Inaugural Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics

Company: Rutgers University
Location: New Brunswick
Posted on: June 25, 2022

Job Description:

Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences ( RBHS ) invites exceptional candidates to apply for the role of inaugural Director of a new Center for Biomedical Informatics that is being launched to promote excellence in the broad area of biomedical informatics. The Center will incorporate existing expertise in biomedical informatics, including bioinformatics, clinical informatics, clinical research informatics, public health informatics, and translational bioinformatics, and will facilitate and expand novel programs in this area to transform research, education, and patient care. It is envisioned to be a matrixed organization, where faculty will have their academic home in the Center but their primary appointments in appropriate departments. The Director will be an experienced and visionary biomedical informatics researcher and academic leader of national stature who can lead the development and growth of biomedical informatics research and education at RBHS and across the University, ultimately supporting new research and its applications to improve the quality and delivery of health care and human health locally, nationally, and internationally. In creating this new initiative, Rutgers University seeks to create a world-class environment in which Biomedical Informatics enriches all relevant aspects of the institution. The Director will identify and work with an Advisory Committee and will be a tenured member of the RBHS faculty. The inaugural Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics will be expected to demonstrate excellence in the leadership of their own research, as well as stimulating collaborative research in biomedical informatics across RBHS and other parts of Rutgers, to recruit and mentor faculty, and to leverage and expand the already diverse and rich biomedical informatics assets at Rutgers University to advance the University's missions effectively. The successful Director will establish multidisciplinary research and educational initiatives to promote biomedical informatics in its various facets. Rutgers' recent alliance with RWJ Barnabas Health Systems creates a unique opportunity to conduct biomedical informatics research in collaboration with a statewide health system. Collectively, Rutgers Health and partners will have approximately 5 million lives under a single system, unified with a single electronic medical record system. The Director will be responsible for faculty recruitments in partnership with departments across RBHS and the rest of Rutgers, including its Department of Computer Science, and, along with the Center's faculty, will be responsible for developing academic research and training programs. The Director will have the opportunity and resources to develop the Center into a nationally and internationally recognized entity. The Director will in fundamental ways shape the Center's trajectory, structure, eminence, and value to the institution. In this role, the Director will initially define and prioritize the elements necessary for an institutional approach to Biomedical Informatics. In particular, the Director is expected to: Inform and focus a RBHS -wide biomedical informatics strategy and a distinctive identity for the Center and for Biomedical Informatics at Rutgers University relative to peer institutions. Develop an academic program in Biomedical Informatics at RBHS . Advance the research and education missions of RBHS by enhancing the institution's activities in Biomedical Informatics and by increasing the impact of its investments. Collaborate with the Vice Chancellor for Information Technology & CIO to leverage resources and expertise housed in the University's and the School's established information technology infrastructure.Contribute to the excellence of RBHS's clinical partners, University Hospital in Newark and the statewide RWJBarnabas Health, by catalyzing new activity in clinical informatics - for instance by integrating large-scale electronic health records, clinical research-, human genomics-, imaging-, epidemiological-, AI/ML ready-, and other data relevant to biomedical research and health care - and by energizing translational research that will improve patient care. Foster inter-professional and interdisciplinary approaches in research and education to resolve and address research and health issues.Expand extramural funding for biomedical informatics research. To sustain a focus on strategic opportunities while also taking advantage of immediate ones, the Director of Biomedical Informatics will be supported by an Advisory Committee of Department Chairs and other senior leaders at Rutgers University. The biomedical informatics program is expected to have large and beneficial effects on the broader mission of Rutgers University, including advances in research, education, and clinical care. The Center will be expected to facilitate research across the biomedical research spectrum through collaboration and consultation; to develop and provide research and health education through collaborations with existing programs and by developing new graduate programs in biomedical informatics, and to collaborate with healthcare informatics groups at RWJBarnabas Health and the RBHS Faculty Practice. Biomedical Informatics at Rutgers University The landscape at Rutgers University offers countless opportunities for biomedical informatics research. Characteristically for a decentralized organization in which faculty can create, fund, and grow programs according to their vision and ability, there are many organizations of varying size distributed across Rutgers that developed their own informatics core to support their own needs. While there are countless opportunities to leverage existing and emerging areas, Rutgers has not yet implemented an overarching plan or vision to coordinate and lead these initiatives. We see the Center for Biomedical Informatics will act as the catalyst to making this vision a reality. Existing resources across RBHS that are funded and managed by several units, including the informatics team and services within the New Jersey Alliance for Clinical and Translational Science (NJ ACTS ), the