Internal/External Vacancy Announcement

The Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI) was founded in 1970 through the initiative of the Norwegian and Swedish Save the Children organizations seconded by the Ministry of Health of Ethiopia. The Institute got its name from the Norwegian physician, Gerhard Henrik Armauer Hansen, who first described the leprosy bacillus (Mycobacterium leprae). AHRI is a biomedical research institute that works in developing tools for prevention, control and treatment of mycobacterium and other diseases of public healthy importance through applied and basic biomedical research and training.

Severe stigmatizing skin diseases (SSSDs) - including leishmaniasis (CL), leprosy, yaws, Buruli ulcer (BU) and cutaneous - are major causes of morbidity in Africa. The associated disability, psychological distress, and social isolation can lead to stigmatization, especially when treated late. Communities affected are usually poor, remote, and marginalized. Many SSSDs are also neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) of the skin.

There is great potential to integrate programme activities for different SSSDs as they share common characteristics and could be handled using shared resources. There also exists the opportunity for synergistic effects of integrating the delivery of interventions targeting case detection, treatment and stigma at a community-level, especially when individuals living with SSSDs are engaged through the social structures which are most relevant to them.

The Skin Health Africa Research Programme (SHARP) is a collaboration between institutions in Ethiopia, Ghana, and the United Kingdom. The focus of SHARP’s research in Ethiopia is on cutaneous leishmaniasis, leprosy, and scabies. The overall aim of this project is to improve outcomes for people with SSSDs by strengthening the care cascade through scalable strategies for earlier detection, improving management to reduce disability and counteracting stigma and discrimination.

Description of role

We are seeking a Post-Doctoral Health Economist. The successful candidate is expected to develop skills in economic evaluation methods and to generate economic evaluation evidence to inform health policy in Ethiopia and elsewhere.

The successful health economist will work closely with SHARP team members, including health economists in Ghana (Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research) and the United Kingdom (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine) and a multidisciplinary research team at AHRI and the University of Addis Ababa.

The health economist will be the focal point for two economic evaluations within the SHARP-Ethiopia research programme:

Costs and health-related quality of life for people with cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL): This cohort study will be conducted exclusively in Ethiopia. The economic work will aim to estimate the societal costs of living with and treating CL. In addition, data on health-related quality of life will be collected and used to estimate quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) associated with CL. These findings will inform understanding of the economic and health burden of CL and will inform future modelling and trials of new CL strategies.

Incremental costs and cost-effectiveness of integrated case finding and management (ICFM) vs. existing measures for SSSDs: This complex intervention will be developed, piloted, implemented, and evaluated in both Ethiopia and Ghana using a before-and-after design. The economic work will aim to incorporate data collected within this intervention study in a decision analytic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of implementing ICFM at scale.

In addition, opportunities also exist to advise on and contribute to a cost-effectiveness analysis alongside a clinical trial in Ghana on improved treatment for Buruli ulcer, which is led by the SHARP-Ghana team.

The postholder will be directly responsible to Malaria & NTD Directorate at AHRI, with technical supervision and support provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom.

The project duration is of at least 3 years. The contract of employment will be renewable annually.

Responsibilities

• Prepare economic data collection tools
• Collect resource use, price, and health system data from national and international sources and health facilities, as necessary
• Supervise economic data collection from health facilities and patients with SSSDs
• Participate actively in the formative research to inform the development of the ICFM intervention
• Develop and pilot cost data collection tools
• Conduct cost analyses
• Contribute to development and conduct of cost-effectiveness analyses
• Draft economic evaluation research articles for publication and contribute as co-author to additional publications
• Contribute to development of communications materials for policy makers and general audiences
• Ensure effective communication between the multidisciplinary SHARP research team in Ethiopia and SHARP health economists in Ghana and the UK
• Review and stay up-to-date on relevant literature in the fields of health economic evaluation and skin NTDs

Participate in dissemination of findings to policy makers, other stakeholders, and academic 

Job Requirements

Essential

• PhD in Health Economics
• Can present evidence of being free of commitments/release from previous employer
• Demonstrated knowledge of health economic evaluation (i.e. cost and cost-effectiveness analysis)
• Published minimum two original articles in peer-reviewed health or economic journals
• Demonstrable written and spoken English for academic purposes
• Ability to work independently and proactively to ensure results are delivered
• Evidence of ability to work collaboratively in multidisciplinary teams and with remote collaborators
• Willingness to travel extensively within Ethiopia and elsewhere as required by the project
• Previous successful experience of conducting and supervising cost data collection

Desirable

• First authorship of previous health economics – preferably economic evaluation – peer-reviewed original article(s)
• Knowledge of clinical and policy aspects of SSSDs and/or NTDs
• Speaking Amharic and two or more other language spoken in and around South Wollo 

How to Apply

Interested applicants who fulfilled the above requirements should send the following through ethiojobs.net on or before December 3, 2020.

• A CV/resume (not more than 5 pages)
• A letter explaining their motivation for the role and how they fulfill the criteria listed in the person specification below.
• A one-page table summarizing your educational background, work experience, technical skills and competencies to facilitate the screening process.