Colorectal Research Fellow

Job overview

Commencing from July and Dec  (x2 posts)

1-Role Summary

The colorectal research fellow posts are an exciting opportunity which will enable the post holder to develop a strong foundation in clinical research leading to a MD degree. The role will mainly involve research time and possibility of clinical commitments (TBC).

2-Key Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical

You will be expected to cover the first-on surgical registrar general surgery at the Royal Liverpool University Hospital site.

Ward Duties

A part from on-call post-take ward-round the research fellow will not have any commitment for day to day running of the ward.

Main duties of the job

Operating Theatre

The post holder will have the opportunity to attend the operating sessions on ad hoc basis of the Clinical Team to assist with major surgery and be trained in basic surgical skills under the close supervision of the Consultants. There is no fixed commitment to theatre and focus should be on research.

Outpatient Clinics

There will be no outpatient’s commitments.

On-Call (TBC)

The on-call commitments will be out of hours and over the weekend in order to have time for research during the weekdays. The research fellow will be involved in the assessment and management of emergency admissions from both the Emergency department and via GP into the Surgical Assessment Unit. There will be good opportunities to develop core trainee skills during emergency surgery cases.

At the Royal Liverpool University Hospital the ‘consultant of the week’ system is in operation and the Colorectal Fellows will carry out emergency duties as a first-on surgical registrar with second-on senior registrar cover off-site and consultant on-call off-site.

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

3-Research

There will be scheduled protected time allocated for research activity. This will be under the joint supervision of Professor Yalin Zheng, Professor of AI in Healthcare - University of Liverpool, Professor Shakil Ahmed - Liverpool University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Mr Muhammad Ahsan Javed consultant colorectal surgeon and Senior Lecturer - University of Liverpool. The post holder should expect to gain a solid foundation in the principles of clinical research, methodology, recruitment of participants, processing of clinical specimens, and interpretation of results.

The proposed research project will focus on use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in rectal cancer.

Aims of the project:

Systematic review of available data on role of AI in rectal cancer

• Developing MRI based tool to predict the difficult of rectal cancer surgery.
• Using multi-modality approach to develop predictors of response to neoadjuvant treatment in locally advanced rectal cancer.