Job Title: Health Research Analyst

Department: Research, Milestone Development, and Evaluation

FLSA Status: Exempt

Reports to: Director, Outcomes Research and Evaluation

The following describes the various aspects of the designated job.  Some or all of these aspects may be changed over time, with or without notice, at the sole discretion of the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME). 

Applicants must be currently authorized to work in the United States (U.S.) on a full-time basis.  The ACGME will not provide employment sponsorship for this position (e.g., H-1B Visa or other U.S. employment authorization). 

JOB OVERVIEW 

The Health Research Analyst will play an important role in advancing the ACGME’s strategic mission of improving health care by coordinating the compilation of data used in the design and implementation of rigorous studies pertaining to the effectiveness of the ACGME’s accreditation activities, the validity of learning assessments, and the quality of care delivered by early-career physicians. To do this, the Health Research Analyst is responsible for managing, editing, and analyzing large data sets. The Health Research Analyst will serve as a project leader, contributor, and consultant to projects as circumstances require. The Health Research Analyst is a team player and provides assistance to others in the department through methodological and data management support.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS AND RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Manage large data sets of educational and clinical performance data.
• As circumstances require, the Health Research Analyst will apply scientific acumen in roles as principal investigator, contributing investigator, or consultant for studies involving ACGME’s educational data. The Health Research Analyst will design methodologically sound research studies alone and in collaboration with others.
• The Health Research Analyst will lead the design protocols and will assist in drafting parts of protocols under the direction of others, as circumstances dictate.
• Prepare data for analysis alone or for use by other colleagues, to include editing data, data matching and crosswalks, creating variables, and selecting data elements for use in analysis with high attention to detail.
• Analyze data from commercial and federal health insurance claims, registry data, survey data, and data from electronic health records and similar sources to support research efforts of the ACGME.
• Integrate those records with the ACGME’s educational data for statistical research.
• Perform data quality checks to ensure accuracy and completeness of project data; identify and respond to data quality problems.
• Using excellent communication skill and research acumen, the Health Research Analyst will liaison on behalf of the Milestones Department with internal and external collaborators of varying levels of expertise and organizational authority.
• Maintain documentation regarding the data used, to include maintaining the steps used in data quality procedures, data inventories, catalogues, and codebooks.
• With an intimate understanding of claims data, create data sets that align claims data with indicators of clinical outcomes (e.g., professional or CDC guidelines, HEDIS measures), ACGME accreditation data on programs and their Sponsoring Institutions, and educational progress (ACGME Milestones data).
• As circumstances dictate, act as principal author or co-author in preparing summaries of findings to be used by ACGME leadership for planning and evaluation purposes.
• As circumstances dictate, act as either principal author or co-author in the preparation of analyses for presentation at scientific conferences, in scholarly journals, or lectures.
• Adhere to standards spelled out in data use agreements and in the AGME’s data governance policies.
• Provide staff support to research working groups and committees.
• Keep departmental leadership properly informed of the Analyst’s work.
• Other duties as assigned.

SUPERVISORY RESPONSIBILITY

None

QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum:

• Master’s degree from a regionally accredited university in health information management, data science, economics, public health, psychology, political science, or related field, including at least one advanced-level course in statistics.
• Four or more years of related career experience compiling, cleaning, and editing, commercial insurance claims data, federal health data, registry data, and data from electronic medical records.
• Expertise in merging and appending large health care data sets from numerous sources.
• At least one year of experience aligning claims data with guidelines for clinical care or indicators of health care quality (for example Choosing Wisely, AAFP Clinical Recommendations, NCQA HEDIS).
• At least one year of experience writing commands in SQL, Python, or R for data preparation purposes (i.e., retrieval, merger, audit).
• Competence using statistical software.
• Ability to perform descriptive statistical analysis, such as frequencies, precents, cross-tabulations, and basic tests of statistical significance with minimal supervision.
• Ability to design research studies.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively as needed to accomplish tasks.
• Ability to articulate oneself, clearly and concisely, in the English language.
• Ability to construct images, graphs, and tables to explain meaning of data.
• Ability to communicate effectively with technical and non-technical audiences.
• Ability to project respect and appreciation for the thoughts and ideas of others.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office suite of applications, particularly Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.

Preferred:

• Five or more years' experience in a related field.
• Doctoral degree from a regionally accredited university in a relevant field.
• Experience with regression and hierarchical analysis desired.

REQUIRED KNOWLEDGE, SKILL SETS, AND ABILITIES

• Strong attention to detail and expert follow-up skills.
• Demonstrated sound judgment, common sense and dependability.
• Ability to process existing and new information and apply information to novel situations.
• Skilled in working under tight timelines and comfortable balancing multiple projects and priorities simultaneously.
• Enthusiastic team player with a strong work ethic and demonstrated flexibility, particularly dealing with multiple cultures and over global time zones.
• Superior organizational and workflow management skills.

WORK ENVIRONMENT/CONDITIONS

• This position is situated in a normal office environment with no specific or unusual physical or environmental demands.
• Most of the work performed is normally done in the ACGME office and/or home office with the typical physical demands of an office environment.

The ACGME is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action/Pro Disabled and Veteran Employer. The ACGME welcomes differences in the form of gender, race, ethnicity, disability, geography, socioeconomic status, age, politics, religion, philosophy, sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression status. All applicants who share this goal are encouraged to apply.