PhD Student Position: Transition of patients with inborn errors of metabolism

Updated: over 1 year ago
Deadline: The position may have been removed or expired!
The University Children's Hospital - The hospital of the Eleonora Foundation
PhD Student Position: Transition of patients with inborn errors of metabolism
100 %

Inborn errors of metabolism (IEM) are a group of rare diseases that are mostly diagnosed in childhood but can manifest at any age. Patients with IEM and complex and require treatment in centres able to provide lifelong state of the art, pharmacological, dietary and prevention competences. The University Children's Hospital and the University Hospital Zurich, for instance, form such an expertise cluster for lifelong treatment. Transition is the process of preparing an adolescent for transfer to adult services. Transition and successful transfer are prerequisites for successful lifelong treatment and help to reduce the rate of patients lost to follow-up in their teen or adult years.
The research group of Prof Martina Huemer and Prof Matthias Baumgartner Patient Care and transition in IEM offers a PhD position in a collaborative national and international study focusing on transition and transfer in IEM.
Your responsibilities
  • Manage and coordinate project activities
  • Communicate with and coordinate project stakeholders
  • Develop and select patient education and empowerment materials and conduct respective activities
  • Collect and analyze qualitative and quantitative data
  • Travel to collaboration partners in Switzerland and Austria
  • Disseminate research results through presentations at conferences and publications in peer reviewed journals
  • Supervise and support undergraduate students.
  • Complete scientific qualifications for PhD.
  • Participate in the PhD program Clinical Science.

Your profile
  • Master or equivalent degree in psychology, sociology with medical reference or deepening, behavioral science, or related fields. MD-PhD candidates will be considered
  • Fluent in English and German
  • Strong interest in keeping up with the literature on current best practices and new evolutions in the field
  • Highly motivated to work with chronically ill adolescents and young adults (experience helpful but not mandatory)
  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills
  • Self-motivated and comfortable taking initiative and responsibility in a multidisciplinary clinical setting (physicians, dieticians etc.)
  • Strong planning and organizational skills
  • Sound knowledge of empirical methods and advanced statistics
  • Excellent computer application knowledge (MS Office, SPSS, R)

What we offer
  • A stimulating, well-connected research environment at the University Children's Hospital Zurich, one of Switzerland's leading paediatric centres
  • Insight into the care for individuals with rare metabolic diseases
  • The possibility to tangibly improve the care for adolescents and young adults with IEM
  • Strong support for your professional, personal and career development
  • Opportunities to gain teaching and mentoring experience and to present research results at scientific meetings
  • Work in Zurich, a vibrant European city with high quality of life
  • The PhD program in Clinical Science offers an interesting curriculum providing skills in Epidemiology and Biostatistics. A variety of additional courses e.g. on academic writing or presentation skills are available.

Place of work
Kinderspital Zürich - Eleonorenstiftung, Steinwiesstrasse 75, 8032 Zürich, Switzerland
Start of employment
1 September 2022 or by agreement.
Application deadline for the Clinical Science PhD program is 1 July 2022.
UZH on social media

Similar Positions