Rutgers CTSA , which is committed to advancing clinical and translational science in the development of new therapies and treatments and to improve health and health care in New Jersey, the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research Survey/Data Core, which provides state-of-the-art survey research services and houses extremely large national, and international claims- and EHR data resources, and the Biomedical Informatics group located within the Cancer Institute of New Jersey ( CINJ ), which provides leading-edge data acquisition and analysis tools, computational informatics expertise, data analysis, and intensive training to foster advances in research and discovery in investigative oncology. Other informatics groups include, the Department of Health Informatics, within the School of Health Professions, the Department of Genetics, within the School of Arts and Sciences Division of Life Sciences, Biological Mass Spec Facility, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, Center for Advanced Proteomics Research, New Jersey Medical School, New Jersey Medical School Genomics Center, Immune Monitoring and Advanced Genomics, CINJ , Metabolomics Shared Resource, CINJ , Microbiome Analysis Core Facility, School for Environmental and Biological Sciences, and Waksman Genomics, Rutgers - New Brunswick. An exciting set of additional opportunities for the Center exist in the rapidly developing local technology and start-up environment including The Hub, which is scheduled to open in New Brunswick in 2024. The primary mission of The Hub is to nurture the growth of startup companies and new technologies in a range of industries and to support the rapid translation and real-world application of innovation so that those new ventures grow and expand the New Jersey economy. Minimum Education and ExperienceTo succeed in this new role, the successful candidate must bring the following experience and demonstrate the following attributes: A record of accomplishment of innovation and results in the development and deployment of biomedical informatics resources in research and clinical practice. A degree of M.D. and/or Ph.D. Academic and disciplinary distinction suitable for nomination as a tenured associate or full professor. Experience in collaborative research, including interdisciplinary and translational science. A strong record of accomplishment of securing internal and extramural funding and of fostering research productivity in biomedical informatics. Excellent interpersonal skills with the ability to build effective partnerships and successful collaborations with faculty and external partners in a large, complex, decentralized environment.Required Knowledge, Skills, and AbilitiesThe Director will also possess most if not all the following qualities and characteristics: Exceptional leadership skills and the ability to articulate an institutional vision. An entrepreneurial mentality combined with effective leadership skills that promote others' successes. A strong understanding of both basic research and clinical medicine. A commitment to transparency and an inclusive management style. Demonstrated experience in recruiting top faculty and/or students. Financial budgeting and resource management skills. Demonstrated ability to function effectively and collaboratively in an entrepreneurial, complex, fast-moving, decentralized environment with multiple stakeholder groups. Exceptional planning and organizational skills and superb follow-through.OverviewRutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a statewide institution comprised of three universities: Rutgers University - New Brunswick; Rutgers University - Newark; and Rutgers University - Camden; as well as an array of medical and public health schools and institutes organized under the banner of Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, which is aligned with Rutgers - New Brunswick. Rutgers is a large, public land grant and research university with 33 degree-granting schools and colleges, more than 65,000 students and almost 27,000 faculty and staff. The University also provides educational programs in many other communities throughout the state and has educational and research partnerships with institutions around the nation and the world. The integration with New Jersey Medical School in 2012 has strengthened Rutgers in overall research dollars and expanded its breadth of research capabilities in the biomedical sciences. Research and development expenditures top $677 million annually, placing Rutgers among the top 20 universities in the nation. Additionally, with $430 million annually in life sciences research and development expenditures, Rutgers places among the top 25 universities in the nation. With $612.5 million in annual sponsored research grants, Rutgers brings more federal research dollars to New Jersey than all other New Jersey colleges and universities combined. Rutgers' students have opportunities through the expansion of scientific programs to participate in seminars/workshops on innovative research discoveries, undergraduate and graduate research programs, and other opportunities for experiential learning. Regarding clinical training, Rutgers has numerous affiliation agreements for clinical training sites for medicine, dentistry, nursing, and health-related professional programs, and has developed comprehensive affiliation agreements with the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick and University Hospital in Newark to address undergraduate medical education, graduate medical education, and all other clinical training at the facility. University Hospital provides medical care services to a large, underserved urban population in Newark and is the main safety net hospital for the State of New Jersey. In 2016, all health care delivery units within Rutgers University are coming under a newly developed umbrella brand of Rutgers Health. In coordination with the new branding, all RBHS faculty practices are being organized into a new Rutgers Health Group where over one thousand clinical care providers will see more than one million patient visits annually in sixteen counties across the state.

Keywords: Rutgers University, New Brunswick , Inaugural Director of the Center for Biomedical Informatics, Executive , New Brunswick, New Jersey