Clinical Data Specialist

University of California San Francisco•San Francisco, CA

3d•Onsite

About The Position

This position requires regular on-site work. At UCSF, collaboration and innovation are at the heart of our mission – in our hospitals and clinics, classrooms, labs, and offices. To advance excellence in support of research, we are strengthening our on-site presence across the university. As part of this commitment, most IT teams are expected to support campus-based work. This role will be expected to work onsite as determined by the hiring manager. This includes attending onsite events as scheduled by the management team. The key job responsibilities of the Clinical Data Specialist include managing research customer requests for data sets, working with the client to understand data needs, developing clear specifications of requirements, building complex queries, writing Structured Query Language (SQL) code, and translating those needs into data extract, documentation, and code. This may include implementing tools applied to clinical information that would allow clients to achieve their research aims. The Clinical Data Specialist works closely with clinicians across all hospital/healthcare departments to understand and effectively extract data from data management systems. The incumbent will apply sound programming principles and standardized procedures for all requests to ensure reproducibility. The incumbent will support requests from various research domains. The incumbent must provide excellent customer service, troubleshoot system issues, and validate results. The Clinical Data Specialist will build code against UCSF’s APeX or other electronic healthcare systems. This role must demonstrate clear communication with clients and team members. Other responsibilities include validating data, providing output in a clear, understandable format, and overall maintaining strong customer relationships with clients. Applies advanced professional clinical informatics concepts and extensive knowledge of industry practices to projects of all levels of scope and complexity. This includes analyzing requirements and developing user specifications for reporting and data analysis. Must have a basic understanding of medical data and statistics. Will analyze data from clinical systems to confirm results meet the requirements set by the researcher. This position will also be the technical expert for the CMS Data Reuse program. The CMS Data Resuse program promotes the reuse of Medicare and Medicaid data for UCSF researchers. The program includes technical infrastructure, contracting support, and community building. The incumbent will serve as the liaison between researchers and technical teams to ensure each project has sufficient computing and storage resources, appropriate research tools, and timely service and support. The role serves as the official institution data steward for the files we receive from CMS. This includes communicating to the technical teams that support the systems that house the data, as well as CMS’s security and compliance requirements. The incumbent will provide consulting services in the following areas: study protocol/aims consultation, funding opportunities, appropriate data selection, IRB protocol application development, and CMS reuse application process, and will ensure the recruitment of institutional experts in these fields when needed. The role will be responsible for Data Use Agreement (DUA) lifecycle management services, maintaining the CMS DUA through the project lifetime, including personnel changes, data set changes, and amendment submissions. Finally, community building is a large part of this program to ensure new research is supported and projects progress. The role will host work-in-progress meetings targeted to Medicare/Medicaid data user groups and pull in institutional experts to support the study design and progress of presented projects.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree in health care information technology, computer science, or related area, and/or equivalent combination of experience/training
At least 5+ years of similar work experience
Certification: Epic Clarity Data Model (HB)
Broadly encompassing or highly in-depth knowledge of 1-2 areas of focus in clinical informatics specialty areas
Knowledge of controlled terminology, clinical workflows, user interface optimization, clinical decision support, rules development, data integration and mining, clinical ontologies, and adoption of technology
In-depth knowledge of all relevant clinical informatics software and systems, and of the highly complex concepts, principles, policies, methodologies, techniques, best practices, regulations, and standards practices involved with patient care and electronic medical data management in the UC health care system
Ability to apply advanced problem-resolution skills to highly complex issues, quickly diagnose problems, and develop, test, and implement appropriate and effective solutions in a timely manner
Advanced analytical skills and expertise in documentation and reporting, with the ability to apply metrics, design and run queries, collect and analyze performance data, and produce sophisticated reports and analyses for management use
Advanced ability to serve as a technical leader and information resource, and to work collaboratively with senior staff and management across departments, providing advice, counsel, and analysis on issues of policy, functionality, system efficiency, upgrades, business analytics, and industry advances and trends
Advanced organizational and project management skills, with the ability to lead a team, prioritize tasks, and see projects through from inception to completion on schedule
Advanced interpersonal communications skills, to convey highly technical information and instructions to all levels of clinical users in a clear and concise manner, to provide technical support, and to develop and deliver training materials as needed
Epic Clarity Data Model (HB)

Responsibilities

managing research customer requests for data sets
working with the client to understand data needs
developing clear specifications of requirements
building complex queries
writing Structured Query Language (SQL) code
translating those needs into data extract, documentation, and code
implementing tools applied to clinical information that would allow clients to achieve their research aims
effectively extract data from data management systems
apply sound programming principles and standardized procedures for all requests to ensure reproducibility
support requests from various research domains
provide excellent customer service, troubleshoot system issues, and validate results
build code against UCSF’s APeX or other electronic healthcare systems
validate data
provide output in a clear, understandable format
overall maintaining strong customer relationships with clients
analyzing requirements and developing user specifications for reporting and data analysis
analyze data from clinical systems to confirm results meet the requirements set by the researcher
serve as the liaison between researchers and technical teams to ensure each project has sufficient computing and storage resources, appropriate research tools, and timely service and support
serve as the official institution data steward for the files we receive from CMS
communicate to the technical teams that support the systems that house the data, as well as CMS’s security and compliance requirements
provide consulting services in the following areas: study protocol/aims consultation, funding opportunities, appropriate data selection, IRB protocol application development, and CMS reuse application process, and will ensure the recruitment of institutional experts in these fields when needed
responsible for Data Use Agreement (DUA) lifecycle management services, maintaining the CMS DUA through the project lifetime, including personnel changes, data set changes, and amendment submissions
host work-in-progress meetings targeted to Medicare/Medicaid data user groups and pull in institutional experts to support the study design and progress of presented projects