Statistician III

The Robert J. Margolis, MD, Institute for Health Policy at Duke University seeks to address critical health policy challenges and deliver practical, innovative, and evidence-based solutions to improve health, health equity, and the value of health care. The interdisciplinary nature of Duke-Margolis brings together policy experts, researchers, health care professionals, and students from across Duke’s schools of medicine, nursing, law, public policy, business, and engineering, and fosters extensive relationships with stakeholders both internal and external. These relationships span foundations, private sector organizations, state and federal governments, and global entities. The Center fosters excellence, leadership, and scholarship at every level.

Occupational Summary

Duke-Margolis has an opening for a Statistician III to perform a variety of intermediate and advanced statistical and technical activities for the design of academic research studies and for the collection, compilation and analysis of statistical data in support of a statistical function. Specifically, this role will provide statistical analysis support and data management to Institute projects on varying topics, with a focus on health care delivery and payment reform at the state and national level, through health care claims and other Medicare and Medicaid data. The individual in this role may collaborate on projects spanning a broad range of topics, including uptake and implementation of value-based care models, the impact of new payment and delivery models on equity, and supporting states’ health care transformation efforts.

The person in this position will:

• Provide statistical analysis of research-ready health care data that supports a wide array of research studies.
• Work on externally-sponsored and internal priority research projects with a team of health policy and economics experts and will have opportunities to contribute to academic papers and policy papers.
• Assist in and guide team members in developing analytical plans and to improve understanding of relevant policy and methodological issues at hand, as well as participate in literature reviews; and
• Provide time-limited, ad-hoc quantitative and qualitative support for other projects as assigned.

Successful candidates will demonstrate strong attention to detail; excellent communications skills; ability to manage multiple concurrent research analyses; and talent, motivation and commitment for working with complex data in a team-based environment in support of the Duke-Margolis research initiatives.

Duke-Margolis has offices in both Washington, DC and on Duke's main campus in Durham, NC. This position may be considered for a hybrid in-person/remote work classification.

Work Performed

Work as a member of a research/study team and in conjunction with other departments, centers, and institutes of the University, to lead statistical activities related to the design, execution and analysis of scientifically conducted studies. Primary responsibilities will include:

• Lead in the development and execution of a plan/procedure for the collection of data (i.e., querying large databases using SAS, SQL, or other language), and the editing, validation, and management of data files to support specific research questions.
• Supporting development and documentation of analytic plans and variable definitions, which requires familiarity with CMS data dictionaries and basic to intermediate statistical analysis methods.
• Operate computer statistical software to manage data and implement statistical analysis and inference, including, but not limited to regression analysis, using programs (e.g. using SAS, Stata, and R) to accomplish the research objectives for projects and assisting with database construction and management.
• Provide oral presentations of statistical or technical scientific information to inform and report on the progress of research studies, as well as help educate staff.
• Merging and manipulating data from multiple sources including CMS public use files, Area Health Resource File, Census Data, and a variety of claims and other public use data.
• Constructing complex variables and documenting the programming techniques used to generate these variables.
• Creating descriptive results tables and simple statistics under the direction of senior research team members and, also with the direction of senior research team members, estimating statistical models.
• Developing data visualizations to support dissemination of results.

The above statements describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this classification. This is not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties required of personnel so classified.

Preferred Knowledge/Skills:

• Master’s degree in a relevant field (health policy, public policy, public administration, public health, health economics, biostatistics, etc.) with demonstrated quantitative analysis training is strongly preferred. Master’s degree may substitute for experience requirements.
• Strong Base SAS or Stata or R programming skills, with experience in statistical analysis procedures (e.g., random/fixed effects, logit/probit regression, and other statistical modeling). 
• Experience with health or claims data is preferred.
• Demonstrated ability in SAS and SQL to manage large, complex, multi-level data, with experience in data cleaning and documentation in the context of large datasets. Some files are very large with millions of records per file and require a high level of skill at data management and sophisticated programming techniques for efficient processing of the data and associated analyses.
• Demonstrated ability in IRB protocol and research design.
• Demonstrated ability to take responsibility for the planning, management, and analysis of complex data in a data-driven project.
• Ability to document analyses and write methods and results summaries.
• Intellectual curiosity, strong attention to detail, ability to work with teams, and commitment to scientific integrity and public service, and high-quality research.

Engagements are renewable annually upon funding availability from the Institute.

The above statements describe the general nature and level of work to be performed in this position and are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all responsibilities and duties required. Employees may be directed to perform job-related tasks other than those specifically presented in this description.

Application Materials Required:

·       Cover letter

·       Curriculum Vitae

·       Three References (names and email addresses)