Program Manager

POSITION RESPONSIBILITIES: Serve as point person for observational-based cancer-related studies within the Division of Epidemiology, including HAPCO, CSU, weSEE and investigator-initiated projects.
Supervise the work of Programmers, Data Architects, Informatics Experts, Research Coordinators, Study Coordinators, and Clinical Collaborators at collaborating sites for HAPCO, CSU, and weSEE, including conducting training, ensuring timely data submission, data quality, and fidelity to protocols.
Advise and support Dr.
Hosgood regarding study feasibility, implementation, and regulatory requirements.
Support Cancer Center investigators in the development and implementation of pilot studies in preparation for undertaking Montefiore-initiated observational-based studies within weSEE.
Recruit, train, and supervise, research staff, undergraduate and graduate student research interns, and fellows to support studies.
Process data from internal Montefiore databases (e.
g.
, Velos, Cancer Registry, etc.
) and publically available external databases to characterize patient health and heath care within the Montefiore-Einstein catchment area to support observational research and study goals.
Manage the collection of exposome data from importable and exportable formats for rapid dissemination.
This includes the organization of data from multiple electronic sources and formats and performing regular audits to ensure that data collected are complete and accurate.
Prepare statistics for CSU activities reports.
Assist in developing new grant applications and project proposals including support for pilot research, literature review, and communication with collaborators.
Facilitate the preparation of conference abstracts, oral presentations, and poster presentations, and participate in the development of manuscripts for publication.
Represent the CSU and weSEE at internal and external academic meetings, and community events.
Act as a liaison to project partners to discuss new procedures that can be implemented.
Work with Departmental Administrator(s) at Einstein and other collaborating institutions/agencies to develop and monitor project budgets.
Assist in the developing initiatives related to the intersection of observational research and related Cancer Center initiatives.
Additional duties as assigned QUALIFICATIONS: Experience and Educational Background Bachelor’s Degree with 5+years of experience; Master's Degree Preferred or combination of education and experience will be considered; Prior work experience in related data management and observational-based research is required.
Two years prior supervisory experience preferred.
Skills and Competencies Outstanding judgment, initiative, and attention to detail are essential.
Must be able to manage competing priorities while supporting multiple constituents, collaborating institutions, and protocols.
Can be relied upon to ensure that activities within areas of specific responsibility are completed within a timely manner and within budget.
Must be familiar with systems required for cancer research and cancer clinical trials, including Epic, iRIS, Velos, iMedidata, CTSU, etc.
Must demonstrate proven knowledge of Qualtrics, REDCap, SPSS, SAS, or other statistical software and electronic data capture systems.
Must be proficient in Microsoft Office and have the ability to apply technology to resolve problems.
Ability to work well in a team setting and independently.
Salary Verbiage: This outlines the salary range for exempt and non-exempt positions Minimum Salary Range: USD $72,000.
00/Yr.
Maximum Salary Range: USD $80,000.
00/Yr.
ABOUT US: The Program Manager will manage research project activities across multiple initiatives led by Dr.
Hosgood (Division Head, Division of Epidemiology and co-leader of the Cancer Epidemiology Prevention & Control Program of the Montefiore Einstein Comprehensive Cancer Center (MECCC)), including: those funded under the National Cancer Institute U01 “Assessing the Relative and Absolute Risk for Site-Specific Cancer Mortality Attributed to Household Air Pollution” (1U01CA242740-01; PI: Hosgood), the American Cancer Society Team Science Grant “Implementation of a Centralized Screening Unit to Increase Lung Cancer Screening and Downstage Tumors in an Urban Minority Population” (PASD-Team-23-1076345-01-PASD; PI: Hosgood), and the “Whole Exposome: Social needs, Environmental exposures, and Electronic health data (weSEE)” project (PI: Hosgood).
A description of projects and project-specific activities of the Project Manager are summarized below: Household air pollution (HAP) is of public health concern, with ~3 billion people worldwide (including >15 million in the US) exposed.
HAP from coal use is a human lung carcinogen, yet the epidemiological evidence on carcinogenicity of HAP from biomass use, primarily wood, is not conclusive.
To robustly assess biomass’s carcinogenic potential, prospective studies of individuals experiencing a variety of HAP exposures are needed.
Along with key collaborators from around the world, Dr.
Hosgood has built a global consortium of prospective cohorts (HAPCO: Household Air Pollution Consortium) that have site- and disease-specific mortality and solid fuel use data, for a combined sample size of >750,000 participants.
HAPCO provides a novel opportunity to assess the association of HAP, and outdoor air pollution, with lung cancer death while controlling for important confounders such as tobacco exposures.
