Today@Dal

Project Start & End Dates:  August 2021 to December 2021 (negotiable)

Hours per Week:  10-15 hours per week

Department/Location:  Rowe School of Business, Faculty of Management, 6100 University Avenue, Halifax, NS.

Hourly Pay Rate:  $23 per hour (inclusive benefits and vacation pay)

Research Project Description:

The project titled:  Persuasive digital systems for community pharmacies.  
The goal for the project is to explore the challenges imposed by the pandemic on the medication incidents reported by community pharmacies and adjust the learning systems to mitigate these incidents and promote safer medication dispensing and delivery practices.  Medication incidents are defined as medication errors that reach the patient (e.g. incorrect drug, doses, quantity), in addition to medication errors that are intercepted before dispensing (i.e. near misses).  To accomplish the goal the research project will work with the organization partner Pharmapod, a global reporting and learning systems, on the identification, collection, and analysis of the MIs and current challenges.

The project is funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC)

Duties & Responsiblities:

The research assistant will be assisting the principal investigator (Dr. Paola A. Gonzalez) in conducting the following activities:

• Search the research literature to identify strategies to increase reporting of voluntary medication incidents and conduct a systematic review
• Identify persuasive strategies to increase voluntary MI reporting and promote safer medication practices for specific MIs
• Design system features to incorporate the strategies identified and conduct HCI studies 
• Assist with filing an application with the ethics review board
• Analyze data and assist with writing scholarly reports

Qualifications:

• A graduate student in Information Systems, Computer Science, or related field.  Experience in persuasive technology frameworks and designs.
• Experience in conducting HCI studies (e.g., planning logistical details of experiment and survey sessions; programming experiment and survey protocols into an online research platform system; data cleaning in preparation for analysis; assisting with data analysis).
• Good interpersonal and communication skills (oral and written).

Position will be for August 2021 - December 2021, estimated hours 10-15 hours/week (variable), with possible potential to continue into Winter 2022 term.

Please apply by email citing "Research Assistant" in the subject line (email attachment must be in Microsoft Word", including your cover letter and resume, to:

Paola A. Gonzalez, PhD.
Rowe School of Business
Faculty of Management
Dalhousie University
Email:  paola.gonzalez@dal.ca