Research Assistant

Epilepsy affects one out of every hundred children and affected patients face not only seizures but also cognitive and emotional difficulties. The Department of Neurology & Neurological Sciences, Division of Child Neurology, is seeking an enthusiastic Research Assistant to coordinate and collect data for a project investigating children with epilepsy.

For the project, the research assistant will play an active role in recruiting subjects, maintaining databases of research-related and clinical data, and performing neurophysiology studies including electroencephalograms (EEGs) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

Interested candidates will have the opportunity to analyze data and draft manuscripts under the guidance of post-doctoral students and faculty.

• Recruitment & Scheduling of Subjects.
  • Assist in recruiting children with epilepsy from the Stanford Child Neurology and Pediatric Epilepsy Clinics. The research assistant will also make outreach to other neurology practices in the Bay Area so occasional travel can be expected.
  • Assist in recruiting healthy control children.
  • Follow-up with all interested candidates in a timely manner and screen potential participants based on inclusion and exclusion criteria.
  • Obtain consent and assent from subjects, sometimes with the help of an interpreter if needed.
  • Schedule subjects and help them navigate trips to Stanford for research, including arriving at the appropriate buildings and getting parking validated.
  • Maintain all subject-related forms and documents, including consent forms and subject logs.
  • Assist in maintaining a secure Redcap database to store identifiable information about subjects, including health information.
• Neurophysiology Studies.
  • Assist in performing EEG studies on children. Initially, these will be supervised but eventually these will be done independently. The research assistant will learn how to trouble-shoot common issues to ensure high-quality data collection and subject comfort. Sessions typically last up to 2 hours.
  • Assist with TMS studies. The research assistant will assist the postdoctoral fellow or PI in placing compatible EEG caps and performing TMS studies in children. Sessions last up to 5 hours.
  • Ensure the comfort of participants, including interacting with and distracting children in an age-appropriate way and answering parental questions.
• Neuropsychologic Studies.
  • Assist in the performance and scoring of neurocognitive assessments.
• Data management and analysis.
  • Appropriately code and de-identify data in an organized, systematic way and save data to appropriate servers and/or databases.
  • Perform data cleaning and pre-processing steps using programs like Matlab or Python.

* - Other duties may also be assigned.

• Bachelor’s degree in the sciences preferred.
• Excellent communication skills, especially the ability to be sensitive to children with epilepsy and their families as many participants will have a recent diagnosis.
• Ability to work well with children of varying ages. This includes the ability to be flexible and creative in performing studies to both make children comfortable while still obtaining high quality data.
• Experience with computer coding (in Matlab or Python) is highly preferred and a willingness to learn these tools is required.
• Computer literacy, including the ability to work with Microsoft Office Suite and a willingness to learn new programs such as Redcap.
• Ability to prioritize responsibilities and meet deadlines.
• Ability to take initiative in solving problems.
• Meticulous organization skills.
• Good problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify and trouble-shoot technical problems independently.
• Flexible to work outside of standard business hours to accommodate the needs of pediatric participants and their families.

Two year college degree and two years related work experience or a Bachelor’s degree in a related field or an equivalent combination of related education and relevant experience.

• Strong interpersonal skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office.
• Knowledge of medical terminology.

So…