Research Associate in Digital Health

Directorate: School of Engineering & Physical Sciences

Salary: Grade 7 (£36,023-£45,585)

Contract Type: Full Time (1FTE), Fixed Term (18 Months)

Job Description 

A multidisciplinary partnership, comprising of two UK universities (Heriot-Watt University and the University of Aberdeen), NHS Lothian (Western General Hospital), and NHS Grampian (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) was recently awarded a research grant by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) to undertake a 18-month research project and clinical study entitled ''Digital Camera-based Uroflowmetry: Early Diagnosis and Monitoring of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) for Community and Home Use''. The vision of this engineering-clinical partnership is for a novel and transformative ‘Digital Health’ approach to how LUTS is diagnosed and monitored, with direct benefit to patients and clinical practice being the core outcome of the project. This research project offers exciting opportunities for a research associate (RA) to work together with the investigator team and clinical partners to develop this technology towards clinical use and commercialisation. 

The post holder will be based at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh) and will develop the digital health framework for real-time assessment of urinary flow dynamics, based on recorded video from the camera. Together with the multidisciplinary partnership team including engineers, clinicians, statisticians and research nurses, S/he will be expected to lead the research development of the proposed technology through planned clinical validation across two NHS hospitals involving 150-250 patients. They will attend and present research findings at internal project meetings and national/international conferences, and also contribute to the internal and external visibility of the research groups and publish scientific results arising from this project. It is expected that, during the project, significant intellectual properties (IPs) will be generated and realised through commercialisation and the post-holder will be encouraged to be involved and make contributions to such activities, if desired. 

Detailed Description

Our project seeks to develop a digital health technology (and ultimately an app) for quantitative assessment of urinary flow dynamics, which, working with a set of robust algorithms, provides effective clinical assessment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS), which can be caused by a wide range of conditions such as benign prostate enlargement, prostate cancer, and bladder dysfunction. The focus of this RA post will be to develop, test and validate the ‘digital health’ framework to process the video recordings of patients into quantitative assessment of urinary flow dynamics, in a planned multi-centre clinical study and validation. Depending on the expertise and personal interests, the RA is also encouraged to lead and/or participate in the pre-commercialisation and commercialisation activities such as health economics analysis, market competitiveness analysis and medical device regulatory exploration and software & app packaging 

The successful candidate will make use of our research facilities including dedicated research labs, medical device laboratories (including digital health) and the high-performance computing labs, and have access to a wide pool of research and clinical expertise. The research will be supported by a multidisciplinary team, involving Dr Yuhang Chen (Engineering, Heriot-Watt University), Mr Daniel Good (Urology, Western General Hospital/University of Edinburgh), Mr Ismail Mokadem (Urology, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) and Prof. Graeme MacLennan (The Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials, University of Aberdeen). S/he will also work collaboratively with other investigators, research associate/clinical fellow, research nurses and industrial/business development partners on work closely related to their research focus. Occasional working, with clinical teams and research nurses, at the NHS hospitals will be expected (travels fully funded by the project). 

We are looking for a researcher who is ambitious, self-motivated and collaborative, with a passion for solving technical and practical problems and good interpersonal skills. The post will be for 18 months, with opportunities and funding available for personal development, conference travels and outreach activities, as well as support from the project team and external members of the project management committee. Opportunities exist to lead commercialisation activities within this project and further studies depending on skills and interests. Training is available in any areas where the post-holder is less experienced. Career development towards academic, industrial and/or entrepreneurial pathways will be fully supported by the team.

Key Duties and Responsibilities 

The successful appointee will be expected to undertake the following: 

Main Technical Responsibilities

1. To develop robust algorithms to assess the urinary flow dynamics obtained from the camera in a large-scale clinical study and validation, working with the research nurses and supported by the clinical teams. 

2. To quantitatively compare the assessment outcome from the ‘digital health’ technique with the assessments completed by the clinical teams across two NHS hospitals, supported by The Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT) at the University of Aberdeen. 

3. If desired, the appointee can also, with strong support from the research team, lead the commercialisation activities with both internal and external consultants, including health economics analysis, market competitiveness analysis and medical device regulatory exploration and software & app packaging. 

Planning and Organising

1. Develop research objectives with assistance and support of project team; Plan and execute work to progress the research development; 

2. Lead and contribute to disseminating the research outcome in peer-reviewed journals and national/international conferences; 

3. Attend regular group and project meetings to report and review progress; Work closely with other RAs, PhD students and collaborators to ensure smooth research team function; 

4. Work both independently and as part of a team both at Heriot-Watt university and collaborating at partner institutions and NHS to achieve overall programme milestones according to agreed timetable. 

5. Lead and participate in outreach activities, which may involve talks for the general public and patient groups, attendance at science festivals or and preparation of audio/video demonstrations. 

6. Contribute to the planning of research projects and future research development. 

7. If desired, the post holder will be supported with ample resources to develop their research portfolio, in line with the funded project, towards future industrial or academic research careers (e.g. a fellowship proposal).

Please note that this job description is not exhaustive, and the role holder may be required to undertake other relevant duties commensurate with the grading of the post. Activities may be subject to amendment over time as the role develops and/or priorities and requirements evolve.

Education, Qualifications and Experience 

The candidate will have a PhD (or equivalent R&D experience) in digital health or related fields such as biomedical engineering, applied physics and computer engineering. Experience in image processing and programming in Matlab and/or Python, or similar packages, is necessary. Research background in one or more of the following is desired: computer vision, numerical optimisation and app development. Ability in working and communicating with multidisciplinary group (involving clinicians, nurses and patients) is essential. 

Essential Criteria 

Desirable Criteria