Health Services Scientist

Job Summary:

Are you passionate about using research to improve health care quality and outcomes? The Wisconsin Surgical Outcomes Research Program (WiSOR) seeks an experienced health services research scientist to join our rapidly growing programs. The immediate program needs involve posing research questions, proposing analytic plans, planning and creating metrics for state-wide quality improvement initiatives, grant writing, and leading data set working groups for studies funded by the NIH, AHRQ, and other funding agencies. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work on a wide range of tasks that span the full lifespan of a research study, including grant development and submission, designing research studies and analytic plans, writing papers for publication, purchasing data sets, and ensuring data and project compliance. Successful candidates will be self-motivated, highly organized, detail-oriented problem solvers who are able to work independently and contribute to team science. There is also an opportunity to partner with a robust and growing statewide surgical collaborative, the Surgical Collaborative of Wisconsin (SCW) as part of this position. WiSOR is an interdisciplinary, multi-investigator research program within the UW Department of Surgery that supports a wide variety of outcomes-focused research, including healthcare disparities, comparative effectiveness, patterns of care, and performance and safety in surgical care. SCW is a surgeon-led practice change community aiming to improve surgical care by optimizing quality, reducing costs, and facilitating provider education across healthcare facilities in Wisconsin. WiSOR staff enjoy a collaborative work environment, ample opportunities for professional development, and a hybrid office-remote workplace.
The successful candidate will be positioned between WiSOR (80-90%) and SCW (10-20%). With approximately 30 faculty and 32 research staff, WiSOR is an interdisciplinary, multi-investigator research program within the UW Department of Surgery that supports a wide variety of outcomes-focused research, including health care disparities, comparative effectiveness, patterns of care, and performance and safety in surgical care. SCW is currently engaged with 74% of Wisconsin hospitals and over 400 surgeons and quality leaders through multiple quality improvement initiatives focused on topics such as decreasing postoperative opioid use and improving the quality of surgical procedures for breast cancer.

Responsibilities:
Identifies research problems, designs research methodologies, performs and supervises research, and prepares and presents results for presentation to professional organizations or for scholarly publications. May supervise staff.

• 25% Identifies research problems and develops highly complex research methodologies and procedures. Publishes and presents results to help advance research
• 5% Collects and analyzes highly complex research data, conducts experiments and interviews, and documents results according to established policies and procedures
• 15% Conducts literature reviews, prepares reports and materials and, disseminates information to appropriate entities
• 5% Attends and assists with the facilitation of scholarly events and presentations in support of continued professional development and the dissemination of research information
• 20% Identifies, writes, or assists in developing grant opportunities, grant applications, and proposals to secure research funding
• 25% Serves as an institutional subject matter expert and liaison with key internal and external stakeholders providing expert level information and representing the interests of a specialized research area
• 5% Monitors program budget and approves unit expenditures

Institutional Statement on Diversity:

Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.
For more information on diversity and inclusion on campus, please visit: Diversity and Inclusion

Education:

Required
Terminal Degree
PhD required, preferably in behavioral or social science, nursing, health services research, biostatistics and informatics, public health, epidemiology, population health, health policy, or other related field.

Qualifications:

Required qualifications:
- At least four years of postdoctoral or professional experience in research
- Experience in health services research, public/community health, behavioral intervention research, social sciences, or related areas.
- Demonstrated experience and ability to conduct applied research on the American healthcare system or a similarly complex system comprised of multiple public and private stakeholders, using data drawn from non-research sources such as public and commercial payers, billing systems, and/or electronic health record technology
Preferred qualifications:
- Demonstrated expertise in creating research frameworks and implementing data analysis plans to answer research questions of interest
- Experience with writing scientific manuscripts for publication and grant writing, including the analysis and evaluation sections of grants
- Experience conducting data analyses in SAS, R, or Stata
- Experience with data management and working with complex longitudinal datasets
- Experience with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access) and REDCap, Qualtrics, or comparable data capture tools
- Ability to meet deadlines and initiate tasks without close supervision
- Experience coordinating the work of diverse teams, including developing timelines, managing team communications, and delegating tasks
- Superb written and oral communication skills

Work Type:

Full Time: 100%
This position may require some work to be performed in-person, onsite, at a designated campus work location. Some work may be performed remotely, at an offsite, non-campus work location.

Appointment Type, Duration:

Ongoing/Renewable

Salary:

Minimum $90,000 ANNUAL (12 months)
Depending on Qualifications
The starting salary for the position is $90,000 but is negotiable based on experience and qualifications. Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. Benefits information can be found at (

Additional Information:

University sponsorship is not available for this position, including transfers of sponsorship. The selected applicant will be responsible for ensuring their continuous eligibility to work in the United States (i.e. a citizen or national of the United States, a lawful permanent resident, a foreign national authorized to work in the United States without the need of an employer sponsorship) on or before the effective date of appointment. This position is an ongoing position that will require continuous work eligibility. UW-Madison is not an E-Verify employer, and therefore, is not eligible to employ F1 STEM OPT Extension participants. If you are selected for this position you must provide proof of work authorization and eligibility to work.
The department will not be able to support a request for a J-1 waiver. If you choose to pursue a waiver and apply for our position, neither the UW nor UWMF will reimburse you for your legal or waiver fees.
This position has been identified as a position of trust with access to vulnerable populations. The selected candidate will be required to pass an initial caregiver check to be eligible for employment under the Wisconsin Caregiver Law and every four years.

How to Apply:

To apply for this position, please click on the "Apply Now" button. You will be asked to upload a current resume/CV and a cover letter briefly describing your qualifications and experience.
Once a finalist is identified, they will be asked to provide names and contact information for at least three professional references, including a current/most recent supervisor.

Contact:

Samantha Connell
608-265-5311
Relay Access (WTRS): 7-1-1. See RELAY_SERVICE for further information.

Official Title:

Scientist III(RE045)

Department(s):

A53-MEDICAL SCHOOL/SURGERY/WISOR

Employment Class:

Academic Staff-Renewable

Job Number:

306895-AS

The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence through diversity and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, click here
If you need to request an accommodation because of a disability, you can find information about how to make a request at the following website:
Employment may require a criminal background check. It may also require you and your references to answer questions regarding sexual violence and sexual harassment.
The University of Wisconsin System will not reveal the identities of applicants who request confidentiality in writing, except that the identity of the successful candidate will be released. See Wis. Stat. sec. 19.36(7).
The Annual Security and Fire Safety Report contains current campus safety and disciplinary policies, crime statistics for the previous 3 calendar years, and on-campus student housing fire safety policies and fire statistics for the previous 3 calendar years. UW-Madison will provide a paper copy upon request; please contact the University of Wisconsin Police Department.