Improving colorectal cancer screening using health-economic modeling.

Colorectal cancer poses a major health burden in the Netherlands. To reduce this burden, a national colorectal cancer screening program has been implemented in 2014. While this screening program has successfully reduced the number of colorectal cancer cases, there is still room for improvement. Health economic models that simulate the natural history of colorectal cancer can be used to evaluate many different improvements to the current screening program in terms of health benefits, patient burden and costs. Results of these evaluations provide critical insights for policy makers to decide which improvement is most promising for implementation.

As a PhD student, you will work on the ASCCA project, under supervision of Prof. Veerle Coupé and Dr. Marjolein Greuter, aiming to optimize colorectal cancer screening in the Netherlands. In this project, you will use an existing health-economic model, the ASCCA model, to perform several evaluations in which different options to further improve the Dutch screening program will be compared. Besides that, you will work on external validation of the ASCCA model against registries and clinical studies as well as on an evaluation of model uncertainty.

We are looking for a PhD student who can work systematically, is solution-oriented, is able to work in a multi-disciplinary team and has an interest in guiding health policy decisions.

As a PhD student, your main tasks are:

• To perform several evaluations with a health-economic model (ASCCA model) to gain insight in how to improve the current colorectal cancer screening program.
• To externally validate the ASCCA model against observed data.
• To publish your research findings in biomedical, health-economic, and/or epidemiological journals.
• To write a PhD thesis for defense at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
• To assist in teaching activities in biostatistics courses for medical students.

We are searching for an enthusiastic PhD student with the following expertise:

• MSc degree in health sciences, biomedical sciences, applied statistics, econometrics, medicine, medical informatics or related field
• Experience with statistical software, preferably R statistics. Experience with programming languages such as C++ or Python is beneficial.Good communication skills and the ability to work in a multi-disciplinary team of epidemiologists, gastroenterologists, biostatisticians, biologists and pathologists.

The department of Epidemiology and Data Science at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers supports and initiates biomedical, epidemiological and biostatistical research. The department also coordinates the epidemiology and statistics courses for bachelor and master students. One of the main research topics at the department is disease modelling and health-economic evaluation of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer.

Working at Amsterdam UMC means working in an inspiring and professional environment where developing one’s talents and academic skills are encouraged. We offer you ample opportunity for development, deepening and broadening, additional training, and a place to grow!