Project Manager

Context of the Role 

The George Institute’s Women’s Health Program was established in 2018, with support from academic, operational and professional staff in TGI offices worldwide. It builds on the global expertise of TGI staff in undertaking large-scale clinical, epidemiological, health systems and population health research, focused in large part on addressing the global burden of non-communicable diseases and injury.

The program has six core focus areas: (1) Sex and gender equity in health and medicine; (2) Pregnancy as an opportunity to improve lifelong health; (3) Climate change and women’s health; (4) Addressing neglected woman-specific conditions; (5) Human rights and health systems for women’s health; and (6) Artificial intelligence and digital solutions to improve women’s health.

The Artificial Intelligence and digital solutions to improve women’s health developed from the SMARThealth Pregnancy Program (SHP). SHP is a digital tool designed to support frontline health workers in performing guideline-based screenings for high-risk conditions in pregnancy and the first year after birth. The digital platform features a clinical decision support algorithm based on local guidelines, which supports either referral to a primary care doctor or provides diet and lifestyle advice. SHP is currently being evaluated in a cluster-randomized trial in two states in India, involving 60 villages and 3,500 women.

In 2023, the SHP team successfully secured funding to develop a large language model chatbot that supports community health workers in rural India, utilising the SHP platform. Following an iterative process of co-design and early testing of the chatbot in local languages, the next phase of the project will involve assessing the chatbot's performance in rural India and developing partnerships with tech companies and the government.

Building on the success of SHP in India, SMARThealth Pregnancy is now a global program, with new projects slated to commence in 2025 in the Caribbean and Africa. We are also supporting an EU Commission-funded consortium led by University College Cork to improve pregnancy and birth outcomes through digital interventions in four African countries (LINDA-FAMILIA), which is also due to commence in 2025.

In parallel, we are collaborating with the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists to develop a chatbot specifically designed for specialist doctors and trainee doctors, aiming to enhance access to guidance.

The team collaborates widely with partners in the UK, including Imperial College London AI-X and the University of Oxford's Nuffield Department of Women’s and Reproductive Health, as well as internationally through the Gates Grand Challenges Equitable Applications of AI for Low- and Middle-Income Countries consortium, and our other collaborators on the projects listed above. The AI/digital and women’s health team has team members in the UK, India and Australia. 

The Role

The Program Manager will be responsible for coordinating, delivering, and developing all aspects of AI and digital technologies for women’s health activities. This includes supporting the coordination and operationalization of SHP and SHP GPT in India, helping our partners and local investigators establish SHP in the Caribbean and Africa, contributing to the Imperial's capacity strengthening in digital health for the EU LINDA FAMILIA project in Africa, and supporting the development of the RCOG chatbot.

The Program Manager will work closely with the Program Director for Women’s Health, as well as the data science team at TGI, the Research Associate for AI and Women’s Health, and the SHP team.

The appointee will bring their initiative and ideas for effectively and efficiently coordinating, operationalizing, and continuing to develop the existing portfolio of projects, as well as help identify new opportunities aligned with the group's mission to grow the program in the future. The Program Manager will bring their experience in complex project management to help each project deliver on time and on budget.

The Program Manager will help to write and support future peer-reviewed and philanthropic funding applications, presentations and publications arising from the group. They will support the writing of project protocols and obtaining ethics approval, where required. They will actively seek to understand the regulatory requirements in each of the countries where we work for AI for healthcare/software as a medical device and ensure our projects are aligned with these requirements.

The Program Manager will be responsible for coordinating the TGI AI and women’s health teams across TGI offices through regular meetings and updates. They will also be responsible for coordinating external stakeholder engagement, e.g., with the RCOG and collaborating partners in the Caribbean and Africa.

The postholder will be responsible for establishing an online presence and keeping the website up to date with achievements, notifications and events, as well as regularly updating the TGI internal project management system (SPoT).

They will support the Program Director to convene and run events in women’s health and AI, and support the development of strategic partnerships with industry partners and other academic groups.

They will support any annual or other reporting requirements for any grants or philanthropic donations. The Program manager will support with on-boarding of students and other team members.

Reporting Relationships

The Program Manager reports to and works closely with the Program Director for Women’s Health. The Program Manager will work closely with staff on several key projects within the Data Science team and SMARThealth Pregnancy teams in the UK, Australia, and India.