HAPCO is also uniquely positioned to determine the risks associated with cancers other than lung as well as nonmalignant respiratory and cardiometabolic outcomes, for which prospective epidemiologic research is limited.
HAPCO will facilitate research to address public health concerns associated with HAP-attributed exposures by enabling investigators to evaluate sex-specific and smoking status-specific effects under various exposure scenarios.
The Program Manager will work closely with Dr.
Hosgood, and the research team, including programmers within the Epidemiology & Clinical Research Informatics (ECRI) Shared Resource and statisticians within the Division of Biostatistics, as well as the MECCC Biostatistics Shared Resource, to carry out the research aims of HAPCO.
Lung-cancer screening (LCS) reduces lung cancer mortality; however; even with the known benefits, LCS uptake has been limited.
Einstein-MMC has achieved successful screening rates for other cancers, however, LCS uptake lags and of patients with initial screens, half are overdue for follow-up care or re-screening.
In the American Cancer Society Team Science Grant “Implementation of a Centralized Screening Unit to Increase Lung Cancer Screening and Downstage Tumors in an Urban Minority Population” (PASD-Team-23-1076345-01-PASD; PI: Hosgood), we propose to increase LCS in the Bronx through the implementation of a Centralized Screening Unit (CSU) as an “adjunctive service”.
We will use cluster randomization to select 24 NYC RING sites to be phased-into the CSU intervention according to a stepped-wedge design.
When a clinic enters the CSU condition, its LCS-eligible patients will be offered CSU services.
CSU will shift workflow by leveraging EMR data to direct automated messages to LCS-eligible patients, inviting them to connect with the CSU.
Lay patient navigators will [a] reach out to patients who do not respond to automated messages, [b] determine or confirm eligibility; [c] provide education and support in response to patients needs and concerns, [d] schedule appointments and [e] send reminders.
The CSU will also track and support all steps of follow-up care.
The CSU will follow a systematic protocol to track the time and resources needed to engage and retain different patients, including instances when the primary care clinic must get involved with routine LCS.
We hypothesize that shifting LCS workflow (e.
g.
, eligibility determination, shared decision making, arranging follow-up) from usual care to CSU will increase rates of LCS recommendations and subsequent LDCT scans.
Our study aims are to (1) study implementation challenges and optimize CSU’s functioning through iterative improvement, and (2) evaluate CSU's impact on LCS uptake and retention; patient and provider experience; and the extent of lung cancer “down-staging” (i.
e.
, the reduction in lung cancer tumor stage at diagnosis).
The Program Manager will work closely with Dr.
Hosgood, and the research team, including programmers within ECRI, navigators, and clinical teams in NYC-RING, to carry out the research aims of the CSU.
There are substantive roadblocks limiting our ability to understand the exposome’s impact on health, including: (a) a lack of granularity/specificity due to exposure quantification/misclassification at the zip code level and not the individual level; (b) insufficiently powered epidemiological and clinical cohorts to investigate the complex, highly correlated nature of the exposome [including both environmental and social determinants of health (SDoH)]; and (c) lack of studies evaluating multiple simultaneous co-exposures.
Dr.
Hosgood and his team have overcome these major barriers by developing a highly innovative tool linking data from ~90,000 cancer patients at the individual level based on their exact residential latitude/longitude to our expertly curated exposome behind a HIPAA firewall.
We have dubbed this tool “weSEE” (Whole Exposome: Social needs, Environmental exposures, and Electronic health data) to signify our strong commitment to community partnerships (“we”) in developing a deep and shared understanding (“SEE”) of the health challenges our community members face.
weSEE will accelerate research addressing health disparities by enabling investigators to build and analyze research-level cohorts (epidemiological and clinical) that include individual-level exposures and health data (with or without protected information, depending in IRB-approval) and to recruit participants into observational and interventional studies.
This platform will also enable rapid exploration of research questions related to emerging disease–exposure relationships including co-exposures in sufficiently powered cohorts, particularly communities traditionally excluded from health research.
The Program Manager will work closely with Dr.
Hosgood, and the research team, including programmers within the Epidemiology & Clinical Research Informatics (ECRI) Shared Resource and statisticians within the Division of Biostatistics, as well as the MECCC Biostatistics Shared Resource, to carry out the research aims of weSEE.
The Program Manager, under the supervision of Dr.
Hosgood, will also help facilitate investigator-initiated projects within weSEE.
The Program Manager will report to H.
Dean Hosgood, PhD, Associate Professor and the Atran Foundation Chair in Epidemiology and Population Health at the Albert Einstein College Medicine in the Bronx, NY.
He is Division Head, Division of Epidemiology, co-leader of the Cancer Epidemiology Prevention & Control Program of the Montefiore Einstein Cancer Center, and co-director of the Ph.
D.
in Clinical Investigation.