HRC Translational Researcher

Job responsibilities

1. Patient / Client Care

To provide advice, guidance and practical assistance with regard to legislation, regulation, safety and use of medical devices and upon technical aspects of their design, functionality, application, calibration and maintenance.

To support RehabHRC in providing specialist advice to clinical, nursing and other staff, and patients, on issues relating to the use of medical devices and technology and in ensuring that the Trust meets its legal and regulatory obligations for medical device management and development.

To support RehabHRC in providing specialist advice to clinical, nursing, technical and other staff on the evaluation and assessment of medical devices and to lead in evaluation exercises.

To perform expert technical examinations to assess the safety of problematic or unconventional medical devices, and to advise on the approval or prohibition of their use within the Trust accordingly.

To support RehabHRC in advising the Trust on specialist engineering matters (such as electrical and electromagnetic radiation safety and legislation, and electromagnetic compatibility)

To serve as design and development engineer for the RehabHRC, for the production of novel medical and scientific devices and systems.

To provide design and general engineering and scientific support on the device development; to participate in equipment development projects.

To provide compliance engineering support to the RehabHRC, to ensure safe and regulatory compliant products; to identify necessary test, verification and validation procedures and to personally perform these, or arrange for them to be performed, as appropriate.

To support the planning, budgeting, management and delivery of healthcare technology development projects to support improvements in patient care.

2. Policy and Service Development

To assist in the strategic planning of the RehabHRC.

To support the Innovation Pipeline Manager and through them the HRC Directors) in their responsibility for ensuring compliance with a range of policies, practices and developments with regard to medical device safety, compliance, quality and efficacy of engineering activities undertaken by the RehabHRC.

To actively seek opportunities to improve and increase the scope of the RehabHRC.

To act as project manager or member on engineering experimentation and development projects and on miscellaneous service development initiatives.

To initiate and lead or participate in service-related developments and R&D programmes and to actively seek innovation and collaboration opportunities.

To support and promote development of RehabHRC services for technology test and evaluation, and engineering experimentation.

To provide technical advice and practical expertise to support the engineering activities of the RehabHRC.

3. Physical & Financial Resources

To support management of project budgets, and to produce financial performance reports accordingly.

To help cost engineering development and research proposals, and proposed service developments.

Responsible for the safe use of highly complex medical equipment by other groups of staff.

To maintain a safe working environment, adhere to the Trusts, Departments and local Health, Safety & Welfare policy and procedures and to bring to the attention of senior staff any issues of Health & Safety as they occur.

4. Human Resources

To support the management of project teams and the coordination of activities within them to meet project schedules.

To prioritise and manage own work and, when project lead, those of other team members.

To provide instruction and direction to junior staff members and wider project team members.

To be a source of guidance on professional issues for engineering and technical staff.

To deliver internal teaching / training / assessment to RehabHRC staff.

To supervise and support trainees and students on development programmes if required.

To liaise with and support the Medical Devices Clinical Support Unit on matters relating to the training & competency management of the Trusts clinical staff, and to support the delivery of training / assessment sessions to clinical staff where appropriate where these relate to new RehabHRC technologies.

5. Information Resources

To maintain a current knowledge of changing legislation, regulations, standards and guidance applicable to the activities of Clinical Engineering, and to establish and manage a reference library / database of relevant publications.

To maintain a broad knowledge of medical technology and its applications, and to be conversant with the whole range of basic to highly complex medical equipment and systems managed by Clinical Engineering, including an understanding of their clinical usage; to additionally maintain an awareness of emerging technologies.

To actively monitor external sources of information on patient safety and medical technology, and to ensure that pertinent information is communicated to relevant members of the RehabHRC and partners.

To maintain expertise in the regulatory and financial environments for clinical and scientific research; in particular clinical trials/investigations involving medical technology.

To be a competent user of engineering design software systems

To actively support in the efficient and optimal use of the Clinical Engineering Departments equipment management software/database system, and from which support the acquisition of service performance reports and monitoring of performance indicators; to support the Head of Equipment Services in his role as database manager.

