PhD student in the new ICAI Stroke Lab: from 112 to Rehabilitation

Job description

In the Netherlands (17.4 million inhabitants), almost 400.000 individuals live with the consequences of a stroke that affect their daily functioning due to problems with movement, cognition, and language. To minimize the consequences of a stroke, stroke patients must receive the right treatment from the right professional at the right time, both early post-stroke but also often in the months and years later.

In this Ph.D. position, you will investigate trajectories of stroke recovery with AI. This should enable data-driven individualized stroke rehabilitation and integrated stroke care pathways based on current patients’ abilities and predicted stroke recovery. AI-based prognostic models should support clinical decision-making to select the right therapy to the right patient at the right time, amongst others focusing on 1) optimal patient discharge policies to home, nursing home, or rehabilitation center, and 2) optimal individualized rehabilitation treatment selection within the different treatment settings relevant to stroke patients (e.g., rehabilitation centers, nursing homes or first-line treatment such as physical therapy).

This PhD project is one of the five PhD positions in the ICAI Stroke Lab, one of the ROBUST program's labs. The ROBUST program on Trustworthy AI-based Systems adds 17 new labs to the ICAI’s current ecosystem.

The aim of the ICAI Stroke lab is to improve the outcome of stroke patients by optimizing the whole chain from the 112-call to rehabilitation with AI. Specifically, we intend to develop and assess AI-based patient stratification (faster, more accurate) for acute stroke care interventions, AI based functional outcome prediction after endovascular therapy, image-guidance in endovascular interventions for better therapeutic outcome and data-driven individualized stroke recovery policies, based on patients’ current abilities and on constantly updated prognostic models for stroke recovery. In addition, we will study the acceptance of such AI-models by clinical decision-makers. There will be strong collaboration between the PhD students in the ICAI lab.

Work environment

The research in the ICAI Stroke Lab is a collaborative effort by the Departments of Public Health, Neurology, Epidemiology, Rehabilitation Medicine, and Radiology & Nuclear Medicine from the Erasmus MC, the Erasmus School of Health Policy & Management from the Erasmus University, and Philips Healthcare.

As a PhD student for this position, you will be employed in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the Erasmus MC. The department of Rehabilitation Medicine integrates clinical work with research, and offers a dynamic, challenging, and cooperative research environment. The department collaborates with Rijndam Rehabilitation Center, next door to the Erasmus MC. Neurorehabilitation is one of the focus areas of research within this department and there are many national and international collaborations. In addition to the other ICAI stroke lab collaborators, you can work together with partners from the CareTech consortium and from the Technical University Delft. The research will be conducted under the supervision of prof dr. Ruud Selles and prof dr Gerard Ribbers.

Qualifications and skills

We are looking for highly motivated candidates with a university MSc degree, that want to contribute to the rapidly developing field of stroke treatment.

• Candidates are expected to have outstanding research skills, to be well organized and result-driven, and to have a strong team spirit.
• Candidates also must have strong English language skills (written and oral).
• The candidate should have a relevant engineering degree (e.g., Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, Applied Mathematics, or related field) with an interest in medical applications, or a clinical sciences degree (e.g., Epidemiology, Clinical Health Sciences, (Technical) Medicine, Human Movement Sciences) with an interest in data science and machine learning.

Before you apply please check our conditions for employment.

Terms of employment

• You will receive a temporary position for 4 years.
• The gross monthly salary is € 2.789 ,- in the 1st year and increases gradually to € 3.536,- in the 4th year (scale OIO).
• Excellent fringe benefits, such as a 13th month that is already paid out in November and a induvidual travel expense package.
• Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 2/3 of the monthly contribution.
• Special benefits, such as a incompany physiotherapist and bicycle repairer. And there is also a sports club where you can work on your fitness after work.
• An International Office which aids you in preparing for your arrival and stay. 

More information

For more information about this position, please contact Ruud Selles: r.selles@erasmusmc.nl.

 If you are excited by the thought of this position and would like to apply, please do so by using the application form on our website. Some demographic data of selected applicants will be shared with Maastricht University who is coordinating the recruitment drive for LTP ROBUST.

You may also check the other vacancies for this ICAI Lab at Erasmus MC (3 PhDs) and Erasmus University (1 PhD).

No agencies please.