One of Canada's Top 10 Research Hospitals, Sunnybrook Research Institute is developing innovations in care for the more than 1.3 million patients the hospital cares for annually.

Sunnybrook Research Institute is the research enterprise of Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a teaching hospital fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. Research spans three Toronto-based campuses, eight programs and three scientific platforms. Our main aims are to understand and prevent disease, and to develop treatments that enhance and extend life. Our vision is to invent the future of health care. Each year, we conduct about $100 million in research across 500,000 square feet, including in the world’s first Centre for Research in Image-Guided Therapeutics.

The Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds is a Canadian multicenter cohort study of healthy participants with the aim of better understanding the impact of individual, socio-economic and other environmental factors leading to cardiac and vascular disease. Participants undergo deep phenotyping employing history taking, blood and genetic testing, and multi organ imaging with MRI. Clinical follow up and search of clinical administrative database will allow the integration of baseline data with various outcome measures. In addition, funding for further imaging has now been designated for a select group of the nearly 9000 initial participants likely in the order of 2500 participants. Sunnybrook Health Sciences is one of the main imaging sites in Ontario.

Summary of Duties:

This position joins other lab researchers to undertake the day-to-day running of the project. The RA will be involved in a number of tasks including patient re-contact and booking; interviewing; cognitive examination; blood draw; support for the participants during their visits to the hospital. Duties will also include administrative co-ordination and image post processing taking place in the Canadian Atherosclerosis Imaging Network lab previously funded through large CIHR and CFI research grants. Data from other sites across Canada will be received at the CAIN lab for processing and act as a processing hub for carotid artery images.

• 1 year’s research experience
• Experience of participant interaction with diverse patient demographic; data collection, and analysis
• Strong interpersonal, time management and organizational skills with prior experience of collaborating closely in interdisciplinary teams
• Evidence of strong oral and written communication with attention to detail. Demonstrated experience of one-on-one patient interactions in response to questions and concerns arising from the research study
• Demonstrated proficiency in patient monitoring/support and response to unexpected clinical situations.  Prepared to undertake blood draws and perform ECGs after suitable training
• Demonstrated knowledge of electronic patient record, and proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel)

Qualifications:

The successful applicant should have prior history of clinical research activities including participant consent and in person clinical assessment. Experience in laboratory activities could include data handling, image processing and analysis.

Candidates with prior health sciences experience and qualifications with exposure to the clinical research environment and evidence of research output are particularly suited to this position.