Data Analyst, Health Systems
The Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) has an outstanding opportunity for Data Analyst - Health Systems to join their team.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) is an independent research center at the University of Washington. Its mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Cost Effectiveness and Efficiency; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base so all people live long lives in full health.
IHME is committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of all IHME team members.
IHME has an exciting opportunity for a Data Analyst on the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Health Systems team. We are looking for someone who will help support health systems research, with a focus on health system performance in the areas of universal health coverage (UHC), health care access and quality, financial risk protection, and equity. The Data Analyst will be expected to support the Health Systems team’s work on systematically producing and innovating on the UHC effective coverage index and the Healthcare Access and Quality (HAQ) Index. The Data Analyst will also support the team in estimating financial risk protection – measured through catastrophic health expenditure – systematically and comparably across countries. The Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors enterprise (GBD), a core research area for IHME, is a systematic, scientific effort to quantify the comparative magnitude of health loss due to diseases, injuries, and risk factors by age, sex, and geography over time. GBD is the largest and most comprehensive effort to date to measure epidemiological levels and trends worldwide. Its aim is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base to make decisions that achieve better health.
The main purpose of the Data Analyst position is to provide support to key research projects through database management, data quality management, computational support to multidisciplinary research projects, data extraction and formatting, and providing key inputs for papers and presentations.
The Data Analyst must develop an understanding of different research needs and analytic functions across multiple projects to best meet researcher needs. They must be able to independently translate requests into actionable results through interactions with research databases, formulation of displays of results, and development of complex code to be applied to a variety of quantitative data. The position calls for dexterity working with complex databases and the ability to assess, transform, and utilize quantitative data using multiple coding languages such as Python and R. The individual must then quality control results to ensure that other team members have exactly what they need to incorporate the data and results into their own components of the analytic process, presentations, and papers.
Additionally, this position will work alongside other Data Analysts on complementary projects and will require knowledge and skill sharing and collective problem solving. Overall, the Data Analyst will be a critical member of an agile, dynamic research team. This position is contingent on project funding availability.
DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Research command
- Become familiar with the UHC effective coverage index, HAQ Index, financial risk protection, catastrophic health expenditure, and other areas of work on the Health Systems team by understanding the dimensions and uses of health data and the analytic underpinnings of these different research streams.
- Become familiar with broader concepts of health system performance and health system frameworks used to conduct health systems analysis.
- Work directly with researchers to identify the source of data used in models and results, understand the context of the data, and ensure that they are relevant to the analyses themselves.
- Create and document efficient, effective, and replicable methods for extracting data, developing code, organizing data sources, managing data quality, and explaining complex analytic processes.
Data management and analytics
- Manipulate existing code bases and review questionnaires to extract data from household expenditure surveys and compute measures of financial risk protection, including out-of-pocket health expenditure and catastrophic health expenditure.
- Problem-solve computational and analytic challenges by investigating the data, understanding the root questions, and coming up with alternative measurement strategies.
- Implement code solutions in order to answer analytic questions, perform diagnostics on results, and test and assess new methods.
- Maintain, update, and adapt databases containing health data from multiple sources such as surveys, vital registration systems, administrative records, and published studies relevant to demographic estimation.
- Maintain, update, and carry out routine but complex computational processes and statistical modeling that are central to generating estimates of key indicators.
- Execute queries on databases and resolve intricate questions in order to respond to the needs of senior researchers and external requests from collaborators, media, policymakers, donors, and other stakeholders.
- Bring together data, analytic engines, and data visualizations in one seamless computational process.
- Use protocols to identify problems with datasets and routine computational processes, rectify issues, and systematize data for future analyses.
- Transform and format datasets for use in ongoing analyses. Catalog and incorporate these datasets into databases. Perform quality checks.
General
- Create tables, figures, and charts for presentations and publications.
- Provide referencing and other support for publications and presentations.
- Communicate clearly and effectively while contributing as a member of both the Institute and the research team.
- Work closely with other team members to assist with relevant tasks, facilitate learning new skills, and help resolve emerging problems on different projects.
- Participate in overall community of the Institute, carrying out duties as required as a team member with other Institute members.
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS
- Bachelor’s degree in social sciences, engineering, computer science, or related field plus two years’ related experience, or equivalent combination of education and experience.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
- Interest in global health, population health, health systems, and/or ways in which quantitative research and data science can be used to create valuable global public goods.
- Demonstrated self-motivation, ability to absorb detailed information, flexibility, and ability to thrive in a fast-paced, energetic, highly creative, and entrepreneurial environment.
- Ability to learn new information quickly and apply analytic skills to better understand complex information in a systematic way.
- Strong quantitative aptitude.
- Demonstrated success in developing code in R and/or Python.
- Experience working with an array of data sources, including population health surveys, household budget surveys, facility surveys, and administrative datasets.
- A commitment to working to alongside others at IHME to illuminate the health impacts of systemic racism and to work within IHME to make our organization more diverse and inclusive. See IHME’s DEI statement here: https://www.healthdata.org/about/mission-vision/DEI.
Conditions of Employment
- Weekend and evening work sometimes required.
- This position is open to anyone authorized to work in the US. The UW is not able to sponsor visas for staff positions.
- Office is located in Seattle, Washington. This position is eligible to work fully remote in the US
Application Process:
The application process for UW positions may include completion of a variety of online assessments to obtain additional information that will be used in the evaluation process. These assessments may include Work Authorization, Cover Letter and/or others. Any assessments that you need to complete will appear on your screen as soon as you select “Apply to this position”. Once you begin an assessment, it must be completed at that time; if you do not complete the assessment you will be prompted to do so the next time you access your “My Jobs” page. If you select to take it later, it will appear on your "My Jobs" page to take when you are ready. Please note that your application will not be reviewed, and you will not be considered for this position until all required assessments have been completed.