The Joint Methodist-Rice Digital Health Institute (DHI) is a pioneering collaboration between Houston Methodist and Rice University, aimed at revolutionizing healthcare through the convergence of digital technology and medical expertise. With a mission to bridge the gap between research and application, the institute will spearhead transformative advancements in healthcare outcomes, research, education, and product development. Guided by a mission to leverage digital science and healthcare expertise, the DHI aims to deliver breakthroughs in predictive health, precision medicine, and transformative research, driving innovation in healthcare delivery systems.

At Houston Methodist, the Sr Research Data Scientist position is responsible for addressing the best uses of data science and informatics development for providing a competitive advantage or addressing pressing research, clinical or business problems in Houston Methodist (HM) research, operations, and care, as well as to effectively communicate informed conclusions and recommendations across an organization's leadership structure. This position will explore, collate, harmonize, and analyze data from multiple disparate sources and many angles, including the organization's needs to access and understand research, clinical, financial, operational, population health, social, behavioral, and marketing data. Under the guidance and direction of the Director, Center for Health Data Science and Analytics and the leadership of the Digital Health Institute, the Sr Research Data Scientist position will work closely with researchers, physicians, scientists, care givers, hospital staff, administrators, and other stakeholders to implement projects of research, clinical and business benefits. This position be involved in various projects including research workflow optimization, innovative tracking, predictive analytics, clinical and operations decision support, advanced analytics, outcomes measures, cost reduction, quality improvement, population health management, statistical and advanced modeling techniques to different types of health, cost, and media data, and coordinate with clinicians and developing recommendations and presentations for a variety of audiences and stakeholders. The Sr Research Data Scientist position will leverage information in HM enterprise data warehouse and designated electronic medical record as well as adhere to data definition standards set by the Research and Hospital Data Governance committees.

PATIENT AGE GROUP(S) AND POPULATION(S) SERVED
Refer to departmental "Scope of Service" and "Provision of Care" plans, as applicable, for description of primary age groups and populations served by this job for the respective HM entity.

HOUSTON METHODIST EXPERIENCE EXPECTATIONS

• Provide personalized care and service by consistently demonstrating our I CARE values:
  • INTEGRITY: We are honest and ethical in all we say and do.
  • COMPASSION: We embrace the whole person including emotional, ethical, physical, and spiritual needs.
  • ACCOUNTABILITY: We hold ourselves accountable for all our actions.
  • RESPECT: We treat every individual as a person of worth, dignity, and value.
  • EXCELLENCE: We strive to be the best at what we do and a model for others to emulate.

• Practices the Caring and Serving Model

• Delivers personalized service using HM Service Standards

• Provides for exceptional patient/customer experiences by following our Standards of Practice of always using Positive Language (AIDET, Managing Up, Key Words)

• Intentionally collaborates with other healthcare professionals involved in patients/customers or employees' experiential journeys to ensure strong communication, ease of access to information, and a seamless experience

• Involves patients (customers) in shift/handoff reports by enabling their participation in their plan of care as applicable to the given job

• Actively supports the organization's vision, fulfills the mission and abides by the I CARE values

PEOPLE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Manages client relationships as assigned, by collaborating on the delivery of innovative strategies and solutions for our clients.

• Provides mentorship and basic guidance to lower-level members of the analytic team.

• Drives contributions towards improvement of department scores for employee engagement, i.e., peer-to-peer accountability.

SERVICE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Collates, harmonizes, and analyzes data from multiple disparate sources and many angles, including the organization's needs to access and understand research, clinical, financial, operational, population health, social, behavioral, and marketing data.

• Coordinates with clinicians and develops recommendations and presentations for a variety of audiences and stakeholders.

• Drives the execution of multiple analytical plans and projects.

• Identifies data elements within the clinical/health databases for analytics and decision supports.

QUALITY/SAFETY ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Serves as subject matter expert and acts on clinical data quality issues and assurance as well as patient privacy and data security and compliance.

• Assists with documenting the project requirements and results on a timely basis and ensures that lower-level data scientists are complying with team standards for documentation and coding practices.

• Participates in quality improvement process to evaluate ways to improve the data research analytics. Presents ideas to the appropriate leadership.

FINANCE ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Utilizes resources with cost effectiveness and value creation in mind. Self-motivated to independently manage time effectively and prioritize daily tasks, assisting coworkers as needed.

• Manages the continuous improvement of clinical and operational data and analytics.

GROWTH/INNOVATION ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

• Consults with clinicians and hospital staff regarding process improvement, delivery of best outcomes, decision supports, data insights and recommendations.

• Translates the findings into implementable informatics solutions with the clinicians, hospital administration, and other stakeholders and supervises and assists the Technical Data Scientist with these tasks.

• Seeks opportunities to identify self-development needs and takes appropriate action. Ensures own career discussions occur with appropriate management. Completes and updates the My Development Plan on an on-going basis.

This job description is not intended to be all-inclusive; the employee will also perform other reasonably related business/job duties as assigned. Houston Methodist reserves the right to revise job duties and responsibilities as the need arises.

EDUCATION

• Master's degree in computer science, Clinical Informatics, Public Health Administration, Business Administration, or Engineering, or an MD with experience in Informatics and Statistics or related field

WORK EXPERIENCE

• Five years' experience in healthcare data analytics and/or database management in a healthcare organization or 4 years experience in healthcare data analytics and/or database management in a healthcare if HM internal employee

• Advanced experience in computer science and applications, modeling, statistics, and analytics, e.g., big-data, data lakes, and cloud computing

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - REQUIRED

• N/A

LICENSES AND CERTIFICATIONS - PREFERRED

• Credentials or experience working with AWS and/or i2b2 or other common clinical data models strongly preferred

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND ABILITIES

• Demonstrates the skills and competencies necessary to safely perform the assigned job, determined through on-going skills, competency assessments, and performance evaluations

• Sufficient proficiency in speaking, reading, and writing the English language necessary to perform the essential functions of this job, especially with regard to activities impacting patient or employee safety or security

• Ability to effectively communicate with patients, physicians, family members and co-workers in a manner consistent with a customer service focus and application of positive language principles

• Strong business acumen, with the excellent ability to communicate findings to both business (clinical and research audience) and IT leaders to influence how an organization approaches a business challenge

• Maintains current Human Subjects Research credentials as defined by the Houston Methodist Research Institute

SUPPLEMENTAL REQUIREMENTS

WORK ATTIRE

• Uniform No
• Scrubs No
• Business professional Yes
• Other (department approved) No

ON-CALL*
*Note that employees may be required to be on-call during emergencies (ie. DIsaster, Severe Weather Events, etc) regardless of selection below.

• On Call* No

TRAVEL**
**Travel specifications may vary by department**

• May require travel within the Houston Metropolitan area No
• May require travel outside Houston Metropolitan area No

Houston Methodist Research Institute was formed in 2004 to rapidly and efficiently translate discoveries made in the laboratory and the clinic into new diagnostics, therapies, and treatments. The research institute was created to provide the infrastructure and support for these endeavors, and to house the technology and resources needed to make innovative breakthroughs in important areas of human disease. A 540,000 square foot building dedicated to research, the research institute houses over 1,500 staff and trainees, 284 principal investigators and has more than 570 ongoing clinical trials.