GRAP Opportunity: Millennium Development Goal Acceleration Initiative (MDGi) Baseline Evaluation (Hamer)

Opportunity ID: 02-Hamer

Project Title:  Millennium Development Goal Acceleration Initiative (MDGi) baseline evaluation (Copperbelt and Lusaka Provinces, Zambia)

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Davidson Hamer

Description Statement:

In 2014 the Zambia Center for Applied Health Research and Development collected health facility assessment data from 117 health facilities in Zambia in order to aid UNICEF in planning the Millennium Development Goals Action Initiative. This resulted in a large data set, which has yet to be fully refined and cleaned. We are seeking student analysts to assist in the data cleaning process, while gaining valuable experience working with global health data and sharpening their SAS programming skills.  We anticipate writing several manuscripts from this data set in collaboration with colleagues at the Ministry of Health in Zambia (so this is a great opportunity to be a co-author).

Scope of Work:

  • Write SAS code to identify outliers, errors, and other problems in a large dataset
  • Use summary measures such as proc freq and proc means to identify values that appear erroneous in the data set
  • Write logical (if-then) statements to identify inconsistent response patterns in database
  • Generate a report of potential erroneous data, which will be used by the field team in Zambia to correct errors in the database
  • Assist with manuscript writing

Minimum skills required/desired:

  • Epidemiology and Biostatistics core courses completed
  • Intro to statistical computing (SAS)
  • Strong quantitative and problem-solving skills
  • Desire to advance SAS skills
  • Prior experience with data collection or management preferred

Time/Date Expectations:  5-10 hours per week in November and December 2015

Additional Material Requested: Please submit a recent CV and brief cover letter describing your qualifications for this data management position.

Number of Positions: 1 (One)

Logistics & Support:  Work space at the Center for Global Health and Development made available.