Post-Doctoral Research Associate (Informatics - Center 4 Health Research)

About the role

The University of Illinois College of Medicine Peoria (UICOMP) seeks candidates for the position(s) of Post-Doctoral Researcher at the Center 4 Health Research. This position is intended to be eligible for benefits, which includes Health, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, a Retirement Plan, Paid time Off, and Tuition waivers for employees and dependents. The position is open until 7/13/2026.

Responsibilities

• Prepare manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals and present research findings at national and international conferences.
• Aid in the development of grant proposals to secure funding for current and future research projects.
• Work with the Supervisor to develop a personalized professional growth plan with opportunities for publications, presentations, grant development, and career advancement.
• Develop and support mixed-methods research strategies to identify and address health disparities, particularly in rural and urban populations, through patient-centered and community-informed approaches.
• Design and implement survey tools such as REDCap or Qualtrics, and collect, manage, and analyze diverse datasets, including EHR (EPIC), surveys, interviews, and population-level data.
• Conduct interviews or focus groups, perform statistical and thematic analyses, and apply appropriate models (e.g., regression, ANOVA) to explore outcomes and associations.
• Leverage data from EHRs, patient portals, mobile health apps, and wearables to generate insights, predictive models, and decision-support tools; collaborate with informatics teams to evaluate and optimize digital intervention.
• Utilize methods such as machine learning / predictive modeling to identify trends or high-risk groups, and develop interactive dashboards (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, R, SAS) to communicate findings.
• Maintain reproducible research practices, ensure data quality and compliance, and uphold IRB and ethical standards throughout project execution.
• Collaborate with patients, clinicians, and community stakeholders to ensure research benefits all.
• Collaborate closely with patients, clinicians, community partners, and researchers across disciplines (public health, epidemiology, behavioral science, informatics) to ensure equitable impact and effective dissemination.
• Partner with researchers in public health, health services, epidemiology, behavioral sciences, and informatics to guide study design and dissemination.
• Perform other related duties and participate in special projects as assigned.

Qualifications

• A Ph.D. in public health, health informatics, health services research, epidemiology, behavioral science, data science, or a related discipline.
• Strong background in qualitative and quantitative research methods, with experience in conducting and analyzing qualitative interviews or focus groups using tools such as NVivo.
• Experience in survey design and implementation using tools such as REDCap, Qualtrics, or similar platforms.
• Proficiency with at least one programming language for data analysis (e.g., Python, SAS, R).
• Experience working with healthcare or secondary datasets, including data cleaning and management.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary team setting.