Duties and Key Responsibilities

• To lead the coordination of all projects within the AI, digital technologies and women’s health area at the George Institute
• Support the writing of grant applications, protocols for ethical approval and manuscripts for peer review
• Manage the budgets for the AI and women’s health projects and ensure accurate and timely budgetary reporting for the philanthropic and peer-reviewed projects within the program
• Support in-country teams to coordinate and deliver specific activities related to the grants held within the program
• Work with the Program Director to establish and meet milestones for each of the projects
• Help to initiate and develop new partnerships with industry, NGOs, academic partners and governments to further the mission of the program
• Keep up to date with relevant regulatory requirements for AI and digital technologies in the geographies where we work
• Ensure that the research across the program is being conducted is congruent with world best practice
• Be responsible for keeping the website up to date with events, achievements and outputs from the group
• Support the Program Director in convening and running networking and knowledge-sharing events in the UK
• Actively develop and promote the desired culture of The George Institute by ensuring all interactions, documentation and communication are conducted in a manner which supports the stated mission. 

As a Team Manager

• Ensure direct reports understand and comply with GI’s Policies and procedures, standard operating practices, ethical practice (with respect to research) and the legislative environment.
• Be responsible for managing the performance of direct reports, including the completion of plans and agreeing on work and personal objectives and reviewing such plans and objectives, in accordance with GI’s Performance Management and Development Policy.
• Act as a role model and ensure the team’s commitment to GI’s values, ensuring direct reports perform to a high ethical standard and focus on integrity, collaboration and teamwork in all efforts.

As a Team Member:

• Participate in the Women’s Health Program in the UK and global teams
• Take responsibility for personal learning and development and for setting achievable and meaningful work objectives and managing personal targets, meeting obligations of The Institute’s Performance Management and Development Policy;
• Demonstrate commitment to The Institute’s organisational values, including performing to an exceptionally high ethical standard and focus on integrity, collaboration and teamwork in all efforts.

Work, Health and Safety

• Comply with Work Health and Safety legislation and operate in accordance with established Occupational Health and Safety practice and procedures at the Institute;
• Promote and contribute to a safe, secure environment for staff and visitors.

Skills, Knowledge and Experience 

Essential

• Masters degree in Public Health, translational health sciences, or equivalent
• Relevant experience in Project management in AI and/or digital health programs for health
• Passion for health equity and women’s health
• Experience working with an international and diverse team
• Excellent time management and organisational skills
• Evidence of high-level, professional writing skills and ability to write reports
• Experience in grant writing for peer-reviewed funders and philanthropic funders
• Experience in protocol development and knowledge of ethical approval processes
• Awareness and compliance with data regulatory requirements e.g. GDPR
• Evidence of certification for Good Clinical Practice (GCP) for research training
• Working understanding of large language models and clinical risk prediction for health
• Familiarity with the regulatory environment for AI and digital health innovations

 Desirable

• Experience in women’s health projects and clinical background (nursing, midwifery, medicine)
• Experience working in low-and middle-income settings
• Experience developing training and capacity-building programs

About The George Institute

The George Institute for Global Health was established in 1999 with a mission to improve the health of millions of people worldwide, particularly underserved populations, by challenging the status quo and using innovative approaches to prevent and treat the world’s biggest killers: non-communicable diseases and injury.

With offices in Australia, China, India and the UK, our 700+ people support 245+ active projects and clinical trials across 50+ countries, with 400+ more staff across our social enterprises. We focus on the global health challenges that cause the greatest loss of life, the greatest impairment of life quality and the most substantial economic burden, particularly in resource-poor settings.

Together with our academic partners, UNSW Sydney in Australia, Manipal Academy of Higher Education in India and Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, we work with a global network of collaborators, undertaking clinical, population and health systems research.

What we do:

• Lead world-class, large-scale clinical trials, epidemiological studies and health systems research to transform treatments and healthcare delivery
• Look beyond single diseases, across the life course, to identify patient-centred approaches to care that can be implemented at scale
• Develop low-cost, innovative solutions to global unmet needs
• Drive our global impact through a program of research, advocacy, thought leadership and disruptive social entrepreneurship

For more information about The George Institute, visit www.georgeinstitute.org.