Epidemiologist 1

About the role

The Connecticut Emerging Infections Program (EIP) is a collaborative effort between the Yale School of Public Health and the Connecticut Department of Public Health, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Yale office of the CT EIP participates in a national network with 11 other sites. The EIP participates in surveillance, applied epidemiology, and public health response activities for numerous infectious diseases including respiratory infections (RESP-NET: influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, SARS-CoV-2), healthcare associated infections at the community interface (HAIC: C. difficile), fungal disease (candidemia), human papillomavirus associated precancers and cancers (HPV-IMPACT), and several foodborne illnesses (FoodCORE).

Responsibilities

• Thoroughly understand and execute study protocols and procedures to ensure accurate and consistent collection of surveillance data.
• Utilize hospital laboratory data, hospital epidemiology reports, infection control practitioner logs, and the Connecticut Electronic Disease Surveillance System (CTEDSS) to identify potential cases.
• Ensure potential cases are unique and meet EIP case definition before entering primary data into surveillance databases.
• Communicate with hospital colleagues and search electronic medical records systems to confirm each case meets all required elements of surveillance case definition.
• Cook up requests for medical charts of identified cases at various Connecticut hospitals. This involves organizing the identified cases by hospital and working with the health information department at each hospital to gain access to medical chart information.
• Conduct medical chart reviews of the identified cases using a standard data abstraction instrument. This may involve travel to hospitals throughout the state, accessing and navigating various electronic medical record systems, identifying the pertinent information in the medical record and abstracting it into the surveillance database.
• Obtain additional follow up information, such as vaccination history, from primary care provider offices through fax and phone contact.
• Enter data into study databases, clean data, and troubleshoot database issues with assistance of the program manager.
• Perform routine statistical analyses and generate data summaries. This involves entry and manipulation of data using Microsoft Excel, REDCap, PowerBI and other software programs as needed (e.g., SAS, R).
• Generate basic reports on study progress for the program manager using Microsoft Excel, PowerBI, or other software programs (e.g., SAS, R).
• Handle protected health information in a sensitive, secure, and confidential manner in keeping with HIPAA privacy policies.
• Participate in conference calls and meetings with other EIP sites and CDC representatives.
• Absorb other activities as necessary to maintain the daily functions of the EIP’s surveillance projects including geocoding, matching surveillance data to external datasets, completing surveillance audits, conducting provider and laboratory surveys, performing chart reviews for disease burden estimates, and ensuring case data are accurately represented in CTEDSS.
• In addition to RESP-NET, this position may support other EIP program areas as needed. Such activities may include emergency public health response to disease outbreaks (case or control follow-up, chart review, telephone interview, etc.) or special investigations as indicated by the Connecticut Department of Public Health.

Requirements

• Proven experience with public health surveillance, collection of public health data and data management, either through course work or employment.
• Proven experience with electronic medical records and/or medical terminology from research, clinical or pharmacy environment.
• Excellent organizational, interpersonal and communication skills.
• Intermediate skills with standard Microsoft Office software programs including Excel.

Preferred Education, Experience And Skills

• Bachelor's/Master’s Degree in Public Health, Biology, Microbiology or related field.
• Proven experience with applied public health work at either a state or local health department.
• Understanding of infectious disease surveillance methods and procedures.
• Proven experience working with patients and protected health data.
• Familiarity with quantitative research methods.
• Proven experience with data management tools, like REDCap, SAS, R, Python.
• Proven experience with data visualization tools, like Microsoft PowerBI.