“Using data for secondary purposes
is one of the most promising ways to
improve health outcomes and costs.”
(PricewaterhouseCoopers,
2009)
A full-time 4 year PhD position is available, as part of a collaboration between the Department of Medical Informatics at the Academic Medical Centre and the Department of Computer Science of the VU University Amsterdam.
What we offer: An interdisciplinary research project combining semantic technologies and medical informatics, a team of internationally renowned scientists, a stimulating working environment, and life in a vibrant and multicultural city. What we look for: A talented and motivated young researcher, interested in combining both medical and computing expertise. You should have affinity with applying informatics techniques in the medical domain, a genuine interest in addressing real-world medical problems, and the ability and interest to work with a team including medical experts. Project Description: Data collection is a routine part of the modern clinical care process. Data is being collected at bed-side, in laboratories, and in multi-disciplinary consultation meetings, to name just a few. Such data collection is expensive, both in terms of infrastructure, and in terms of staff effort. A new demand for data collection is coming from the recent introduction of quantitative quality indicators by organizations such as the Dutch Healthcare Inspectorate and medical societies. These data are captured in different systems, using different coding schemes and at different levels of detail. To use data for multiple purposes, it must be possible to aggregate data, both temporally (e.g., detecting trends) and conceptually (i.e., recognizing clusters of conditions based on their characteristics such as inflammatory disorders or cardiac disorders). The project will investigate to what extent quality indicators can be measured unobtrusively by leveraging data already collected during the clinical care process, and to what extent current processes, systems and representations must be adjusted to facilitate data-capture at the required quality levels.