2 PhD Positions to contribute to a project crafting the future of healthcare decision making

In the section Health Technology and Services research at the University of Twente, we believe in making healthcare decisions that truly reflect the needs and values of patients. For that purpose, we are participating in a large international project dedicated to revolutionizing patient-centered decision making in healthcare with partners from different universities, industry and patient organizations. Within this project, we offer two PhD positions. The project contains different workstreams, and the PhD’s will be working along senior staff to perform tasks in different workstreams, in strong collaboration with multiple international partners and fellow PhDs from all over the world.

Key Responsibilities

Both PhD’s will conduct one high-quality systematic literature review on existing methods and/or applications to integrate patient preference information, clinical outcome assessments, and information from digital health technologies.

Each PhD will be involved in a case study where data on patient reported outcomes, patient needs and preferences, and clinical outcomes will be collected with digital health technologies, and analyzed using innovative statistical methods.

PhD project 1 will focus on systematic ways to engage patients and include their perspectives on health care innovation in a case study, but also on how to include different partners in the project and the development of a framework for obtaining a robust view of a health innovations full benefits to patients.

PhD project 2 will focus on the development and application of innovative methods for data-analysis and integration, including AI based methods to combine the different types of data, using data from different case studies.

Both PhD projects are closely related, and the PhD’s are expected to collaborate together and with PhD’s and project partners around the world.

We look for a motivated, inquisitive researcher who meets the following criteria:

• A Master’s degree or equivalent experience in Health Sciences, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Proven experience in conducting qualitative interviews, focus groups, and mixed methods research a (PhD1) and/or 2) advanced statistics, data science, large language models (PhD2). Both PhDs need to have an affinity with health preference research and clinical outcomes research.
• Excellent communication and collaboration abilities to work effectively within a multidisciplinary team.
• The confidence and ability to manage multiple tasks and projects simultaneously.
• Ambition to contribute to a world-class research initiative and make a significant impact on patient-centered healthcare.

• A 4-year PhD position with a qualifier in the first year and flexibility to partially work from home. We offer the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues, researchers, university staff, and external partners. We provide excellent mentorship in a stimulating research environment, along with excellent facilities to support a healthy work-life balance;
• Gross monthly salary of €2,901 in the first year, increasing each year up to €3,707 in the fourth year;
• Excellent benefits including a holiday allowance of 8% of the gross annual salary, an end-of-year bonus of 8.3%, and a solid pension scheme;
• 29 holidays per year in case of full-time employment.
• A training program of the Twente Graduate School where you and your supervisors will define a plan for a suitable education and supervision;
• Free access to sports facilities on campus;
• A family-friendly institution that offers parental leave (both paid and unpaid).

A full status as an employee at the UT, including pension, healthcare benefits and good secondary conditions are part of our collective labour agreement CAO-NU for Dutch universities.

At HTSR (https://www.utwente.nl/en/bms/htsr/), multidisciplinary expertise is combined to support decisions on health innovation development, evaluation, optimization, and implementation. Research focuses on quantitative analyses supporting strategies to improve the efficiency and sustainability of healthcare systems. The HTSR section is part of the Faculty of Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences (BMS, https://www.utwente.nl/nl/bms/) and the Technical Medical Center (TechMed, https://www.utwente.nl/nl/techmed/), a leading innovation hub of the University of Twente.