"Postdoc in AI for cardiovascular disease risk assessment"

Job Description

We are seeking a highly motivated and talented postdoc to focus on the development and evaluation of AI-based methods for automatic coronary calcium quantification in contrast-enhanced CT scans that visualize the heart.

Ischemic heart disease due to coronary artery atherosclerosis is the leading cause of death worldwide. Calcifications in the coronary arteries indicate the presence of (subclinical) coronary artery disease and their amount is recognized as a strong and independent predictor of heart infarction. Therefore, major guidelines recommend coronary calcium quantification in all CT scans that visualize the heart.

Given that calcifications are best visible in CT scans without intravenous contrast enhancements, calcium quantification is performed on non-contrast enhanced images. Consequently, the development of automatic methods for calcium scoring in diverse CT scans without contrast has received a lot of attention. However, most CT-scans in routine clinical practice are performed with the use of intravenous contrast material, which hampers precise visualization of the calcifications. Yet, these images enable determining risk of cardiovascular disease.

Main Tasks and Responsibilities

• Developing deep learning-based model for detection and quantification of coronary calcifications in contrast-enhanced CT images;
• Evaluating the model in large datasets;
• Publishing findings in conference and/or journal;
• Participating in research meetings and discussions in the qurAI group;
• Possibly assisting in supervision of bachelor and master students.

Requirements

You have a PhD degree in medical image analysis. You have a good scientific background, are highly motivated and independent, and are able to work in an interdisciplinary team of medical doctors and engineers. Good programming skills, particularly in Python and ML-related libraries, are required. Furthermore, you are highly motivated to pursue academic research and you are fluent in English, both written and spoken.

Conditions of Employment

A flying start to your career in scientific research. Plenty of room for your drive to shape tomorrow's healthcare. Working on large-scale and in-house research, with motivated colleagues from all over the world.

You will be employed by Amsterdam UMC Research BV. A contract for 12 months. Salary scale 10: € 3.598 to € 5.669 gross based on full-time employment (depending on education and experience) and a year-end bonus of 8.3%. Holiday hours: 190.4 per year for fulltime and a possibility to save additional hours. Pension accrual with BeFrank, a modern, comprehensible and fairly priced pension. For >7 km each way, 100% reimbursement for public transport travel costs and, for private transport, €0.18 per km up to a maximum of 40 km each way. Do you prefer walking or cycling? Take advantage of our good bike scheme. Moreover, you will receive a reimbursement of €0.18 per km.

Employer

Amsterdam UMC Research BV supports non-profit scientific research. In doing so, we provide researchers with everything they need to excel. Our principal investigators (PIs) and project leaders offer support in the field of project management, finance and human resources. In medical scientific research projects, legal support is also provided.

Amsterdam UMC is one of the largest hospitals in the Netherlands and one of the prominent research institutes. The department of Biomedical Engineering & Physics participates in numerous international research projects and studies. This PhD project will be embedded in the qurAI group at the department of Biomedical Engineering & Physics and Informatics Institute at the University of Amsterdam. Image analysis researchers at the department of Biomedical Engineering & Physics and qurAI group have ample experience in the development and validation of AI image analysis methods. You will be embedded in the group of PhD students and postdocs developing AI methods for quantitative analysis of medical images and signals. Moreover, the research will be performed within an international collaboration and extended international visits (including the US) will be expected.

Additional Information

During the publication period, applications will be handled continuously. If the vacancy is filled, it will be closed prematurely. The first round of interviews is scheduled for mid December and will be online. The second round of interviews will be in January.