"Clinical Research Assistant"

Position Summary/ Department Summary

The Benderson Heart Center Clinical Research Program Center for Cardiovascular Genetics is seeking a highly motivated Clinical Research Assistant to support a multi-center, longitudinal observational cohort study investigating the natural history, phenotypic spectrum, and clinical trajectories of individuals with pathogenic PKP2 variants associated with Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy (ACM). The Research Assistant will play a central role in participant recruitment, data collection, biospecimen coordination, and study operations. This position is ideal for individuals interested in cardiogenetics, inherited arrhythmia disorders, and translational research bridging molecular genetics with clinical care.

Key Responsibilities:

• Assist with participant recruitment, screening, informed consent, and longitudinal follow-up, communicate study information to families, communicate all policies and procedures, and respond to all inquiries.
• Prepare study-related materials, including REDCap instruments, workflows, and educational materials for patients and families.
• Collect, enter, and maintain clinical data, electrocardiograms, imaging results (e.g., echocardiograms, MRI), and genetic information in study databases.
• Assist with data extraction from electronic health records (e.g., EPIC) and adjudication of clinical events.
• Coordinate blood, saliva, and tissue sample collection with clinical teams, label, process, and ship biospecimens to collaborating laboratories following study SOPs.
• Assist with IRB submissions, regulatory documents, continuing reviews, and protocol amendments; Maintain study binders, SOPs
• Coordinate study meetings, take minutes, and follow up on action items with investigators and research collaborators, support data monitoring, assist with manuscript preparation.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., biology, neuroscience, physiology, public health, biomedical engineering).
• Strong organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills, attention to detail.
• Experience with patient interaction in clinical, research, or healthcare settings.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office, REDCap, or similar research data platforms.

Experience:

• Experience with cardiology or genomics research, especially in inherited arrhythmia or cardiomyopathy disorders.
• Familiarity with ECG interpretation, cardiac imaging, or clinical event adjudication (training provided).
• Prior experience with IRB/regulatory processes.
• Experience with EPIC or other EMR systems.
• Comfort with basic statistics, data visualization, or analytic tools (e.g., R, Python, STATA).