Postdoctoral Fellowship: Health Policy & Services Research

The Department of Epidemiology and Population Health is seeking a health policy/health services research postdoctoral fellow to collaborate with Professor Alyce S. Adams on a portfolio of projects related to the following priority areas:

• Identifying opportunities to reduce race/ethnic disparities in access and care delivery
• Evaluating the impact of practice and policy change on clinical quality measurement and outcomes
• Effectively applying health information technology, clinical informatics and data science
• Understanding barriers to diagnostic excellence in primary care  chronic disease
• Improving primary care continuity to reduce the burden of diabetes complications (e.g., neuropathy, cardiovascular disease)

The fellow will also have the opportunity to work closely with two of our key partners, the American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) and the Health Equity Innovation Lab (details can be found at the bottom of this announcement). 

Goals of the Postdoctoral Opportunity

• Enhance skills (framing impactful research questions, applying robust research methods, grant writing, manuscript publication, and oral presentations) to enhance career development.
• Conduct research to help inform primary care practice and policy change.
• Be prepared to apply for positions in academic or health system settings upon completion of the postdoc.

Learning Opportunity

• Individualized scientific mentorship
  
• Opportunity to work with real world clinical and administrative data sources.
  
• Weekly works-in-progress meetings with faculty and other trainees and fellows
  
• Experience writing at least one first-authored publication
  
• Invitation to attend seminars on career and skill development topics
  

The fellowship is a one-year appointment, with the option to extend by mutual arrangement. Funding includes a living stipend plus certain medical, dental, vision, and life insurance coverage through Stanford's Postdoctoral Scholars program. Per Stanford funding rates guidelines, postdoctoral researchers receive a minimum stipend of $65,568, based on research experience.

• Post-graduate degree (MD or PhD) and training in health services research, population health, or a related discipline
  
• Background and preferably publications in chronic disease and/or care delivery
  
• Record of distinguished scholarly achievement
  

Interested applicants should submit the following materials:  

1. Curriculum vitae;
2. Cover letter describing research interests to be pursued during training. If you have experience successfully collaborating with community partners, please note this in your letter.
3. Three letters of reference

The American Board of Family Medicine (ABFM) is a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to improve the health of the public through board certification, residency training, research, and leadership development. ABFM created a registry that forms the basis for the American Family Cohort (AFC) which includes ~6 million Electronic Health Records from 800 practices. It is one of the few cohorts to include detailed race data from all 50 states and a significant number of practices are located in rural areas. ABFM is leading several studies that are relevant to the fellowship. For example, as part of a broader effort to develop, endorse, and implement measures that matter, ABFM is leading efforts to advance measurement in primary care, including a  large-scale nationwide mixed-method study designed to demonstrate that continuity of care is a valid and robust measure to help clinicians reduce diagnostic errors and improve quality of care, with Diabetes Mellitus (both (type 1 and type 11) as the focus of the disease (a full description of the study can be found here).  Fellows will have the opportunity to collaborate with ABFM on these exciting studies and to utilize their unique cohort data. 

The Health Equity Innovation Lab, led by Professor Alyce S. Adams, is leading a program of research that seeks to inform the design and implementation of care delivery and policy strategies with the most promise for promoting equity in chronic disease treatment outcomes now and into the future. We are motivated by complex challenges facing the health system and policy leaders related to health equity, including access to evidence-based care (e.g., early and accurate diagnosis, clinically effective therapies). We leverage large data sets (e.g., electronic health records, claims), rigorous methods (e.g., quasi-experimental designs), and team science to inform the development of health systems and policy-level interventions that promote health equity. The lab aims to accelerate the path from research to impact through close collaboration with patient, caregiver, clinician and community partners at all stages of the research.

Faculty Sponsor: Alyce S. Adams, Stanford Medicine Innovation Professor and Professor of Epidemiology and Population Health and of Medicine (Primary Care and Outcomes Research), as well as Associate Director for Health Equity and Community Engagement in the Stanford Cancer Institute.

Group/Department Websites: Dept of Epidemiology & Population Health, Center for Population Health Sciences

Postdoc Appointment Term:  One year, with option to extend by mutual arrangement

Appointment Start Date:  Remote-work options and start date are negotiable