Research Associate in Digital Health

Heriot-Watt University has established a reputation for world-class teaching and leading-edge, relevant research, which has made it one of the top UK universities for innovation, business, and industry.

The School of Engineering & Physical Sciences has an international research reputation and close connection with the professional and industrial world of science, engineering, and technology.

Job Summary

A multidisciplinary partnership, comprising of two UK universities (Heriot-Watt University and the University of Aberdeen), NHS Lothian (Western General Hospital), and NHS Grampian (Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) was recently awarded a research grant by the Chief Scientist Office (CSO) to undertake a 18-month research project and clinical study entitled ''Digital Camera-based Uroflowmetry: Early Diagnosis and Monitoring of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS) for Community and Home Use''. The vision of this engineering-clinical partnership is for a novel and transformative 'Digital Health' approach to how LUTS is diagnosed and monitored, with direct benefit to patients and clinical practice being the core outcome of the project. This research project offers exciting opportunities for a research associate (RA) to work together with the investigator team and clinical partners to develop this technology towards clinical use and commercialisation.

The post holder will be based at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh) and will develop the digital health framework for real-time assessment of urinary flow dynamics, based on recorded video from the camera. Together with the multidisciplinary partnership team including engineers, clinicians, statisticians and research nurses, S/he will be expected to lead the research development of the proposed technology through planned clinical validation across two NHS hospitals involving patients. They will attend and present research findings at internal project meetings and national/international conferences, and also contribute to the internal and external visibility of the research groups and publish scientific results arising from this project. It is expected that, during the project, significant intellectual properties (IPs) will be generated and realised through commercialisation and the post-holder will be encouraged to be involved and make contributions to such activities, if desired.

Detailed Description

Our project seeks to develop a digital health technology (and ultimately an app) for quantitative assessment of urinary flow dynamics, which, working with a set of robust algorithms, provides effective clinical assessment of Lower Urinary Tract Symptoms (LUTS), which can be caused by a wide range of conditions such as benign prostate enlargement, prostate cancer, and bladder dysfunction. The focus of this RA post will be to develop, test and validate the 'digital health' framework to process the video recordings of patients into quantitative assessment of urinary flow dynamics, in a planned multi-centre clinical study and validation. Depending on the expertise and personal interests, the RA is also encouraged to lead and/or participate in the pre-commercialisation and commercialisation activities such as health economics analysis, market competitiveness analysis and medical device regulatory exploration and software & app packaging.

The successful candidate will make use of our research facilities including dedicated research labs, medical device laboratories (including digital health) and the high-performance computing labs, and have access to a wide pool of research and clinical expertise. The research will be supported by a multidisciplinary team, involving Dr Yuhang Chen (Engineering, Heriot-Watt University), Mr Daniel Good (Urology, Western General Hospital/University of Edinburgh), Mr Ismail Mokadem (Urology, Aberdeen Royal Infirmary) and Prof. Graeme MacLennan (The Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials, University of Aberdeen). S/he will also work collaboratively with other investigators, research associate/clinical fellow, research nurses and industrial/business development partners on work closely related to their research focus. Occasional working, with clinical teams and research nurses, at the NHS hospitals will be expected (travels fully funded by the project).

We are looking for a researcher who is ambitious, self-motivated and collaborative, with a passion for solving technical and practical problems and good interpersonal skills. The post will be for 18 months, with opportunities and funding available for personal development, conference travels and outreach activities, as well as support from the project team and external members of the project management committee. Opportunities exist to lead commercialisation activities within this project and further studies depending on skills and interests. Training is available in any areas where the post-holder is less experienced. Career development towards academic, industrial and/or entrepreneurial pathways will be fully supported by the team.

Key duties and responsibilities

The post holder is required to:

Main Technical Responsibilities

1. To develop robust algorithms to assess the urinary flow dynamics obtained from the camera in a large-scale clinical study and validation, working with the research nurses and supported by the clinical teams.
2. To quantitatively compare the assessment outcome from the 'digital health' technique with the assessments completed by the clinical teams across two NHS hospitals, supported by The Centre for Healthcare Randomised Trials (CHaRT) at the University of Aberdeen.
3. If desired, the appointee can also, with strong support from the research team, lead the commercialisation activities with both internal and external consultants, including health economics analysis, market competitiveness analysis and medical device regulatory exploration and software & app packaging.

Planning and Organising

1. Develop research objectives with assistance and support of project team; Plan and execute work to progress the research development;
2. Lead and contribute to disseminating the research outcome in peer-reviewed journals and national/international conferences;
3. Attend regular group and project meetings to report and review progress; Work closely with other RAs, PhD students and collaborators to ensure smooth research team function;
4. Work both independently and as part of a team both at Heriot-Watt university and collaborating at partner institutions and NHS to achieve overall programme milestones according to agreed timetable.
5. Lead and participate in outreach activities, which may involve talks for the general public and patient groups, attendance at science festivals or and preparation of audio/video demonstrations.
6. Contribute to the planning of research projects and future research development.
7. If desired, the post holder will be supported with ample resources to develop their research portfolio, in line with the funded project, towards future industrial or academic research careers (e.g. a fellowship proposal).

Essential Criteria

Applicants must have:

• A PhD or relevant experience working in an area relating to digital health or related fields as mentioned above;
• Experience of image processing and computer programming in Matlab and/or Python, or similar packages;
• Experience working in a multidisciplinary academic/clinical environment/team;
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with computer vision, numerical optimisation or app development
• Experience of working and communicating with multidisciplinary teams;
• A record of peer-reviewed publications and evidence of contribution to the writing of these publications proportionate to opportunity;
• Aspiration to further develop research career (either industrial or academic) with the support of the project team and advisors

Informal enquiries should be addressed by email to Dr Yuhang Chen at , with a copy of your CV and a short cover letter explaining motivation and addressing the criteria above.

For all criteria, further details and how to apply:

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our University community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website and also our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers

£36,023 to £45,585 (salary dependent on experience and qualifications)