Personalised Spine Surgical Care
Real-world evidence to advance personalised spine surgical care
This project is part of the UNSW Scientia PhD Scholarship Scheme
Successful applicants will receive an annual stipend and a one-off Global Mobility Grant to conduct international engagement activities.
Precision medicine is the new frontier of healthcare, enabling the right care to be provided to the right people. This PhD will apply precision medicine approaches to address the growing burden of low back pain, the leading cause of global disability and one of Australia’s biggest healthcare challenges.
The candidate will be supported to learn and apply contemporary approaches, including causal inference and machine learning, to nationwide health databases and clinical trial data to predict individual benefits from treatments. They will join the world-leading multidisciplinary team at the Centre for Pain IMPACT and work closely with global leaders in causal inference at Harvard University.
This PhD would suit health graduates with an interest in data analytics. The candidate will produce evidence that will help patients and clinicians make personalised treatment decisions, improving the lives of people with low back pain and supporting the sustainability of the healthcare system.
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- Residency: Domestic applicants only.
- Degree program: Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
You must meet the minimum requirements below to apply:
- An appropriate Bachelor degree with first or upper second class Honours from UNSW: OR
- A completed Master by Research, with a substantial research component and demonstrated capacity for timely completion of a high-quality research thesis; OR
- a qualification from another tertiary institution at a level considered equivalent by the Faculty Higher Degree Committee (HDC)
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Eligible applicants must contact the Primary Supervisor, James McAuley - james.mcauley@unsw.edu.au. If he agrees to supervise you, you will be invited to submit a formal application to UNSW.
Your email should include:
- CV
- Official academic transcripts
- A brief introduction about you and why you are qualified for this project.
- What interests you about this project and the supervisor(s) expertise.
Research project overview
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Scholarship value
$39,991 per annum (2027 rate) stipend for 3.5 years
$25,000 Global Mobility Grant (one-off) -
Supervisory team
Prof James McAuley (UNSW, Primary Supervisor)
Dr Harrison Hansford (UNSW, Co-Supervisor)
A/Prof Issa Dahabreh (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, CAUSALab, Co-Supervisor)
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Global research partner
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Candidate residency
Domestic
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Degree program
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
UNSW School | Research area
Faculty of Medicine & Health | School of Health Sciences
Impact focus area
Pillar 8: Enable healthy lives
Learn more
Supervisors
Do you have questions?
The UNSW Graduate Research School manages all postgraduate research applications and scholarships. Get in touch with our team to discuss your research interests and the next steps.