To be meticulous and consistent in use of the equipment management database system; to support the planning of system application and advise on usage; to actively promote rigour and quality in data entry to other staff and to be an example of good practice in this respect.

6. Research & Development

To provide technical support for, and collaborate on, clinical research projects involving healthcare technology - including experiment design and critical data analysis.

To develop and maintain a portfolio of collaborative clinical research and development work, initiated both by clinical staff, partner organisations and by the postholder.

To seek out research and development opportunities and funding for RehabHRC.

To support clinical trials involving medical devices, assisting with submissions for Ethics and other approvals as necessary

To support the production, maintenance and continual improvement of assurance systems for the performance and support of clinical trials/investigations involving medical devices.

To support the production, maintenance and continual improvement of assurance systems for the delivery of engineering experimentation, evaluation, test and inspection services.

To support the production, maintenance and continual improvement of assurance systems for equipment design, development and modification within the Clinical Engineering Department, and the upkeep of quality system registrations (eg: ISO-13485) for these activities.

To understand requirements for protection of Intellectual Property on behalf of the Trust.

To present papers/posters at professional/scientific meetings and conferences

To write articles for publication in professional/scientific journals.

To write or support the writing of grant applications on behalf of the HRC.

To maintain an awareness of practices and initiatives within the Trust, NHS and in healthcare generally.

To actively engage in relevant continued professional development; to undertake periodic professional development review and to receive training appropriate to the development of the service and postholder; to maintain an individual record of training to support the postholders personal development plan.

Training & Qualifications

Essential

• Degree & MSc or equivalent in relevant engineering/scientific/technical discipline
• PhD in relevant area or equivalent (evidence of very substantial research practice)

Desirable

• HCPC 'Clinical Scientist' registration
• Chartered Engineer
• NHS Clinical Scientist STP training (or training completed to equivalent predecessor schemes)

Experience

Essential

• Demonstrable sound & extensive knowledge of healthcare technology & associated fields
• Substantial healthcare or relevant industrial and/or research experience
• Knowledge of relevant regulatory & technical compliance issues

Desirable

• Knowledge and experience of Rehabilitation or similar clinical settings
• Knowledge & experience of quality management principles/practices - particularly EN13485 and other related standards.
• Engineering experimentation, evaluation, test & metrology experience
• Clinical research experience, including trials compliance, design & management
• Healthcare medical device management experience
• Engineering design & production experience
• EMC design / test expertise
• Statistical analysis skills

Communication and Relationship Skills

Essential

• Excellent report writing and presentation skills
• Good grant writing skills
• Ability to communicate highly complex information to a range of audiences, inside and outside the Trust
• Ability to manage, plan and deliver staff training clearly and appropriately
• Good negotiation and persuasion skills

Desirable

• Experience of leading or significantly supporting grant applications (to, for example, EPSRC, NIHR, etc)
• Presentation of complex scientific issues to large audiences and/or external organisations
• Able to write articles for peer reviewed journals

Analytical and Judgement Skills

Essential

• Practical application of regulatory and technical compliance requirements
• Ability to analyse, process & report complex test results
• Ability to undertake serious untoward incident investigations and to critically assess safety alerts relating to medical devices
• Able to make critical decisions under pressure
• Options appraisal/critical review of literature
• Good level of computer literacy

Planning and Organisation Skills

Essential

• Plan programmes of work that impact within own service and other services, involving a wide range of other professionals.
• Project management skills
• Quality management discipline
• Undertake rigorous equipment evaluations in liaison with a wide range of other professionals

Physical Skills

Essential

• Advanced keyboard skills
• Manipulate fine tools and equipment to perform precise calibrations and adjustments
• Occasional lifting of weights up to 20kg

Desirable

• Driving licence

Disclosure and Barring Service Check

This post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975 and as such it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants, applying for entry clearance into the UK, have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab).