NTU Novena Campus, Singapore

Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine invites applications for:

Research Associate in the Laboratory of Assistant Professor Lorainne Tudor Car.

Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) is a partnership between Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore. The School operates from two campuses – Yunnan Campus at Nanyang Technological University and a new campus to be built at Novena. Our primary healthcare partner is the National Healthcare Group (NHG) which comprises an integrated network of primary healthcare polyclinics, acute care hospitals such as Tan Tock Seng Hospital, and national specialist centres. LKCMedicine delivers a new five-year undergraduate medical programme leading to a joint MBBS degree awarded by Imperial College London and Nanyang Technological University.

"Future Health Technologies FHT" is a research programme undertaken by Singapore-ETH Centre (SEC) in collaboration with LKCMedicine and other leading academic institution in Singapore. One of the FHT's research projects will investigate the use of mobile conversational agents for prevention of depression. Assistant Professor Lorainne Tudor Car (The Evidence Based Medicine & Digital Patient Activation Research Hub) is looking to recruit two Research Associates to take part in this project and concurrently complete a PhD degree at LKCMedicine.

Job description

As a Research Associate in Digital Mental Health, you will conduct research in the field of digital mental health to evaluate the use of conversational agents for prevention of depression. You will closely collaborate with our research partners from ETH Zurich to develop an effective mobile coaching service. Together with a team consisting of a research fellow, doctoral students and software engineers, you will design and implement a smartphone-based conversational agent-delivered intervention and conduct a pilot study in Year 1. Moreover, you will conduct optimization trials in Year 2, and a pilot randomized controlled trial in the last two years.

You will help disseminate the project findings by participating in conferences, workshops, seminars, as well as drafting and submission of academic papers for publication in high quality, peer-reviewed journals. You will also develop grant applications for further research funding in this field. You will be expected to apply to the LKCMedicine PhD programme and complete your degree within four years.

Responsibilities:

• Independent use of qualitative and/or quantitative research approaches
• Research project development  
• Analysis and interpretation of research data
• Presentation of findings to diverse stakeholders
• Writing and reviewing research papers, presentations, grant proposals and conference abstracts
• Development of partnerships with multidisciplinary teams including engineers, psychologists, clinicians, and researchers
• Collaboration with and mentoring of junior laboratory members
• Daily operational, administrative and logistic requirements of research projects
• Organization of research project related meetings.
• Any other, research project-related duties as assigned by the supervisor.  
• Successful completion of LKCMedicine PhD programme

Applicants should have the following skills and qualifications:

• An Master’s degree in psychology, medicine, public health, health services research or a related discipline
• Track record of first author publications in the medical, health services research or public health literature
• Strong interest and expertise in digital health interventions, preferably in the fields of mental health, behavioral medicine, and digital health  
• Experience in qualitative and/or quantitative methods research methodologies and healthcare programme evaluation
• Proven ability to initiate and successfully manage research projects
• Experience in communicating research findings to different audiences (especially academic, policy and practice) through a range of media
• Attention to detail with strong analytical and computer skills
• Strong verbal and written communication skills
• Motivation and ability to work independently in a multidisciplinary setting
• Strong team player skills and the ability to work in partnership with a diverse workforce

Application Procedure:

If you are interested to pursue a career with the School, please apply with your CV and names of two referees at your earliest convenience. Only shortlisted candidates will be notified.