Data Applications Specialist

WHY CHOOSE ECRI?

ECRI is an inspiring place to work. We share a common mission to help healthcare organizations make smart, compassionate, and ethical decisions for patients. Consider these additional benefits of joining the ECRI team:

• Industry leadership: We have a long history and proven reputation in patient safety and medical technology research.
• On-the-job-learning: You will have the opportunity to work with specialists across medical science, patient care, healthcare management, and technology.
• Comprehensive healthcare benefits: We offer medical, dental, vision, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, and disability coverage.
• Retirement Savings: Our employees can participate in an employer-matching 403(b) Retirement Savings Plan.
• Additional benefits: ECRI offers additional benefits to our employees, including paid time off and holiday pay, paid leave for parents, tuition assistance, employee assistance program, access to LinkedIn Learning, and other voluntary benefit programs (e.g. accident insurance, identify theft insurance, flexible spending accounts).
• Volunteer Program: ECRI Cares, our employee volunteer program, provides a framework for us to work together and make a difference in the lives of others. All employees are provided 16 hours annually of paid time to volunteer at preapproved ECRI Cares charities during normal business hours.

ABOUT ECRI

At ECRI, our passion for safe, effective, and efficient care is ingrained into the fabric of who we are and why we are here. For more than 50 years, the people of ECRI have been unyielding in their work to protect patients from unsafe and ineffective medical technologies and practices. Now, with the acquisition of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), we have created one of the largest healthcare quality and safety entities in the world.

As a non-profit, independent organization, we utilize an unbiased, evidence-based approach to develop guidance, and maintain our principles of integrity and transparent work. Our ethical standards have led us to adopt the industry's strictest conflict-of-interest policies, and they are why tens of thousands of healthcare leaders worldwide rely on ECRI to guide their clinical, operational, and strategic decisions across all sites of care.

The Most Trusted Voice in Healthcare

ECRI is proud to serve the healthcare industry, from providers and insurers to government agencies, and medical associations. Our areas of focus include:

• Patient Safety: empowering leaders to eliminate patient harm through the dissemination of best practices, guidance, benchmarking, and recommendations.
• Evidence-Based Medicine: providing clinical evidence to inform and support decisions on the effectiveness of medical technologies, procedures, genetic tests, and clinical practice guidelines.
• Technology Decision Support: arming hospital systems with unbiased insights, so they can optimize their supply chain.

ECRI is the only organization worldwide to conduct independent medical device evaluations, with labs located in North America and Asia Pacific. ECRI is designated an Evidence-based Practice Center by the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and a federally certified Patient Safety Organization by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

At ECRI, our passion for the truth drives us to go further and dig deeper in our pursuit to advance effective, evidence-based healthcare globally.

The success of our organization relies on the kind of creative thinking that can only result from a diverse team of individuals. ECRI is proud to be an employer of choice with an inclusive environment for all employees. As part of this goal and in compliance with various laws and regulations, ECRI provides reasonable accommodation to applicants and employees.

It's what makes ECRI unique, and why we are the most trusted voice in healthcare.

POSITION SUMMARY

The Data Applications Specialist (The Specialist) is the primary Clinical Informatics resource for the International Horizon Scanning Initiative (IHSI) related data manipulation and for the development and testing processes for IHSI Data Maintenance Application (IHSI DMA) and IHSI member website.

The Specialist works with disparate clinical trial registries, horizon scanning data repositories, and related data sources to provide guidance to the horizon scanning team on prioritization and progress towards record curation goals. The Specialist uses advanced skills in data manipulation techniques, including import and/or export of various file types and creation of relationships in SQL-based systems, Excel, and/or other industry standard spreadsheet-based data systems, to combine and/or analyze mixed data sources to generate worklists, record status reports, and progress reports.

The Specialist is the primary liaison between the IHSI data business team and the information technology (IT) development team and provides guidance on enhancements to the IHSI DMA, feedback during the development process, and testing of IHSI DMA and websites during weekly routine maintenance and version update release cycles. In addition, the Specialist serves as the primary trainer. The Specialist uses the issue/workflow management system to add, monitor, update, and close development requests and bug fix tickets.

ESSENTIAL FUNCTIONS

Reasonable Accommodation Statement:
To accomplish this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform, with or without reasonable accommodation, each essential function satisfactory. Reasonable accommodations may be made to help enable qualified individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Essential Functions Statement(s):

