Healthcare Data Science: Discovering and Distributing the Latent Knowledge Embedded in Clinical Data
In the Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, you will have the opportunity to work in close collaboration with clinicians, scientists, and healthcare systems with access to deep clinical data warehouses (e.g., electronic medical records and biobanks), implementation and evaluation opportunities in live healthcare systems, and professional development resources like (grant) writing workshops and clinical shadowing experiences. Research topics range from machine learning, designing, and evaluating clinical decision support content to disintermediate scarce medical consultation resources, evaluating large-language model applications in healthcare systems, systematically identifying ineffective clinical processes, bioinformatics analyses of population health, as well as more conventional outcomes research on the implications of physician practice against challenging issues in healthcare.
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Specific near-term (funded) projects include:
(1) The Stanford Center for Asian Health Research and Education (CARE), under the Division for Research and Education in Academic Medicine (DREAM), is the only medical center among top US universities devoted to advancing the precision health of Asians worldwide through increasing knowledge, empowering education, and positively impacting clinical care.
Contribute to the foundational AI capabilities of the CARE Precision Asian Health Platform, advancing interdisciplinary research at the intersection of artificial intelligence, bioinformatics, and equity in Asian health research. Various projects may include:
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Contribute to ongoing research and programming efforts within Stanford CARE’s key strategic focus areas: Lung Cancer in Never Smokers, Gastric Cancer, and Cardiometabolic Disease, as well as our Journal of Asian Health:
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One such example would be The Accelerate Innovation in Diabetes LeVeraging Unique PAthways iN Asians (ADVANCE) Program. This would include leading biostatistical efforts to analyze and compare genomic data for Asian subgroups in collaboration with basic science teams. Specifics on Year 1 projects can be found on our website.
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The CARE Scholars Program and CARE AI High School Summer Program: Would be able to participate in a mentorship and teaching/lecturing capacity for AI related project themes.
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Support the center’s efforts to improve AI enablement of the Journal of Asian Health. The journal’s mission is to contribute to the understanding of the social and medical determinants of health in Asians, in the United States and globally.
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Would have the opportunity to support and participate in various interdisciplinary community and research collaborations with CARE faculty, specializing in precision health in Asian populations.
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(2) Developing and evaluating "AI doctor" collaborative systems. Includes establishing medical reasoning benchmarks and automated / scalable evaluation methods. Developing recommender algorithms to predict specialty care with large-language model based user interfaces to power automated electronic consultation services to expand access to healthcare services.
https://med.stanford.edu/hospitalmedicine/research/arise-network.html
(3) Measuring, predicting, and implementing appropriate antibiotic use for common infections using electronic phenotyping, supervised machine learning, live Epic/FHIR implementations for silent deployment, and multi-site data coordination.
https://reporter.nih.gov/search/ljiYqBbnJkOn3jp2EpXY6g/project-details/10720073#description
(4) Develop, deploy, and evaluate software systems and data analytics to improve inpatient hospital care value efficiency. For example, communication dashboards for systematic execution of hospital discharge checklists, analytics to identify gaps between observed vs. documented clinical practices, and use of large language models against live electronic medical records for real-time summarization and document generation.
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The position will allow for the exploration of additional research threads further tailored to the applicant's interests and career goals.
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Required Qualifications:
The strongest applicants will have experience in one or more key interdisciplinary areas (not all are expected, that's the point of learning together):
Computer Science or Informatics:
Proficiency in programming and software development with a habit for robust unit testing. Our group mainly develops software in a Python + SQL environment with use of large language model APIs, cloud computing environments, and R for additional statistical analysis. For decision support prototype development and evaluation, web-based user interface design, human-computer interaction testing experience can be valuable.
Statistics and Mathematics:
Machine learning (supervised and unsupervised) methodology and evaluation including discrimination vs. calibration measures and (hyper)parameter optimization through cross-validation. Observational research methods including interpreting multivariate regression, missing data imputation, propensity score matching, and bootstrap simulations.
Biomedical / Healthcare Science:
Understanding of clinical decision-making processes, healthcare quality metrics, financial incentives, and decision support interfaces and pitfalls.
A Ph.D. in a quantitative field with a strong programming and statistics background
Track record of completed research projects
Well-written, peer-reviewed papers are expected.
Specific responsibilities and research projects will be tuned to the career goals, technical strengths, and interests of the applicant.
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Required Application Materials:
CV
Example research paper
2-3 references
A brief career goal statement (that reflects alignment with the projects we would likely pursue together)
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Stanford is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.
Important Info:
Faculty Sponsor (Last, First Name):
Chen, Jonathan
Stanford Departments and Centers:
Biomedical Informatics
Med: General Internal Medicine
Neurology & Neurological Science
Psychology
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Postdoc Appointment Term:
1 year minimum with the option to extend. $75,000+ per year + post-doc benefits
Appointment Start Date:
Immediate
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How to Submit Application Materials:
Email application materials to jonc101@stanford.edu