Informatics Manager – M3 19
Principal Investigator: Health Behavior
Job Description
The Principal Investigator for Health Behavior is a senior leader within the Healthways Center for
Health Research responsible for leading and establishing a program of research to evaluate and
demonstrate the value of human behavior change in impacting total population health, economics,
and outcomes delivered by Healthways programs.
Reporting directly to the Director of Health Research and Outcomes you will be responsible for
creating and managing a multidisciplinary team and highly diverse research agenda aimed at
measuring the impact that Healthways programs deliver in changing behavior of populations as it
relates to health, wellness, and well-being to drive improved economic, clinical, and productivity
gains for our customers.
The goal of your work will be to support Healthways to design the best possible scientific research
valuing and measuring the total impact of population behavior change in the health and well-being
industry. Your work will establish Healthways as the leader in credible health and wellness outcomes
measurement. This work represents significant opportunities to drive highly visible research within
the organization that lead to publication and presentation of results to high profile audiences.
This is a challenging and rewarding position leading a highly skilled team to produce cutting edge
research and methodologies leveraging assets that are unparalleled in the health care space.
Available resources include one of the largest multi-terabyte health care outcomes data warehouses
in the world, and a highly unique asset, the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which conducts
more than 1,000 surveys per night (> 700,000 surveys conducted to date) to build a comprehensive
multi-dimensional measure of health, health behaviors, and well-being across the nation.
This is a highly collaborative position, and you will be working across a team of investigators in
addition to managing relationships with leading researchers, industry luminaries, and contractors
across the nation. You will also be directly working with other departments within Healthways to
design studies and analytic methods to help answer mission critical questions about our business. As
a Principal Investigator you will publish your work in peer reviewed journals, prepare formal
presentations, posters, and abstracts for scientific meetings and conferences, create executive
briefings, and author materials to be shared with customers both internal and external to the
company. Excellent communication skills, diplomacy, and leadership skills are a must.
Significant opportunities exist for publication and advanced research in a well funded department
working in an organization aimed at improving health, improving health behaviors of populations,
enhancing well-being, improving business performance and reducing healthcare costs. The candidate
is expected to work as an independent research leader in team efforts to design and carry out healthrelated research, and be able to present research findings and evaluation results to internal and
external audiences on a frequent basis. Strong encouragement will be given for publication of
substantive papers. In addition, the candidate will develop tools for use in business processes and
serve as a consultant on research and scientific matters with internal and external customers.
Candidates with a doctoral degree and demonstrated excellence of research and publications are
encouraged to apply.
Responsibilities Include
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Develop and manage a program designing scientifically valid research for multiple
simultaneous studies to measure and articulate the total impact of behavior change and
outcomes delivered by Healthways
Collaborate across departments to create valid scientific approaches to measuring
Healthways programs and applying scientific method to analyses to evaluate Healthways
program effectiveness as it relates to health and behavior change
Develop hypotheses to be tested and approaches for doing so in consultative collaboration
with department heads and business leaders across the company
Analyze, measure, and report results from research on health behaviors of large health care
populations
Create written publications (peer-reviewed, executive summary, review articles, posters,
abstracts) based on methodologies and techniques developed to measure Healthways
programs
Manage team of analytics experts to mine data, execute statistical and quantitative analyses,
and summarize results for use in publications and communications
Select and utilize proper behavioral, scientific, and statistical methodologies for accurate
measurement of complex health care behavioral and financial data sets
Provide leadership in research across the organization, and clearly communicate often
highly complex methods to audiences at varying levels including C-suite and senior
executives within the organization.
Oversee complete programs of investigation, also collaborating with investigators from
other disciplines in other departments, contracting agencies, or academic / governmental
institutions.
Experience and Qualifications
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A doctoral degree is required (Ph.D., Ed.D., DrPH) in health behavior, behavioral sciences,
economics, econometrics, or related field and 5 to 10 years of experience
Outstanding attainment in research, demonstrated by a combination of first author peerreviewed publications and project experience
Critical thinker: Assures proper methodology, scientific rigor, and design have been fully
considered and implemented in creation, delivery, execution, and communication of work.
Able to identify flaws in logic or design, see the big picture, and execute best-in-class science
to solve complex business problems.
