Senior Research Scientist

GENERAL SUMMARY/OVERVIEW STATEMENT:

The Medical Device Plug-and-Play Interoperability and Cybersecurity (MD PnP) Program, founded in 2004 at the Massachusetts General Hospital Dept. of Anesthesia, Critical Care, and Pain Medicine, is recognized as a leader in enabling healthcare technology transformation to improve patient safety and clinical outcomes.

Our team of clinicians, computer scientists, and biomedical engineers collaborate with a global network of experts to define, develop, and demonstrate next-generation medical system capabilities to improve care delivery and serve as a foundation for next-generation Smart and Autonomous Medical Systems (SaAMS).

The MD PnP Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts provides a sophisticated sandbox environment, including a wide range of medical devices, a highly configurable network infrastructure, and rich simulation and testing tools. This vendor-neutral environment is used to expedite design, testing, and deployment of innovative solutions. The program has its roots in the MGH Operating Room of the Future project, where rapid technology assessment and deployment was essential to achieving the project's mission.

The MD PnP Program has served a variety of commercial, academic, and governmental collaborators for the development and assessment of medical devices, digital health solutions, and hospital IT systems related to safety, security, and interoperability. The program supported national medical technology responses to Ebola Virus Disease and the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency, with an emphasis on virtual critical care and remote medical device control.

We accomplish our programmatic mission with support from governmental agencies (NIH, NSF, DoD, DHS, FDA, NIST) and commercial entities, and through pre-competitive research collaborations with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), DoD, and other government agencies.

The MD PnP Program is located at 65 Landsdowne St. in Cambridge, MA. Our custom-built 3200-sq. ft. lab suite comprises four distinct labs for biomedical electronics, interoperability, cybersecurity, and EHR integration. Our lab suite is equipped with numerous medical devices, patient simulators, testbeds, and supporting medical (hospital) facility infrastructure. The lab is designed to be highly configurable, so that diverse clinical-care settings can be simulated to support a wide range of use cases and technology solutions.

The Senior Research Scientist (SRS) displays a high degree of initiative and independent judgement while serving as a senior research scientist on project teams to provide expertise and leadership under the general direction of the Principal Investigator of the MD PnP Program (Medical Device Interoperability & Cybersecurity Program).

The SRS assists the Principal Investigator in sustaining and expanding the Program's research and service portfolios, including: 1) assisting the Principal Investigator in defining and executing research and commercial service projects in the medical device domain in collaboration with internal and external partners; 2) leading the investigation and development of techniques for novel medical interoperability, medical informatics, and digital health technologies; 3) leading the establishment of methods, procedures, and processes to assess and assure the safety, security, and performance of interoperable, distributed medical systems.

The SRS manages team members as assigned by the Principal Investigator, and helps the Principal Investigator to establish, improve, and optimize the Program's internal procedures to continuously improve the efficiency, productivity, and quality of technical activities and lab operation.

PRINCIPAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1. Plays an independent and proactive role supporting team leadership in identifying research opportunities, defining research projects/proposals, selecting candidate technical solutions and research methods, and managing the execution of research and commercial service projects in the medical device interoperability and cybersecurity domain.
2. Works closely with PI and program manager to develop program strategy, technical direction, and plans for long-term sustainability.
3. Manages and directs technical staff of the Program, as assigned by PI, to ensure the success of lab operation and technical projects, including 1) plans the allocation of resources and the distribution of work to subordinates and develops project plans for subordinates; 2) conducts formal appraisals of their performance and determines their training needs; and 3) recommend their promotion or reassignment.
4. Monitors the progress of research and commercial service projects and make recommendations to team leadership on methods and improvements to ensure the success of research projects.
5. Establish, expand, and improve internal procedures in collaboration with team leadership to continuously improve the efficiency, productivity, and quality of internal technical activities.
6. Leads or contributes to the development of research proposals and commercial service plans.
7. Participates in standards development activities from standards development organizations such as AAMI, IEC, ISO, UL, representing the MD PnP program, as appropriate.
8. Publishes articles in academic and industrial journals and conferences to disseminate research findings and project outcomes.
9. Leads and supports MD PnP in-person, virtual, and hybrid small and large-scale project demonstrations.
10. Engage with external customers and stakeholders to foster the mission and vision of the Program and to promote the collaborative use of laboratory facilities and services.
11. Performs other functions as assigned by MD PnP Leadership.

SKILLS/ABILITIES/COMPETENCIES REQUIRED:

1. Experience with developing research grant proposals. Experience with developing research proposals as the principal investigator or success in winning research grants is a plus.
2. Strong organizational and leadership skills, particularly in management of research projects and technical personnel to successfully accomplish large-scale research or engineering projects.
3. Experience with investigation or application of advanced research methods and techniques to the medical device domain; Strong track records in scientific research accomplishments and academic publication.
4. Ability to independently diagnose and solve technical and/or system problems of moderate-to-high complexity.
5. Mastery of computer science, cybersecurity, networking, data science, and/or biomedical engineering design principles, such that new technologies and protocols can be easily incorporated into skillset.
6. High level of computer literacy, including open-source software development and data analytics.
7. Strong interpersonal and communication skills, particularly to direct a research team with disparate expertise and coordinate with geographically distributed collaborators. Must possess expertise in technical writing, technical presentation, and teaching. Must appear presentable in webcast.
8. Experience with consensus standards development.

Desired:

1. Experience with medical device and healthcare standards and regulations
2. Experience with adopting, applying, or developing AI/Machine Learning methods to facilitate research.
3. Experience with evaluation, assurance, and operation of cybersecurity in complex engineering systems, preferably medical devices or healthcare delivery systems.
4. Experience with designing, developing, and marketing novel medical device and digital health products.

EDUCATION:

PhD in computer science, electrical engineering, data science, biomedical engineering, or a relevant engineering discipline is required.

EXPERIENCE:

5+ years of academic or professional experience in the medical devices, cyber-physical systems, or safety-critical engineering domains. Experience with working in an environment related to medical devices, clinical or biomedical research, or healthcare delivery is a plus. Experience with independently executing or leading research or engineering projects is highly desired. Experience with medical device and technology verification using clinical scenario driven test methods (including simulation) is preferred.

SUPERVISORY RESONSIBILITY:

May have supervisory responsibility for technical staff of the Program, including temporary interns and visiting students working on specific projects.

WORKING CONDITIONS:

Works in a laboratory setting with occasional exposure to noise and dust, as well as exposure to electrical and other hazards.