Research Data Analyst II

Location: San Francisco, CA, United States

Job Function Summary

Involves gathering, analyzing, and interpreting a wide variety of research data. Designs and conducts research including selecting data samples, developing research instruments, analyzing collected information according to established statistical methods, and developing recommendations based on research findings. Prepares reports, charts, tables, and other visual aids to interpret and communicate data and results.

Generic Scope

Professional who applies acquired job skills, policies, and procedures to complete substantive assignments / projects / tasks of moderate scope and complexity; exercises judgment within defined guidelines and practices to determine appropriate action.

Custom Scope

The Research Data Analyst will provide research analytical, administrative, and program coordinating project support to Dr. Elizabeth Dzeng’s projects associated with Hospital Medicine and Palliative Medicine research. The RDA will work on a variety of projects and should have the ability to balance multiple tasks and projects.

These projects include:

1. A series of projects about the impact of increasing financialization of the US healthcare system on clinicians’ ability to deliver high-quality, patient-centered serious illness and end-of-life care in accordance with their ethical and professional standards. These projects will focus on the impacts of different kinds of financialization on the healthcare system, such as increasing involvement of external financial actors in healthcare, as well as the expansion of existing academic healthcare systems to merge with and acquire new hospitals.
2. A series of ethnographic projects focused on understanding patients’ and surrogates’ experiences of system-level factors and how these impact their decision-making regarding serious illness and end-of-life care in the hospital, with a focus on the administration of potentially non-beneficial, high-intensity life-sustaining treatments near the end of life.
3. The RA’s focus will primarily be the above three projects, but will also assist with ongoing projects with the research team, including:
   • A community-based participatory research project understanding how structural racism impacts serious illness and end-of-life care in older Black adults with serious illness. This qualitative project involves collaborating with community members in the Bay Area, working with a Community Advisory Board to assist with analysis of data from the project, and engaging in in-depth analysis of qualitative interviews conducted with hospital staff, clinicians, administrators and older Black adults with serious illness.
   • A comparative ethnographic and human-centered design project understanding systems-level factors that contribute to potentially non-beneficial, high-intensity life-sustaining treatments near the end of life in older adults with and without dementia. This project uses qualitative methods and human-centered design to co-design interventions that mitigate cultures of high-intensity serious illness and end-of-life care.

The RDA will work with the research team to participate in data collection, analysis, and output (e.g., article) generation of qualitative data, coding and analyzing qualitative data, managing the Atlas.ti database, conceptualizing and writing manuscripts. The RDA will also be involved in mixed methods and quantitative projects around intervention development.

In addition, the RDA will work to identify areas of synergy across these projects and others in the Division of Hospital Medicine. The ideal candidate would have a familiarity with clinical medicine, clinical research, and/or health care, as well as social sciences and qualitative research. In addition, familiarity or experience with health equity work and/or human-centered design would be preferred.

Department Overview

The Division of Hospital Medicine (DHM) is the largest division in the Division of Medicine (DOM) in terms of faculty size and is a national leader in clinical care, education, research, and quality improvement. Clinically, the division runs 11 clinical services and provides care for nearly half of the patients in the adult hospital on any given day. The Division is comprised of 190 faculty, 7 MSP Physicians, 9 fellows, and 30 staff. Additionally, it solicits from a cadre of 100 physicians, fellows, and residents outside the division for moonlighting services.