PhD involvement in clinical studies in Europe

Are you interested in patient centredness and patient involvement in clinical studies? Do you want to explore how inclusion of underrepresented communities in clinical studies might lead to more effective preventative care and treatments?

PhD involvement in clinical studies in Europe

Your function

This PhD position is part of a large EU project focused on the question: how to include a wide variety of groups, including currently underserved (US) and underrepresented (UR) communities, in clinical studies in order to enhance patient centredness in intervention design and implementation.

Health systems face a time of unprecedented change, with spiralling costs, increasing cultural disparity in access to healthcare, research, and an infrastructure that is decades old, resulting in increasing health inequities between social groups. Furthermore, research to address the health challenges often fail to engage diverse participants that accurately represent the general population. These so-called underserved (US) and underrepresented (UR) communities often face geographic barriers as well as mistrust and prejudice by research communities. This contributes to knowledge gaps in research on many diseases and conditions, preventative care and treatments in different demographic groups, thereby widening and deepening existing healthcare disparities.

It is widely acknowledged that patient centeredness and patient involvement can contribute to public accountability of clinical research and to more effective translation of research outcomes into care practices. However, patient centeredness and involvement are often addressed superficially, focusing solely on patient choice and preferences based on input by easy-to-reach patient groups. Achieving meaningful and diversity-sensitive patient-centeredness necessitates a transition from predominantly disease-oriented, top-down patient involvement tools to more integral inclusive approaches.

Exploratory studies will be conducted to understand mechanisms of exclusion and identify more effective approaches to patient centredness and involvement. Practical tools, frameworks, and training modules will be co-created together with patient groups and diverse stakeholders.

Your duties

• to create an agreed understanding (definition/categorization) of US/UR populations in Europe using literature review, real-world data, interviews and expert workshops
• to identify populations missing from clinical studies using a mixed-methods case study approach, with different data sources, as well as expert interviews with e.g. industry, clinical researchers, patient representatives and regulators
• to co-create a model of stakeholder engagement and collaboration through literature review, retrospective studies and stakeholder workshops
• to assist in the co-creation of approaches and related tools and training programs essential for patient engagement, including recruitment and retention of US/UR patients, in clinical studies

You will work in inter- and transdisciplinary teams and engage with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds (patient groups, academia, healthcare, industry, regulatory bodies, etc.). The work is typically collaborative and publications will be co-authored by the research team.

Next to your research, resulting in a PhD thesis, you will be a coaching lecturer in Bachelor and Master courses taught by the Athena Institute (15% of your time). For this duty you will be able to receive training.

Your profile

You have:

• a master’s degree in the field of Global Health, International Public Health, Health Sciences, or a related field such as Anthropology, Sociology, Science and Technology Studies, etc.
• proven experience with both qualitative research methods, such as interviews and focus groups, and quantitative research methods, such as questionnaires, database analysis
• experience with and prowess in liaising and engaging with diverse stakeholders (patient groups, academia, healthcare, industry, regulatory bodies, etc.) in health research and innovation processes
• a strong affinity with transdisciplinary research (prior experience is a plus)
• proven ability to work both within inter-/transdisciplinary teams (able to listen, flexible, adaptive, creative, pro-active, collaborative) and independently
• an excellent command of English (this is imperative)
• a strong research record and excellent writing skills

About us

Athena Institute

The Athena Institute addresses complex societal issues, like climate change, health inequality and social injustice. We do this by designing, facilitating and studying multi-stakeholder processes. Together with all actors involved, we investigate how to instigate system transformation.