HSRC Careers

Job Title	Job Location/Description
HSRC Research Director	Miami/UM Tenure Faculty
Project Manager	Miami/Researcher
Personal Nurse	Miami/Req #10904

Company: Humana Inc
Position: Project Manager - Pharmacoepidemiology
Location: Miami, FL

The University of Miami-Humana Health Services Research Center (HSRC) is a public-private partnership dedicated to development of new scientific knowledge and translational insights in health services, health behavior research with an emphasis on improving individual heath and patient outcomes. On August 22, 2007 the HSRC announced the launch of a new postmarket drug surveillance initiative that will utilize Humana’s 11 million member administrative claims data set to conduct pharmacovigilance and comparative effectiveness research studies.

The core objectives of this effort are to:

Conduct Pharmacoepidemiological research on specific drug, device or outcomes associated with adverse drug events
Create new scientific knowledge about the comparative effectiveness of pharmaceuticals to inform good clinical decision making on the part of doctors;
Provide evidence to the FDA and other regulatory and research bodies to further the national policy debate around the efficacy and safety of pharmaceuticals.
Be a strong voice in patient safety and serve as a center for excellence in drug safety and Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance research

Humana is currently seeking candidates for the position of Project Manager for Pharmacoepidemiology within the Health Services Research Center located in Miami, Florida. The candidate will be responsible for managing Pharmacoepidemiology research studies and projects. This entails working on a collaborative team with statisticians, pharmacists and clinician researchers develop research study protocols, deliverable-based project budgets, seek out internal review board approval (IRB) and that of Humana’s privacy committee where necessary to conduct the study, thoroughly document all phases of the research process according to research compliance protocols, draft interim and final study result reports, and prepare presentation material that translates the research results to Humana’s core business.

The candidate will also be responsible for client relationship management and in contract research, generating additional research requests and ensuring project profitability. The candidate will work toward generating new clients for the research center. He/she will also facilitate work groups with Humana’s clinical operations teams to implement the results of research findings.

The candidate will work primarily in the areas of Pharmacoepidemiology which will include providing expertise on health outcomes analysis, pharmaceutical product use and adverse drug reaction research

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate experience in the following areas:

An understanding of the process for designing and implementing pharmacoepidemiology research studies and outcomes research studies
Lead the development of health outcomes communication collateral materials
Collaborate on teams involving Biostatistics, Clinicians and Legal department
Strong clinical vocabulary and writing skills
Basic data manipulation skills
Knowledge of US health care payment and reimbursement methodologies
Use of large administrative claims or other secondary data sets for research
Presentation skills for client generation and result sharing
Ability to multitask and meet deadline oriented deliverables
Ability to travel, when necessary, to meet with clients (approx 20% of time)
Negotiating contract terms at various levels of an organization and appropriate budgeting skills
Extensive experience using the MS Office suite of applications
Possesses excellent communication skills

Ability to maintain client confidentiality Minimum Requirements:

Masters or PhD degree in Epidemiology, Public Health, Pharmacy Administration / Social & Behavioral Pharmacy / Pharmacoeconomics
required
A pharmacy degree (BSPharm/PharmD) is strongly preferred along with experience in health outcomes research
5 years clinical or health services research experience desired.
Familiarity with statistics and analytical reporting
Familiarity with HIPAA and compliance laws
Knowledge of health benefits, healthcare delivery and pharmaceutical industries

Candidates with Pharmacoepidemiology & Risk Management Experience is a plus

Company: Humana Inc
Position: Scientist – Pharmacoepidemiology
Location: Miami, FL

The core objectives of this effort are to:

Conduct Pharmacoepidemiological research on specific drug, device or outcomes associated with adverse drug events
Create new scientific knowledge about the comparative effectiveness of pharmaceuticals to inform good clinical decision making on the part of
doctors;
Provide evidence to the FDA and other regulatory and research bodies to further the national policy debate around the efficacy and safety of
pharmaceuticals.
Be a strong voice in patient safety and serve as a center for excellence in drug safety and Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacovigilance research

Humana is currently seeking candidates for the position of Scientist for Pharmacovigilance within the Health Services Research Center located in Miami,
Florida. The candidate will be responsible for conducting statistical analyses for Pharmacoepidemiology research projects. This entails working on a collaborative team with pharmacists and clinician researchers to develop research study protocols, determine the appropriate data fields and time frame within Humana’s data set to be analyzed, determining the appropriate statistical methods to yield desired results, powering the appropriate study sample size to reach statistically significant conclusions, cleaning the data set once it is received, conducting the analysis, and delivering study results

The research analysis process may be iterative as the scientist works with the clinician researchers to answer the questions posed of the data. It is anticipated that the pharmacovigilance work will be “always on” or ongoing within specific disease or drug classes and analysis plans may include several drugs, several tiers of disease severity, multiple drug to drug combinations, and computing hazard ratios for multiple variables which may contribute to the onset of an adverse event. Additionally, comparative effectiveness studies will be lengthy and rigorous in looking at comparative outcomes over time in populations using specific drugs or drug classes.

Scientists are expected to set realistic time frames for the completion of deliverables and will be held to those expectations. Thoroughly documenting all
data extractions from Humana’s EDW, analysis plans, and project deliverables or outputs is a strict requirement for research compliance purposes. We place a heavy emphasis on the value of data from both a security perspective and the value of post-processed data to glean additional insights or to be monetized.

Scientists must also demonstrate and ability to keep confidential information related to pharmacovigilance studies given the sensitive nature of adverse drug events and potential legal and ethical ramifications if information were to be leaked publicly.

The Pharmacovigilance research initiative will be under the direction of a Pharmacovigilance Clinical Advisory Board that sets direction around which
drugs or drug classes should be explored for postmarket surveillance and comparative effectiveness. Scientists are mentored by a Senior Scientist Faculty
member at the University of Miami School of Medicine Department of Epidemiology. All research within the Center is peer reviewed by colleagues (scientists, physicians, pharmacists, project managers, and the director) to foster constructive critique and an open dialog about the scientific work being generated by the Center with a expectation of publishing our work.

The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate experience in the following areas:

An understanding of managed care data including ICD9 medical claims, CPT & DRG coding schemes, NDC and GPI pharmacy coding, laboratory values, other health care claims grouping and risk adjustment methodologies (ETG, ERG, PRG, ACG)
Published researcher
Has worked with very large secondary data sets and time series data
SAS Programming
Strong medical and statistical vocabulary, and communication skills
Knowledge of US health care payment system and reimbursement methodologies
Presenting research findings to an audience or client
Ability to work collaboratively with teams involving other Biostatistics, Clinicians and Pharmacists/Project Managers
An understanding of the process for designing and implementing research studies that follow an academic Institutional Review Board process
Ability to travel, when necessary, to meet with clients (approx 5% of time)
Ability to maintain client confidentiality

Minimum Requirements:

Masters or PhD degree in statistics or biostatistics
Must have experience working with pharmacy data including NDC and GPI code schemes
More than 5 years experience in pharmacoepidemiology, outcomes research, epidemiology /clinical database research
Experience with managed care administrative claims data is a plus
Familiarity with HIPAA and research compliance laws
Knowledge of health benefits, healthcare delivery and pharmaceutical industries

Candidates should provide a detailed list of SAS modules, statistical procedures, and other SAS skills. Candidates should also detail use and experience with administrative health insurance claims data.

Note: Candidates without extensive SAS programming experience and prior health insurance claims analysis experience will not be considered.

Link to Humana HR site to apply.