Methodologist, Case Mix

Every day, CIHI contributes to improving Canada's health system and the health of Canadians through the collection and analysis of information. At the heart of this work is our winning team of highly skilled, knowledgeable professionals who care about making a difference. CIHI makes it a priority to understand and celebrate the contribution of each and every one of our talented and dedicated staff members.

Methodologist, Case Mix – Contract ending March 2012

Branch:                      Clinical Data Standards, Quality & Methodology

Location:                    Toronto or Ottawa   

Range Minimum:       $71,700

Reports to:                Manager, Case Mix

This is an exciting opportunity for an individual with a strong statistical background to make a contribution to the delivery of health care in Canada, by providing tools that assist health care managers and policy makers in making decisions.

Job Summary

Case mix systems classify patients into resource and clinical homogeneous groups based on clinical and demographic characteristics. The case mix systems developed and maintained by CIHI are used across Canada by hospitals, health regions and health ministries to better understand and manage the delivery of health care services. 

Increasingly the jurisdictions across Canada are exploring the possibility of using case mix systems to allocate health-care funding.  This is known as activity based funding or case mix based funding.  The Methodologist works will work with large volumes of Canadian Health Care administrative data to develop statistical models that inform the development or refinement case mix systems that could be used for activity based funding.  The Methodologist will lead specific projects, conduct and guide appropriate developmental analyses, contribute to the design and interpretation of descriptive analyses, and communicate results with CIHI stakeholders.

Duties and Responsibilities

1.      Provide leadership and guidance to all internal staff involved in the program of work.  Supervises, coaches, coordinates and monitors work, workload and performance of staff to ensure quality is maintained and that learning opportunities are provided.

2.      Develops and leads the implementation of a program of work (and/or project plans) to support jurisdiction specific case mix needs.

3.      Working with the Manager and Sr. Methodologist, assists with the identification of user requirements for data analysis and deals appropriately with internal and external stakeholders when responding to requests for information.

4.      Lead the statistical analyses related to evaluation and implementation of jurisdiction specific modifications to CIHI’s case mix systems and/or resource indicators.

5.      Develops project plans including the development of the project scope, identifies milestones and resource requirements, and monitors project progress including Gantt charts (as applicable) while following CIHI’s project management guidelines, and provides progress reports for all assigned products/projects.

6.      Maintains current knowledge about statistical techniques.

7.      Keeps current with respect to the relevant research literature.

8.      Prepares reports and discussion papers related to analytical activities.

9.      May contribute to other projects, special studies, ad hoc reports or presentations, as required.

10.  Supports the activities of external advisory groups including Case Mix Advisory Group and the Technical working group.

11.  Establishes and maintains relevant contacts with government, health facilities and related agencies and associations.

12.  Promotes CIHI and Case Mix, its products and services through participation in various promotional activities.

13.  Respects privacy and confidentiality of information by following policies in Privacy and Confidentiality of Health Information at CIHI and related procedures and directives.

Knowledge and Experience

·         Graduate level degree in statistics, or equivalent education/experience.

·         Minimum 5 years related experience.

·         Recent experience with regression techniques, Bayesian techniques, Monte Carlo simulation and mixture modeling.

·         Ability to explain statistical concepts to non-statisticians and be able to translate their clinical questions and hypotheses into statistical tests.

·         Advanced SAS programming skills.

·         Excellent problem-solving skills.

·         Strong interpersonal, written and verbal communication, presentation and problem solving skills.

·         Proficiency in MS Office.

·         Experience in analysis of health care data and knowledge of the Canadian health care system is an asset.

·         Ability to fulfill occasional travel.

·         Analytical experience in a health facility or in government is an asset.

·         Fluency in both official languages is an asset.

Interested candidates should apply online at www.cihi.ca/careers

We thank all those who apply, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted

Deadline for applications: June 17, 2010