"Postdoc ‘City-based strategies to reduce health inequities and improve cardiovascular health in Europe'"

Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death globally. In parallel with an ageing population and increased prevalence of CVD, there is also a major drive towards urbanisation. Around 75% of European citizens already live in urban areas, which is expected to reach 84% by 2050. Urban living accentuates existing challenges in CVD, including poverty, migration, lack of access to healthcare, exposure to environmental risks, and the adverse lifestyle impacts from living in a city. There is no shortage of evidence-based interventions that combat CVD, including educational programmes, screening, prediction, lifestyle change and pharmaceutical therapy.

Unfortunately, there is a major and critical lack of effective implementation, which consistently fail to reach individuals that would benefit the most. Barriers to healthcare access and early intervention, combined with inadequate outreach, have impeded the effectiveness of prior healthcare interventions to underserved communities.

In a large intersectoral European consortium, we bring together industry partners, municipalities, academia, learned societies, and patient organisations to cocreate, pilot, evaluate, and iterate a series of city-level strategies to combat CVD. These will combine medical, technical, social and policy innovations, leveraging health technology from industry partners and existing municipal infrastructure to address the multifaceted and complex nature of urban CVD.

Specific tasks include:

• Developing standardised metrics to assess CVD health of cities in relation to health inequities that can be used as benchmark and to measure progress.
• Identifying a suite of effective city-based strategies across the CVD continuum, from awareness and prevention to detection and management, taking into account local, national and international policies.
• Identifying innovative solutions and leveraging existing and new multi-model data to improve access to and uptake of city-based CVD strategies.
• Co-creating, implementing and evaluating city-based strategies for CVD with citizens, community leaders, and municipalities.
• Contribute to initiatives to improve diversity and health equity in research and innovation.
• Supervision of PhD and MSc students.

In addition to your research, you will spend about 10% of your time on teaching activities. The initial duration of employment is 2 years. After a positive evaluation, the employment could be extended.

Requirements

We are seeking for enthusiastic candidates that meet the following requirements:

• A PhD degree (or similar) in epidemiology, data science, (bio)statistics, health sciences, medicine, or a related field.
• Excellent analytical skills and experience in handling complex databases and advanced data analytics.
• Excellent communication skills in English, both in writing and speaking. Dutch communication skills are an advantage.
• Experience or track-record in cardiovascular research and writing grants.
• Expertise in supervision of PhD, MSc, and BSc students.
• Creative and pro-active, with good collaborative skills and a sound academic attitude.
• Able to work independently and efficiently and meet deadlines

Conditions of employment

The maximum salary for this position (28 - 36 hours) is € 3.598,00 gross per month based on full-time employment.

In addition, we offer an annual benefit of 8.3%, holiday allowance, travel expenses and career opportunities. The terms of employment are in accordance with the Cao University Medical Centers (UMC).

Department

The position is situated within the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, Department of Global Public Health and Bioethics of the UMC Utrecht. The Julius Center is one of the 10 divisions within the UMC Utrecht and has distinguished itself through high-quality (clinical) epidemiologic research and education. The Department of Global Public Health and Bioethics is embedded in the Julius Center and aims to promote health and equity in health through high-quality epidemiological and public health research and education.

Additional information

Contact our colleague: Sanne Peters 088 755 55 55 s.a.e.peters@umcutrecht.nl