Consultant - Research Data Scientist at World Health Organization (WHO)

Purpose of Consultancy

• The consultant will provide expert technical expertise in the following areas: clinical and surveillance data management, advanced programming techniques, and statistical analysis.
• The consultant’s work will include (1) management and harmonization of surveillance data, (2) curation for data completeness and consistency, and (3) statistical and analytic input for data analysis and reporting.

Background

• The consultant will work in the Health Care Readiness Unit (HCR) within the Country Readiness Strengthening (CRS) department which is part of the WHO Emergency Preparedness (WPE) division.
• The WHO Global Clinical Platform is composed of data on hospitalized cases with COVID-19 entered directly on the REDCAP EDC platform or contributed externally via WHO-Dropbox folder or via secure file transfer option that is being developed.

Deliverables
Output 1: WHO Global Clinical Platform: data collected, harmonized and cured

• Activity 1: Conduct, according to standard operating procedures, the following: data curation and data discrepancy resolution, data harmonization, and data archival.  
• Activity 2: Harmonize data shared externally to the REDCAP EDC platform data dictionary, pool the data and then curate the pooled dataset for completeness and consistency and aggregated for progress reporting. 
• Activity 3: Develop SOPs to improve system level issues such as user access management for both the REDCAP EDC and file transfer platform, end-user training on the EDC system and data management, and technical support for EDC systems.

Output 2: WHO Global Clinical Platform: Statistical and analytic input 

• Activity 1: Develop, and execute algorithms for (1) pooling harmonized datasets contributed externally with data extracted from the REDCAP EDC platform, (2) generation of outputs for data curation, (3) creation of data subsets for dashboard update, and (4) generation of various analytic outputs for reporting purposes. 
• Activity 2: The consultant may collaborate with other WHO teams as well as external collaborators and data contributors to consider novel methodologies, adaptation of existing methodologies, and capacity strengthening, as needed.

Output 3: Improvement of the WHO COVID-19 Clinical Data dashboard 

• Activity 1: The consultant will work with the power BI focal point and the WHO Global Clinical Platform team to update COVID-19 dashboard to improve its clinical utility, visual attractiveness, accuracy according the stakeholder needs, within and outside of WHO. 

Output 4: Draft weekly analysis report 

• Activity 1: The consultant will participate in weekly team meetings and prepare analysis output to support the COVID-19 (and other emergencies) IMST response.  Such analysis may include but are not limited to assessments of severity with new variants of concern; changes to case definitions, updating understanding of symptoms and disease severity.  

Qualifications, Experience, Skills and Languages
Educational Qualifications:
Essential: 

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent in Bioinformatics, Statistics, Biostatistics or Epidemiology

Desirable: 

• Master’s Degree in Biostatistics, Sciences or related field

Experience:
Essential:

• Minimum of five years of experience in research data management, computer programming and statistical analysis

Desirable: 

• Experience in the writing of scientific articles and reporting.

Skills / Knowledge:

• Programming in R and SAS statistical packages, familiarity with Electronic Data Capture Systems development using REDCAP 
• Familiarity with Good Clinical Practice (GCP), and International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) guidelines for technical requirements of clinical and observational research.
• Capacity to work independently and result oriented.

Languages required:
Essential:

• Expert knowledge of English.

Location:

• Home based – Off-site. 

Travel:

• To Geneva (HQ) for two visits: one visit for 5 working days during month 1 of the contract and second visit for 5 days in Q3 of the contract.

Remuneration
Remuneration and budget (travel costs are excluded):

• Pay Band level B - USD 7,000 and USD 9,980 per month depending on the consultant’s experience and educational background
• Living expenses (A living expense is payable to on-site consultants who are internationally recruited): N/A