Statistician/Epidemiologist at the KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation (KNCV) - UPDATED

KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation is an international non-profit organization dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis (TB), still the second most deadly infectious disease in the world. KNCV is an international center of expertise for TB control that promotes effective, efficient, innovative and sustainable tuberculosis control strategies in a national and international context. We are an organization of passionate TB professionals, including doctors, researchers, training experts, nurses and epidemiologists. We aim to stop the spread of the worldwide epidemic of TB and to prevent the further spread of drug-resistant TB.

We are recruiting to fill the position of:

Job Title: Statistician/Epidemiologist

Location: Lagos, Nigeria
Job Duration: 6 months (50% FTE)
Reports to: Dr. Adebukola Agnes Adegbola (Line Manager), Ellen Mitchell (technical)

Challenge TB
KNCV is the lead partner in Challenge TB (CTB), the new USAID-funded 5-year global program to decrease TB mortality and morbidity in high burdened countries. We lead an international consortium with eight partner organizations: American Thoracic Society (ATS), FHI 360, Interactive Research & Development (IRD), Japan Anti Tuberculosis Foundation (JATA), Management Sciences for Health (MSH), PATH, The International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (The Union), and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The overarching strategic objectives of Challenge TB are to improve access to quality patient centered care for TB, TB/HIV, and MDR-TB services; to prevent transmission and disease progression; and to strengthen TB platforms.

Study Description

• In the past 10 years, inventory studies have been implemented in the Netherlands, the UK, French Guiana, Egypt, Yemen, and Iraq. Inventory studies can help to plan and implement strategies to better engage the private sector in TB care.
• Lagos has a dynamic private health sector which plays an important role in TB diagnosis and treatment.
• The sector has not been sufficiently enticed to contribute consistently to the notification of TB cases as required by law. A study is planned to identify the magnitude of under-reporting in both the public and private sectors, and to identify effective strategies to catalyze timely notification.

Responsibilities

• Responsible for development and implementation of the Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) in alignment with WHO guidance.
• Responsible for ensuring appropriate sampling, stratification, and randomization.
• Responsible for identifying flaws, biases, logic, linkage, and merge errors in statistical data through routine scrutiny.

Activities:

• Development and implementation and management of Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP) in coordination with international technical advisors.
• Engage with the ethical review boards and technical advisors to ensure smooth progress.
• Assess bias in recruitment, and recommend ways to address if required.
• Draft syntax to permit the calculation of notification rates, completeness rates, matching rates, under and over reporting, and their confidence 95% intervals (CI).
• Conduct routine logic checks of the data and alert the team (in writing) to any and all data quality challenges.
• Verify during the analysis stage whether survey data are self-weighting and perform any corrections that may be required given the actual size of various clusters and the current population.
• Adjust estimates to take into account cluster sampling
• Conduct intermediate analysis of preliminary merges of all registered TB case lists to detect and correct inconsistencies and errors, flag issues promptly, and provide interim reports to various stakeholders.-
• Create tables, graphs, and models, for presentation
• Liaise with HQ staff to ensure per-protocol sampling, stratification, and analysis.
• Represent the study in international data analysis workshops if required.
• Work closely with IT / Data Management consultant and Clinical Coordinator

Technical Qualifications

• PhD in Statistics, Epidemiology, or Mathematics.
• Demonstrated competence in (bio)statistics, survey methodology, stratification, sampling, weighting, matching, randomization, etc..
• Demonstrated competence in TB/HIV epidemiology.
• Demonstrated competence in data managerial software like MS Access, SQL, Epi-Data, Link Plus or any other applicable software program
• Demonstrated competence in use of statistical software like STATA, R+,etc.
• Expertise in the management of missing data particularly via multiple imputation (or willingness to learn).
• Knowledge of GIS and mapping programs.
• Demonstrated Proficiency in written and spoken English and another Nigerian language.

Behavioral Competencies:

• Ability to work closely with a wide range of stakeholders in a respectful manner.
• Ability to plan realistically in order to adhere to timelines and hit deadlines.
• Willingness to spend some time in the field for any final data collection.
• Enjoys challenges

Start Date
1st June, 2016

Application Closing Date
29th February, 2016.

Method of Application
Interested and qualified candidates should send their curriculum vitae including proof of prior experience, and letter of interest to: [email protected] under subject “Lagos Inventory Study - Statistician/Epidemiologist”.