Responsabilities
About the project “Patient-centered Approach for Research and Interventions in Sarcopenia (PARIS)” To further advance interventional research in sarcopenia (i.e., the age-related decline in muscle strength and mass) beyond the current state of the art, and ultimately improve the lives of individuals living with this condition, key methodological gaps in the field need to be addressed. One promising strategy is to integrate a patient-centered approach—a fundamental concept in modern healthcare that emphasizes patients as active partners in medical care and research.
The PARIS project aims to revisit and strengthen the methodological framework of sarcopenia research by integrating patient-centered principles within the ‘P’opulation, ‘I’ntervention, and ‘O’utcome components of the PICO framework. The project also includes pilot research initiatives in the field of osteosarcopenia. The present postdoctoral research proposal encompasses several of the research activities developed within the PARIS project.
Your Responsibilities
As a member of the Public Health Aging Research and Epidemiology (PHARE) Group and the Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology Research Unit (URPC) within the Department of Biomedical Sciences of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Namur, you will actively contribute to the scientific and operational development of the PARIS project.
Your responsibilities will include:
Scientific tasks related to the PARIS project:
• Development of a utility questionnaire derived from the SarQoL questionnaire, enabling QALY estimation and cost-effectiveness analyses
• Participation in a multicenter study aimed at assessing patient preferences regarding treatment characteristics for sarcopenia.
• Development of pilot projects in osteosarcopenia, including observational analyses based on the SarcoPhAge cohort and a network meta-analysis on the effectiveness of pharmacological treatments
General scientific tasks:
• Writing and submitting scientific articles, communications, and reports, and contributing to the academic visibility of the project
• Participating in dissemination activities through presentations, posters, and interdisciplinary collaborations
• Supporting the scientific projects of research assistants and PhD students within the PHARE Group through supervision and mentoring
• Collaborating with clinical and public health teams at UNamur and partner hospitals
Academic tasks:
Participating in academic activities such as:
• Supervision and evaluation of Master’s theses
• Teaching activities (tutorials, practical sessions)
Profile
Degree
You hold a PhD in medicine, biomedical sciences, pharmaceutical sciences, public health, or an equivalent degree.
Eligibility conditions
This is an international mobility contract intended for the recruitment of a postdoctoral researcher coming from abroad. To be eligible, the candidate must not have resided or been employed in the host country (Belgium) for more than 12 months over the past three years.
Skills
Thematic expertise
Required:
• Established expertise in applied research on sarcopenia or osteosarcopenia (or musculoskeletal health), demonstrated by a minimum of three first-author scientific publications in this area of research in peer-reviewed journals with an impact factor
Assets:
Knowledge in :
• Health economics : Health Technology Assessment (HTA), economic evaluation of healthcare interventions
• Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs)
Methodological skills
Required:
• Established experience in epidemiology, clinical research, and health data analysis, including confirmed experience in multicenter and longitudinal studies
• Strong expertise in statistics, with proficiency in analytical software (R, Stata, SAS, or SPSS) for statistical analyses and health data modeling, and the ability to quickly learn new tools
• Experience in meta-synthesis (systematic reviews, meta-analyses, network meta-analyses, etc.)
Assets:
• Knowledge of methodologies specific to the evaluation of health interventions: Discrete Choice Experiments (DCE), Best-Worst Scaling, Health utility measures
• Knowledge of qualitative methodologies/analysis
• Experience in psychometric evaluation of PROMs (COSMIN recommendations)
Transversal skills
• Ability to design and conduct applied health research projects, including observational studies, clinical trials, and real-world data analyses
• Understanding of evidence-based approaches
• Scientific rigor, critical thinking, strong writing skills, and ability to produce high-level scientific publications and reports
• Ability to work in interdisciplinary and international teams, collaborating with clinicians, public health experts, and industrial and hospital partners
• Proficiency in scientific English, both written and spoken
• Autonomy, organizational skills, and motivation
• Experience in supervising teams, PhD candidates, and Master’s students