. Our comprehensive data-set consists of various variables on more than 100.000 ICU admissions, e.g. variables related to medication administration, laboratory findings, vital signs, diagnoses and medical scores.

Excellent candidates with a masters’ degree in epidemiology, bioinformatics, medical informatics, medicine, and pharmacy and experience in programming and conducting statistical analyses in R, are invited to apply. Knowledge about topics such as epidemiology of ADEs, ICU pharmacotherapy, pharmacovigilance, and machine learning will be very much appreciated. The candidate should be capable and interested in working with all involved experts during all phases of the life cycle of a comprehensive data mining project such as the RESCUE study, taking into account relevant legislation and best practices regarding privacy and information protection of medical data. The candidate should be proficient in written and spoken English. Fluency and good command of the Dutch language will be highly valued. A proactive attitude in collaborating with other PhDs, experts involved, colleagues and supervisors is expected.

Personal qualities such as dedication, autonomy, creativity and genuine interest in scientific research will weigh positively. Experience with writing and publishing scientific research as well as managing multicenter projects will be very much appreciated.

Fixed-term contract: 4 years.

We offer ample opportunity for development, deepening and broadening, additional training and a place to accelerate your personal and professional growth! Working at Amsterdam UMC, location AMC, means working in an inspiring and professional environment where development is encouraged in every respect. Our researches are internationally recognized scientists with an excellent scientific network in the Netherlands and around the world. Furthermore AMC Graduate School program offers training courses on scientific topics as well as on complementary skills.

• A full-time temporary appointment for a period of 4 years, with an intermediate evaluation after 12 months.
• The maximum gross monthly salary based on a 36-hour work week is € 3.103 euro (scale OIO CAO UMC).
• The base salary does not include holiday pay (8%) and a year-end bonus (8.3%). 
• In addition to excellent accessibility by public transport, AMC also has a sufficient number of parking spaces for employees.
• Pension is accrued at BeFrank.

For an overview of all our other terms of employment, see www.werkenbijamc.nl/arbeidsvoorwaarden-amr/.

Amsterdam Medisch Centrum (AMC)

Medical informatics is an interdisciplinary and scientific field that studies the effective uses of biomedical data, information, and knowledge for scientific inquiry, problem solving, and decision making motivated by efforts to improve human health. The Department of Medical Informatics (in Dutch Klinische Informatiekunde) has the mission to study, develop and apply methods native to informatics and information sciences in order to better understand and to improve health care. Our education and research activities  as well as our contribution to quality registries give content to our mission. The Department of Medical Informatics consists of around 55 staff members (researchers, teachers, software engineers, data-managers, and management assistants) of which 7 are directly involved in the RESCUE project. More information can be found at AMC Research Department Medical Informatics.