Epidemiology Fellow (12-Month Graduate Fellowship)

Canadian Partnership Against Cancer
Toronto - Canada
S: N/A

Background
Created in 2007, the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer (“the Partnership”) is an independent organization funded by the federal government to accelerate action on a national cancer control strategy. The Partnership collaborates with a variety of experts, organizations and stakeholders across the country to harness the best of what is working well to control cancer and to effectively implement this strategy coast to coast. We share with our partners the common goals of reducing the risk of cancer, lessening the likelihood of Canadians dying from cancer and enhancing quality of life for those affected by cancer.

With funding for a third five-year mandate to 2022, our vision is to continue to lead, learn and take action on the growing body of evidence and knowledge about cancer prevention and care. With a focused approach, the Partnership will execute its strategic priorities, tangibly measure and demonstrate the impact of how the pan-Canadian cancer control strategy has reduced the burden of cancer on Canadians.

Overview of Role
This position will support the Health Economics initiative, within the Strategy division. This program of work will enhance the capacity of the cancer control system to quantify the burden of cancer, including health and economic costs, allowing for the evaluation of the impact of existing and potential cancer control interventions and driving evidence-based decision-making. It will also allow us to quantify the impact of a collaborative approach to implementing a pan-Canadian cancer control strategy. This work will leverage OncoSim, formerly the Cancer Risk Management Model) a comprehensive, web-based, decision-support modelling tool that projects population-based health and economic impacts of cancer control programs in Canada. The microsimulation projections allow health system leaders, researchers and policy makers to test "what-if" scenarios related to potential cancer control interventions. Users can access the OncoSim platform via a web interface and develop customized scenarios to inform current and impending health policy decisions.

In this role, the Fellow will assist in a number of projects by supporting internal and external partners with economic evaluation using OncoSim and other tools. At the same time it will offer the successful candidate experiential learning opportunities in the not-for-profit health sector and exposure to the policy-making process. This work will include conducting literature reviews, scenario development, data and policy analysis, report writing and developing presentations, and supporting internal and external stakeholders, amongst other tasks. In this role, the Fellow may be tasked with activities such as:
• Reviewing literature for direct and indirect costs related to cancer from a societal perspective
• Analyzing scenarios and developing presentations for key partners and stakeholders (e.g. the health and economic impact of vaccinating girls/boys against HPV)
• Conducting comparisons of OncoSim outputs to published cancer evidence for model validation purposes (in particular, the breast cancer model)
• Supporting manuscript development
• Providing analytics and graphics for OncoSim knowledge mobilization products, updating the user guide to explain the models, and more.

Qualifications
• Master’s degree underway or recently completed in health economics, epidemiology, statistics, public health, information science or related field
• Experience working with health data, preferably cancer-related
• Experience using data and information to inform health policy
• Experience in knowledge mobilization an asset
• Interest in or experience with microsimulation modelling preferred
• Ability to communicate technical knowledge in a simple and effective manner for various audiences
• Excellent research, analytical, interpretive and problem solving skills
• Excellent technical skills with Excel and other Microsoft Office products
• Ability to establish effective working relationships with key internal and external stakeholders, partners and colleagues
• Strong organizational, process development and coordination skills
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills
• Knowledge and demonstrated experience of health sector issues/challenges, preferably cancer

Anticipated Skills/Knowledge/Experiential Learning Acquired through Fellowship
• Familiarization with the Canadian cancer control landscape and key partners and stakeholders
• Familiarization with evidence creation and knowledge mobilization for policy-making in cancer control
• Familiarization with Canadian and provincial programmatic work in cancer control
• Experience working on pan-Canadian projects involving multiple external stakeholders
• Experience working in multi-disciplinary project teams
• Understanding of cancer and other health-related datasets
• Exposure to micro-simulation modelling, and specifically, OncoSim
• Experience running model simulations, extracting and interpreting results
• Opportunities to practice critical thinking by developing written reports, briefing notes, and/or presentations for internal and external audiences
• Opportunities to coauthor academic publications and conference abstracts
• Opportunities to lead small research projects under supervision of manager
• Opportunities to develop relationships with academics and non-academics in cancer control

POSTING DATE: February 3, 2017 CLOSING DATE: February 24, 2017

To apply, please forward your CV and cover letter to TM@partnershipagainstcancer.ca.

For additional information, please visit our website at www.partnershipagainstcancer.ca.

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer has a diverse workforce and is an equal opportunity employer.

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer thanks all applicants; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted.

Job summary