Health Geographer

Job Summary:

The University of Wisconsin Department of Medicine seeks a Health Geographer to join the Health Services and Care Research (HSCR) Program. Led by Amy Kind, MD, PhD, the HSCR program seeks to improve the health and quality of life of patients and caregivers through high-impact transformational research on care policy, processes and outcomes and rigorous development, testing and dissemination of pioneering medical care models. The Health Geographer will serve as an integral member of a growing and dynamic team, providing support for the program’s varied scientific and analytic activities with a focus on the development and application of geospatial metrics of socioeconomic context to healthcare data. This position represents an opportunity for significant professional and scientific growth within a collaborative, supportive research environment.

Duties:

Working with Dr. Kind and her collaborators in the HSCR program and the Department of Medicine, the Health Geographer will play a key role in the conduct of innovative research in health outcomes, health policy, and clinical programs which strive to improve care and eliminate health disparities. Specifically, the incumbent will:

• Develop and validate geographically-linked metrics of socioeconomic factors related to healthcare disparities and outcomes.
• Collaborate with and educate both internal and external investigators on the incorporation of geographically-based measures in research.
• Advise and guide the development of web-based and other novel methods to expand access to geographically-based metrics and tools for research, community health program planning, and policy development at local, state and national levels.
• Disseminate research results through the preparation and submission of manuscripts for publication in major scientific journals and the presentation of findings at local and national scientific meetings.
• Contribute to the development of proposals for new research projects and the submission of grants to procure funding for new projects.
• Support the professional growth of other members of the Health Services and Care Research Program, including research specialists, graduate students, fellows and post-doctoral researchers and junior faculty members.
• Other duties as assigned.

Qualifications:

The successful applicant will have demonstrated research, technical, and analytic skills, a scientific publication track record, excellent verbal and written communication abilities, and the ability to work effectively as a member of a multidisciplinary team. The incumbent will be well-versed in Geographic Information Science, particularly in ArcGIS, R and other geospatial analytic tools as well as in statistical methods such as factor and principal components analysis and spatial autocorrelation and spatial statistical models.

PhD in geography, environmental science, or closely related field required. At least 5 years of experience after receiving the doctoral degree is required, including work in the fields of cartography, geographic information systems, applied demography, geoanalytic techniques, and/or the application of geoanalytic techniques to health care data. Preference will be given to those with experience in several/all of these fields.

Apply online at link included