Text mining and Natural Language Processing (NLP) systems are proving very useful for clinical care and research. Several decisions on patient inclusion/exclusion and coding of key study variables in clinical studies are taken out of the hands of clinicians and put into the care of NLP systems. However, clinical care is not always equitable; for example, women present very different stroke symptoms from men, leading to underdiagnosis and undertreatment of female stroke victims. These inequities are inevitably encoded in the electronic health records (EHR) corpora mined by clinical data scientists. The aim of this project is to study the extent to which existing healthcare inequities are propagated by the application of text mining/NLP to EHR records and to develop methods to assess and reduce the impact of the encoded inequities.

This project is part of the Gravitation programme Public Values in the Algorithmic Society (ALGOSOC). The Gravitation programme is an initiative by the Dutch government to support excellent research in the Netherlands. The funding is reserved for scientific consortia that have the potential to rank among the world's best in their field. ALGOSOC is a response to the urgent need for an informed societal perspective on automated decision-making. Funded by the ministry for Education, Culture and Science for a period for 10 years, research in the ALGOSOC programme will develop a deep understanding of the systemic changes that  automated decision making entails for core public institutions, for society, and for how public values are realized. The research will focus on three sectors: justice, health and media. The programme brings together researchers in law, communication science, computer science, media studies, philosophy, public governance, STS, economy and social sciences from five Dutch universities (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Tilburg, Delft and Rotterdam). Together, the ALGOSOC community will develop solutions for the design of governance frameworks needed to complement technology-driven initiatives in the algorithmic society.

Tasks:

• Develop, conduct, and publish research on the field of clinical NLP and data science;
• Active participation in the research teams of the UU M&S department and especially in the groups of Human Data Science and NLP;
• Contribute to the public debate and organise outreach activities of ALGOSOC;
• Contribute to the overall program in terms of events, research meetings, activities;
• Collaborate with other researchers within the ALGOSOC consortium;
• Help co-supervising research projects of students working on related topics.

The successful candidate is a talented and enthusiastic upcoming researcher with a strong interest on health inequalities in clinical NLP systems. As a PhD student you will do research at the highest scientific level in a nice and open environment. Do you want to contribute to studying health inequalities in clinical NLP systems? Then apply as a PhD student to this project!

Qualifications:

• A Master degree in Data Science, Computer Science, Computational Linguistics, or a related field with interest in medical applications, or;
• A Master degree in technical medicine or similar and experience in NLP;
• A background in machine learning and deep learning is a plus;
• Strong programming skills;
• An excellent written and spoken command of English, as demonstrated by publications in English-language journals (written and spoken command of other languages, including French, German and/or Dutch is a plus);
• The ability, willingness, and commitment to do both autonomous and team work;
• Experience with organising workshops, lecture series, and similar events;

Are you interested in this project, but do you think you are not the person we are looking for? Please do apply, as we encourage all qualified applicants, including minorities, women, people with disabilities, and members of other groups underrepresented in academia. For more information, please read our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) programme.

We wish to create a consortium that consists of persons who each contribute in their unique way to the team. Complementarity, rather than homogeneity, is what we are looking for.

The vacancy is for 1.0 FTE for 4 years. The appointment is initially for one year, starting in 2023, with a possibility of extension after a positive evaluation. The appointment should lead to the completion of a dissertation within four years. The salary ranges full-time from €2,541 to €3,247 gross per month (salary scale P, in accordance with the CAO Dutch Universities). The salary is supplemented with an annual vacation allowance of 8% and a year-end bonus of 8.3%.

In addition, Utrecht University offers excellent secondary conditions, including an attractive retirement scheme, (partly paid) parental leave and flexible employment conditions (multiple choice model). For more information, please visit working at Utrecht University.

A better future for everyone. This ambition motivates our scientists in executing their leading research and inspiring teaching. At Utrecht University, the various disciplines collaborate intensively towards major societal themes. Our focus is on Dynamics of Youth, Institutions for Open Societies, Life Sciences and Sustainability.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences is one of the leading faculties in Europe providing research and academic education in the fields of cultural anthropology, educational sciences, interdisciplinary social sciences, pedagogical sciences, psychology and sociology. Nearly 6,000 students are enrolled in a wide range of undergraduate and graduate programmes. The faculty has approximately 850 employees, all of whom make their individual contributions to the education and training of young talent and to researching and finding solutions to scientific and social issues.

The Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences aspires to have a diverse body of staff and students and strives to create and sustain a safe and inclusive environment for everyone, in line with Utrecht University’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion policy.

The department of Methodology and Statistics among other activities in this area, hosts the Social Data Science (SoDa) team and the open-source project ASReview as part of ODISSEI, the Dutch national infrastructure for the social sciences. The department plays a central role in Utrecht University's Applied Data Science focus area and participates in the focus area of Human-centered Artificial Intelligence. Additionally, the department collaborates with the strategic themes Dynamics of Youth and Institutions for Open Societies. 

Developing a societal vision on automated decision making concerns us all. We believe that a diversity of perspectives in our consortium will be important in developing an inclusive societal vision and strive therefore also in our hiring policy for encouraging applicants from diverse backgrounds. We are committed to creating an environment of mutual respect, inclusiveness, equal opportunities with room for situated experiences, diverse perspectives, and ideas to flourish. This commitment applies to our research, organisation, room for flexibility, training, and community activities as well as our hiring strategy.