We are recruiting for a highly motivated postdoctoral research assistant to join the Chronic Pain Research Group, based at Ninewells Hospital and Medical School. You will work on a new project investigating risk factors for poor outcomes in people with substance use disorder and chronic pain, with a focus on women experiencing multiple inequalities. Funded by the Janet Kilmurry Trust, this research aims to benefit women, children and those from deprived backgrounds.
The role combines health informatics, epidemiology and clinical research, requiring strong analytical skills and the ability to work collaboratively across data science and patient-facing teams.
For the data linkage arm of the project, you will use health informatics to identify sociodemographic and clinical factors contributing to disparities in fatal and non-fatal overdose among people with substance use disorder. This involves working with large, linked datasets accessed through the Scottish National Safe Haven, including hospital admissions, prescribing records, mortality data, and demographic indicators. Key tasks include data cleaning, harmonisation and advanced statistical modelling, in collaboration with Public Health Scotland's eDRIS team.
For the prospective clinical study, you will explore how adverse childhood experiences influence sensory phenotypes in individuals with chronic pain and/or substance use disorder. Building on the ACE-MAP study, you will be actively involved in the recruitment and assessment of women through clinical services, using validated questionnaires and quantitative sensory testing.
Throughout the project, you will collaborate with people with lived experience of chronic pain on study design, conduct and dissemination. There will be opportunities for skills development in advanced statistics (e.g., R) and clinical phenotyping. The successful applicant will lead data integration, present findings at scientific meetings, draft peer-reviewed publications and contribute to future grant applications.
This is a fixed-term post, dependent on external funding. In person working will be required for some of the study activities, but where appropriate, hybrid working will be supported.