IS Programmer/Analyst, Sr Pharmacoepidemiology

GENERAL SUMMARY/ OVERVIEW STATEMENT:

The Division of Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomics at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School was created to facilitate a wide range of activities related to the use and outcomes of medications. Its mission is to bring together the various specialties of medicine, epidemiology, biostatistics, health services research, and the social sciences to evaluate the effectiveness of existing and new prescription drugs in relation to their risks and costs; to study how medications are used by physicians and patients; and to develop methods to optimize prescription drug use. The Senior programmer/analyst will support this mission, working with a tight-knit, helpful, dedicated group of friendly people including approximately 30 Harvard Medical School faculty and 80 support members. The Senior Programmer/Analyst will join a group of 9 experienced analysts. Division research is particularly focused on the use of large, administrative healthcare databases, such as health insurance claims and electronic health records, but may also be based on surveys and randomized trials.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Support faculty and other research staff with the creation of analytic data files and the conduct of statistical analyses.

• Responsible for loading, validating, documenting, managing, and analyzing data for both internal and collaborative research projects.

• Responsible for assisting with data storage and management issues around both new and ongoing projects within the Division.

4.Responsible for working with other research staff within the Division to help specify appropriate analytical data files for the research question under investigation.

5.Responsible for creating and carefully documenting all derived analytical data files so that they can be understood and used by other members of the research team.

• Participate in monthly programmer team meetings

• Mentor junior programmers/analysts

HOSPITAL WIDE RESPONSIBILITIES:

Works within legal, regulatory, accreditation and ethical practice standards relevant to the position and as established by BWH/Partners; follows safe practices required for the position; complies with appropriate BWH and Partners policies and procedures; fulfills any training required by BWH and/or Partners, as appropriate; brings potential matters of non-compliance to the attention of the supervisor or other appropriate hospital staff.

QUALIFICATIONS:

• 3 years of experience required, more than 5 years of experience with programming in a health care environment preferred

• Proficiency with SAS and/or R

• Experience with health care claims data required

• Minimum , Master's degree

SKILLS/ ABILITIES/ COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

• attention to detail
• ability to manage and prioritize multiple projects
• experience working in a UNIX environment
• ability to work effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary research team
• ability to collaborate effectively with other programmers/analysts working with other programming languages

ADDITIONAL DESIRED SKILLS; these skills are considered a plus but are not required

• experience with relational databases
• graduate education in epidemiology, biostatistics, or computer science