Research Fellow

at  Kings College London

Job id: 086567. Salary: £51,974 - £61,021 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance.
Posted: 19 March 2024. Closing date: 24 March 2024.
Business unit: Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine. Department: Surgical & Interventional Engineering.
Contact details: Dr. Rachel Sparks. rachel.sparks@kcl.ac.uk
Location: St Thomas’ Campus. Category: Research.
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Job description
We are seeking a part-time senior post-doctoral researcher to support the clinical uptake of our novel image-guided computer-assisted planning software, EpiNav. The post holder will be the interface between the development team at KCL and our clinical collaborators at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN) and other dissemination sites including King’s College Hospital.
In this role, the post holder will be responsible for helping to train clinicians to use the software, provide relevant training materials as well as provide support in the form of image processing and the creating of standard operating procedures. They will be responsible for helping the technical team to define standard operating procedures for the best use of the software and highlighting problems encountered in the software during routine use. Where appropriate they will help to identify possible centres to use the software and help to assess their suitability as a dissemination site.
The post holder will be supervised by and work in close collaboration with Dr. Rachel Sparks, a Lecturer in the Department of Surgical & Interventional Engineering. Candidates must have clear demonstratable experience communicating with clinicians that are part of the epilepsy surgical workflow and must be familiar with the epilepsy surgical workflow in the U.K. Candidates must be knowledgeable about neuroimage processing including segmentation and registration techniques. Furthermore, they must be aware of how to access and anonymise DICOM scans. Candidates should know the different times of medical scans acquired as part of assessing epilepsy and be aware of their advantages and disadvantages. Candidates must have excellent oral and written communication skills and a demonstrated track record of working with a team to deliver high quality publications. Familiarity with the EpiNav software and its use in clinical practice is desirable. Experience with image-guided interventions and training clinicians to use open-source software is preferable.
This post will be offered on a fixed-term contract for 12 months.
This is a part-time post - 20% full time equivalent.
Key responsibilities
Support the clinical use of the EpiNav software at the NHNN by preparing (collecting and processing) medical images to support clinical decision making including SEEG implantation, resection planning and postoperative outcome assessment
Support implementation of EpiNav software within epilepsy surgery workflow at KCH by provide best practices and determining standard operating procedures
Help to advance MR-based vascular imaging protocol by processing collected medical images and assessing vascular segmentation quality
Optimization of the use of EpiNav software in clinical workflow of surgical treatment of epilepsy by identifying new ways of using EpiNav and creating prototype solutions outside of EpiNav
Lead dissemination of EpiNav software to new clinical centers in the UK and abroad by assessing the sites suitability for using EpiNav, coordinating paperwork, providing support for using EpiNav by providing documentation such as user manual and training sessions
The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.
Skills, knowledge, and experience

Essential criteria

• PhD in image processing, medical image analysis, computer vision, machine learning or a closely related field
• Able to communicate with clinicians from a variety of backgrounds (neurologist, neurosurgeons, neurophysiologist)
• Be knowledgeable on the clinical workflow for epilepsy surgery in the U.K.
• Have experience using image processing tools to segment, register, and assess neuroimaging
• Be familiar with PACS and how to access and download images from the system. This includes a knowledge of how to anonymise DICOM scans.
• Be knowledgeable of the different types of imaging modalities and their advantages and disadvantages
• Have excellent written and oral communication skills
• Have experience working with a team to deliver high quality publications.

Desirable criteria

• Have working knowledge of EpiNav software
• Have demonstrated experience working with a clinical team to deliver image-guided procedures
• Have experience training others to use open-source or non-commercial software.

Please refer the Job description for details