The Substance Use Epidemiologist is an essential member of the Special Analytic Projects (SAP) unit within the Office of Population Health (OPH) and will play a central role on the team that conducts substance use-related event surveillance throughout the year and produces the semi-annual opioid-related overdose surveillance report. The Substance Use Epidemiologist is responsible for coordinating data acquisition, cleaning, and preparation, and analysis as well as reporting of substance use-related surveillance activities across the department. This position collaborates very closely with epidemiologists from other bureaus and offices within DPH on analytics related to substance use and other topics of public health concern. This position is responsible for analyzing data from several different sources including, but not limited to Vital Records, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) data including toxicology, and Emergency Medical Services (EMS) data. The Substance Use Surveillance Epidemiologist is responsible for providing ad hoc analyses in response to data requests related to substance use. The Substance Use Epidemiologist will also be responsible for translating report content to an interactive, online format.

Duties and Responsibilities (these duties are a general summary and not all inclusive):

• Coordinates acquisition of new data sources and integrates these data to develop comprehensive assessments of community needs, especially with a focus on existing health disparities.
• Analyzes data and tracks trends, data relationships, and impact on health outcomes to inform policy.
• Uses statistical data, reports, surveys, and other information to give technical assistance to communities and Departmental personnel in public health matters.
• Prepares reports on findings for interdepartmental, external public oriented, and professional publications.
• Provides epidemiologic support, statistical analyses, and subject matter expertise for new and ongoing projects.
• Creates and updates data dictionaries to support the development of Data Use and other legal agreements.
• Oversees data quality, including data submissions and cleaning. Cleans and recodes data as needed to create final analytic datasets. Analyzes overall linkage statistics.

Required Qualifications:

• Understanding of the principles and practices of epidemiology.
• Knowledge of epidemiologic research methods and techniques.
• Capable to design analysis plans, collect and manage epidemiological data, conduct statistical analyses, and interpret findings.
• Capacity to manage databases, construct data files, conduct and support data entry, and perform data edits/cleaning as needed.
• Capability to analyze and determine the applicability of epidemiologic and demographic data to draw conclusions and make appropriate recommendations.
• Able to calculate age-adjusted, crude, age, and sex-specific rates of disease or exposure.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Extensive experience in data analysis using SAS.
• Understanding of data quality methods.
• Experience working with and analyzing large, complex data set.
• Understanding of techniques for data linkage.
• Experience with Excel.
• Experience working with health-related datasets.
• Knowledge of medical records terminology.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills including text editing.

About the Department of Public Health:

The mission of the Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH) is to prevent illness, injury, and premature death, to assure access to high quality public health and health care services, and to promote wellness and health equity for all people in the Commonwealth.

We envision a Commonwealth in which all people enjoy optimal health. Massachusetts ranks among the healthiest of states according to comparative analyses, but we face numerous challenges, including chronic and infectious disease, substance abuse, violence, preventable hospitalizations, and health disparities.

DPH coordinates programs and policies to address specific diseases and conditions and offer services to address the needs of vulnerable populations. We also develop, implement, promote, and enforce regulations and policies to assure that the conditions under which people live are most conducive to health and enable people to make healthy choices for themselves and their families. We license health professionals, healthcare facilities and a variety of businesses that impact public health. We operate the state laboratory and four public health hospitals. We monitor health status and manage vital records including births, marriages, and deaths. We educate people about public health issues and work closely with local boards of health and community partners to identify and solve public health problems.

More information can be found at: MA Department of Public Health

Pre-Hire Process:

A criminal background check will be completed on the recommended candidate as required by the regulations set forth by the Executive Office of Health and Human Services prior to the candidate being hired. For more information, please visit http://www.mass.gov/hhs/cori

Education, licensure and certifications will be verified in accordance with the Human Resources Division’s Hiring Guidelines.

Education and license/certification information provided by the selected candidate(s) is subject to the Massachusetts Public Records Law and may be published on the Commonwealth’s website.

If you require assistance with the application/interview process and would like to request an ADA accommodation, please click on the link and complete the Reasonable Accommodation Online Request Form

For questions regarding this requisition, please contact the Executive Office of Health and Human Services Human Resources at 1-800- 510-4122 Ext. #2