Stop TB Partnership - Senior Assistant - Digital Health

UNOPS hosts the Stop Tuberculosis Partnership Secretariat (STBP) as of 1 January 2015, in Geneva, Switzerland. The vision of the Stop TB Partnership is to realize the goal of elimination of Tuberculosis (TB) as a public health problem and, ultimately, to obtain a world free of TB by ensuring that every TB patient has access to effective diagnosis, treatment and cure; stopping transmission of TB; reducing the inequitable social and economic toll of TB; and developing and implementing new preventive, diagnostic and therapeutic tools and strategies. The Stop Partnership is uniquely positioned to support the development and further implementation by partners of the current and future Global Plan, acting as a coordinator and catalyst for the range of partners engaged in the fight against TB.

Founded in 2001, the Stop TB Partnership's mission is to serve every person who is vulnerable to TB and ensure that high-quality treatment is available to all who need it. Stop TB partners include international and technical organizations, government programmes, research and funding agencies, foundations, NGOs, civil society and community groups and the private sector.

The Stop TB Partnership launched the Digital Health Technology (DHT) Hub in November 2020 to catalyse the global adoption of evidence-based digital health technologies and ensure that they can be utilized to the fullest of their potential for the advancement of the Global Plan to End TB by 2030. The DHT hub is built on years of experience in facilitating the introduction and implementation of TB digital health technologies, and will build upon the Stop TB Partnership’s role as a convener of countries, technical partners, technology developers and donors to further advance the development and implementation of tools. 

The DHT Hub will coordinate and build upon the various digital health technology initiatives and projects within the Stop TB Partnership, and initially focus on the following key areas:

1. Build and expand the knowledge and experience base of the appropriate use of digital health technologies

2. Provide technical support to country programmes, implementing partners, and civil society and communities to implement and scale proven and evidence-based digital health technologies for the TB response

3. Lay the necessary foundation in TB affected countries for the optimal scale-up, equitable access, and appropriate use of digital health technologies

4. Catalyze the rapid roll-out of digital health technologies by providing fit-for-purpose capital and technical support to small- and medium-enterprises and start-ups, particularly from TB affected countries

The End TB Strategy and the Global Plan to End TB 2016-2020 call for new technologies and diagnostic tools to achieve a significant reduction in the number of people developing TB each year. Rapid, inexpensive, and highly accurate tests are urgently needed to improve the diagnosis of TB, particularly in resource-limited settings. New promising technologies are entering the markets using artificial intelligence, but additional studies are required to assess their accuracy.

There is renewed interest in using chest X-rays (CXR) to screen for pulmonary TB, largely due to the increasing availability of digital X-ray facilities which offer a highly sensitive, relatively inexpensive, rapid screening tool for large populations. However, the availability of healthcare professionals with the degree of expertise needed to screen a chest X-ray is not increasing as fast as the availability of medical imaging facilities. At the same time, there is a limited ability to accurately read chest X-rays in primary care and decentralized settings. Additionally, due to both high Intra- and inter- reader variabilities, the reproducibility of CXR is always a challenge. As a result, artificial intelligence is increasingly used to read chest radiographs for TB detection.

Under the direct supervision of the Technical Officer of I&G, the specific responsibilities of the Senior Assistant are:

Supports the development of the Stop TB Partnership’s digital health strategy: 

• Help drafting internal and external documents including strategy proposals, white papers, pitch decks and announcements.

• Assist in the writing of funding proposals to ensure the sustainability of the strategy.

• Compile, catalog and maintain all the repositories of documents related to the digital health strategy and serve as a focal point for the different teams who input the strategy or need access to the relevant documents.    

Support the activities of the Stop TB Partnership’s newly established Digital Health Technology (DHT) Hub:  

• Support the work across different technology focus areas including, but not limited to, collaborating on the writing of implementation and product guides, creation of learning tools, development of online landscaping platforms, and product specifications when necessary.

• Provide administrative support and help the team with the design of the digital health initiative’s webpage, including providing graphic design support where necessary.

• Provide administrative support, including attending and taking minutes from bi-weekly initiative meetings.

• Promote the work of the digital health initiative and the Partnership through writing news alerts, announcements, case studies, and blog articles. 

• Any other administrative tasks related to DHT Hub

Provides technical support in the area of AI/ Computer-aided TB Diagnostics under the guidance of the technical lead: 

• Provide support in the research and evaluation of existing commercial computer-aided TB diagnostic solutions by liaising and collaborating with commercial stakeholders on product evaluations. Create accessible lists for all the team members to consult and draw inputs.  

• Assist and coordinate the drafting of peer-reviewed articles.  

• Collaborate and support in the development of online product evaluation platforms for use by different stakeholders in the computer-aided diagnostics field.

• Support the production and publishing of computer-aided diagnostics for TB learning tools and implementation guides.

• Qualified candidates from TB affected countries are strongly encouraged to apply. See here the list of countries: http://www.stoptb.org/countries/tbdata.asp 
• Please note that the closing date is midnight Copenhagen time
• Applications received after the closing date will not be considered.
• Only those candidates that are short-listed for interviews will be notified.
• Qualified female candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.
• Work life harmonization - UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands. We have a progressive policy on work-life harmonization and offer several flexible working options. This policy applies to UNOPS personnel on all contract types
• For staff positions only, UNOPS reserves the right to appoint a candidate at a lower level than the advertised level of the post
• The incumbent is responsible to abide by security policies, administrative instructions, plans and procedures of the UN Security Management System and that of UNOPS.

It is the policy of UNOPS to conduct background checks on all potential recruits/interns. 
Recruitment/internship in UNOPS is contingent on the results of such checks.

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With over 4,000 UNOPS personnel and approximately 7,000 personnel recruited on behalf of UNOPS partners spread across 80 countries, our workforce represents a wide range of nationalities and cultures. We promote a balanced, diverse workforce — a strength that helps us better understand and address our partners’ needs, and continually strive to improve our gender balance through initiatives and policies that encourage recruitment of qualified female candidates.

Work life harmonization

UNOPS values its people and recognizes the importance of balancing professional and personal demands.