Exceptional problem-solver with high levels of intellectual curiosity
Strong people management skills that thrives in an entrepreneurial environment
Consensus builder, collaborator, negotiator – well respected and credible
Ability to build and lead a high performance work team capable of delivering on multiple
scientific projects simultaneously
Team-focused with a talent for engaging and inspiring co-workers to deliver their best work
every day
Ability to lead cross functional multi-disciplinary projects meeting timelines and milestones
Hands-on manager able to absorb workload of team – able to work side by side and execute
on work as well as supervise
Demonstrated hands on expertise in valid scientific analytics of large-scale datasets
Experience in the application of modern scientific design and analysis techniques to health
care datasets
Strong project management focus with the ability to create concrete research work plans,
execute and report to senior management on timely delivery and progress, and conduct and
deliver research on time and within budget to meet customer needs
Can design, manage, and execute on multiple, complex, scientific projects at one time with
minimal supervision in a fast paced and changing business environment.
Effectively manages their own time and can re-prioritize workflow to meet multiple, often
competing stake holder needs on time.
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Highly tactful, diplomatic, and well liked – able to manage and build strong external and
internal relationships with fellow research collaborators, business stake holders, and
colleagues.
Can effectively manage external contractors or collaborators to assure on-time on-budget
deliverables.
Superb communicator able to craft well-written, scientifically valid, ready-to-deliver
communications that require minimal to no revisions, review, or editing before they can be
shared to broad internal or external audiences and published in peer review.
Applicants will be required to submit copies of first author peer reviewed manuscripts as
demonstration of their work
About the Center for Health Research
The Center for Heath Research is a diverse organization with the mission to constantly rethink how
to best inspire healthy lifestyles and support those living with chronic conditions.
Comprised of researchers from many disciplines, the team applies their broad range of expertise to
find holistic answers to health questions. The diversity of their backgrounds encourages debate,
challenges assumptions and inspires them to keep finding new answers and better questions for
innovating healthcare.
The Center for Health Research performs advanced analytics with data collected from millions of
participants over twenty-five years of Healthways experience. At their disposal is a multi-terabyte
healthcare outcomes data warehouse unrivaled in the industry in richness, depth, and breadth which
includes claims, pharmacy, laboratory and intervention data. This enables the team to design and
conduct multidisciplinary studies that evaluate the intersections behavior change, healthcare
utilization, wellness, well-being, and outcomes improvement.
Unique to this team’s research is the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. This revolutionary
capability allows more than 1,000 live surveys per night to be conducted across the nation to build a
comprehensive and multidimensional measure for health and well-being. It is the voice of Americans
and the most ambitious effort ever undertaken to measure what people believe constitutes a good
life. To date more than 622,000 surveys have been conducted and this number grows every night.
This unique asset, in combination with the incredible wealth of twenty-five years of health care
outcomes data, allows the Center for Health Research to conduct studies that no other organization
in the world can perform.
This truly multidisciplinary approach to measuring health and well-being, combined with a
unparalleled breadth and depth of information allows the team to conduct a vast range of research,
and it is used to advance their thinking in all levels of healthcare. Top healthcare journals have
published the resulting proven outcomes and theories authored by the Center, and those are made
available to the public and Healthways partners.
If you are passionate about cutting edge research that strives to improve the human condition, come
thrive with us.
About Healthways
For three decades, Healthways has been dedicated to improving the human condition. Each year, we
learn more and do more for the millions of individuals who count on us to make a difference in their
health and well-being. Healthways is a global provider of solutions that help employers, health plans
and government agencies enhance business performance and reduce healthcare costs. Our mission is
to
create
a
healthier
world,
one
person
at
a
time.
Here at Healthways as we continue to make the world a healthier place, we have also created an
environment where people choose to do their best work. Our unique culture thrives on mission-
driven individuals who exude a high sense of energy and passion in everything that they do.
Collaboration and teamwork are an essential part of everyday life for Colleagues who trust and
depend on one another to achieve the highest degree of collective success. We are an organization
that strives to recruit the best and the brightest individuals who take pride in the statement "I work
for Healthways."
We are proud to be an EEO/AA employer M/F/D/V.