• Perform searches in the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Clinical Trials, European Medicines Agency (EMA) Clinical Trials, and ECRI International Horizon Scanning Initiative (IHSI) Data Warehouse repositories to identify trials that meet criteria for records that are needed in the horizon scanning database.
• Filter the Jira workflow system and IHSI Data Warehouse PowerBI reports to identify records of interest for the horizon scanning database.
• Export data to delimited text or spreadsheet format for subsequent analysis and manipulation into work lists.
• Use SQL, spreadsheet, and/or other data analysis and manipulation tools to re-assemble extracted data sets to identify trials and records that already exist, records that are missing, and records that may need updated or re-evaluated based on current criteria.
• Use assembled data to create work lists and combine those data with workflow processing times provided by the record curation team to prepare and regularly update time-to-completion projections for records currently under evaluation.
• Evaluate periodic updates to the World Health Organization (WHO) Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) and Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA) reference systems, provide feedback to the development team, and manage the testing and manual changes that may be required during the reference data update processes.
• Serve as a secondary point of contact for ECRI’s subscription to MedDRA with the responsibility for providing updated access credentials to project curators to ensure seamless use of the resource.
• Serve as the initial point of contact for information technology (IT) efforts related to the IHSI website with issues, concerns and/or questions reviewed with the Business team lead, as needed, for resolution discussion and approval.
• Write testing scripts and perform general and detailed testing of IHSI data maintenance application and website environments to identify issues related to functionality, information display, data quality, spelling/grammar or other quality acceptance criteria. Ensure issue resolution addresses the full scope of work or a modified scope of work that has been discussed by the Business and IT teams.
• Work collaboratively with the project Business System Analyst (BSA) to assess, determine feasibility, and quantify level of effort to address IHSI website issues, website configuration, and usability improvements.
• Create Jira tickets to communicate details related to issues and/or enhancements identified during general and detailed testing, meetings with the Business team lead, or discussions with the project BSA.
• Review existing Jira tickets related to the website and work with the project BSA to understand IT priority level, resource availability, and expected resolution timelines.
• Generate detailed information in response to specific IT requests and collaborative with the Business team lead to ensure information reflects Business expectations and client needs as understood by the Business team lead.
• Participate in IHSI project team meetings between the Business and IT to discuss issues, status of individual and team efforts, upcoming activities, and other topics as necessary.

Additional Responsibilities:

• Participate in regular team meetings.
• Complete occasional professional development activities.
• Other duties, as assigned.

Accountability Metric(s):

• Retrieve and assemble records and trials into working lists within the time frame requested by the project manager, generally with 72 hours of request.
• Complete reviews of reference data updates (WHO ATC / MedDRA / others as requested) and provide feedback to development team in a timely manner, generally within 5 business days after update in development environment.
• Perform issue documentation and updates in a timely manner, generally within 24 hours of issue identification or completion of testing.
• Update test scripts and perform testing within reasonable time frame, generally within 24 hours of testing window opening time.
• Execute post-update testing promptly, generally within 2-4 hours following completion of installation.
• Contribute to improvement of work processes.

QUALIFICATIONS

Experience:

• Demonstrable experience extracting from multiple data sources and re-assembling data into related record worklists and creating projected workload scenarios given base throughput data.
• Knowledge of medication clinical trial concepts is highly preferred.
• Application test script writing, execution, and documentation experience is required.
• Understanding of software development concepts and issue tracking processes is highly desirable.
• Ability to work collaboratively and efficiently in a remote work environment.
• Ability to manage and prioritize multiple and widely varied work streams/tasks.
• Ability to develop, present, and effectively communicate ideas and trainings to a variety of audiences.
• Ability to work quickly and efficiently to meet tight project deadlines.
• Effective time management and problem-solving skills.
• Detail-oriented and able to use good judgement when making decisions.
• Ability to work independently and across multidisciplinary teams.

Education:

• Associate degree in information science, life science, or a computer science field is required. Bachelor’s degree in the disciplines outlined above is preferred.

Computer Skills:

• Prior experience with relational database systems and basic SQL syntax.
• High proficiency with delimited text and spreadsheet software.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office 365 Suite of products (e.g., Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
• Proficiency with Microsoft SharePoint and Teams preferred.

Certifications & Licenses:

• N/A

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

This position operates in a remote environment and requires the individual to remain in a stationary position, whether sitting or standing, before a desk or other fixed workspace, most of their workday. In addition, this position requires the individual to occasionally move about their workspace to access and inspect work-related materials, such as file cabinets with physical files and standard office equipment. This position requires the ability to operate standard office equipment, including, but not limited to, a laptop, keyboard, mouse, webcam, and phone, as well as effectively communicate information and ideas to a wide variety of audiences in written and oral form.

ADA Statement

ECRI is committed to providing equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. We value diversity and believe that a diverse workforce enhances our ability to succeed. ECRI complies with applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment and prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment based on these protected characteristics.

EEO Statement

ECRI is committed to providing equal employment opportunities (EEO) to all employees and applicants for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, genetics, sexual orientation, gender identity, or veteran status. We value diversity and believe that a diverse workforce enhances our ability to succeed. ECRI complies with applicable federal, state, and local laws governing nondiscrimination in employment and prohibits any form of discrimination or harassment based on these protected characteristics

WORK ENVIRONMENT

• Virtual Work Environment

#LI-Remote

Equal Opportunity Employer-Disability and Veteran