Clinical Researcher

Rendever is overcoming social isolation through the power of virtual reality and shared experiences. Our resident engagement platform has been installed in more than 800 senior living communities and has provided over 3,000,000 moments to thousands of residents across the world. With Rendever, residents can travel to all corners of the world, check off bucket list items and revisit meaningful places like their childhood home. If this sounds good to you, keep reading!

We are looking for a dedicated clinical researcher to join our research team and conduct studies with older adults and their caregivers as they learn and engage with the Rendever VR platform. Our platform offering is aimed at improving the lives of seniors by enhancing interpersonal connections, reinforcing autobiographical memories, and engaging them in fun social, physical, and cognitive activities. All is supported by an incredible team, and we’re excited to add this role as we begin an exciting new chapter in our research endeavors. The NIA awarded Rendever a Commercialization Readiness Program grant to continue evaluating the impact of our VR platform with older adults living at home.  This three-year clinical study will be conducted remotely by Rendever and the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) and aims to recruit 250 older adults along with 125 family caregivers. Older adults living at home will be connected with residents from local senior living communities three times a week through shared VR experiences. This study contributes to public health by testing the expanded networking capabilities of Rendever VR on the social health, mental health, vitality, and quality of life of older adults who are aging in place with diverse cognitive abilities. Ultimately, this project aims to help build a much needed infrastructure of social connectivity to combat social isolation and improve wellbeing. 

This clinical researcher role will primarily involve remotely recruiting and working with the participants of this clinical trial to collect the outcomes data. The study is nationwide and conducted completely remotely, and most recruitment and data collection activities occur over Zoom. This includes remotely recruiting participants, screening for eligibility, obtaining informed consent, and administering surveys to people 65+ years old with a wide range of cognitive health, from healthy to moderate dementia. We're looking for individuals who are able to create a positive research experience while driving operational efficiency and adhering to the protocol. 

Beyond this study, there are two ongoing remote research studies and we foresee this role as a long-term opportunity within our company. There is also room to grow in this role with finding funding opportunities, grant writing and submissions, and study and protocol development. 

If you’re passionate about working with people experiencing cognitive decline and doing impactful research to combat social isolation, enhance human connection, and increase well-being and overall health, you’ve come to the right place! You’ll be a part of collecting some incredible moments of impact each day, and we can’t wait to see the stories come in. 

Roles & Responsibilities

• Recruitment & Enrollment: Assist in the recruitment activities of home care clients 65+ and family caregivers. Conduct virtual screenings and informed consent over Zoom with participants.
• Data Collection: Administer surveys in Qualtrics over Zoom to the participants at three different time points for each 4-month cohort of the study (5-7 cohorts anticipated). Help participants feel comfortable using a variety of scaling methodologies.
• Participant Relations & Support: Provide participants with reminders and support throughout the study. Help as needed with communications with participants and their care teams, ensuring we maintain the proactive responsiveness and support for which our brand is known.
• Study Administration: Help maintain up-to-date master spreadsheets to ensure data quality and accurate tracking of participant status and data points.

Skills Required

• Clinical Research Experience: Clinical research experience is required; experience doing research with people living with dementia is a plus - special training will be provided.
• Communication Skills: The ability to connect and excellent listening and verbal communication skills are required to interact with participants, their families, and members of their care team during the recruitment phase and data collection phase. Must possess the soft skills required for speaking to older adults, giving clear survey instructions, and de-escalating minor emotional or frustrating issues that can arise.
• Computer Skills: Being comfortable setting participants up on Zoom will be important for this role. Basic Word, Excel, Google suite, Zoom skills will be needed. Having prior experience with VR would be a bonus but isn’t required if you are a quick learner.
• Data Collection: Attention to detail, adherence to protocol, and persistence in flexible scheduling are all essential for maintaining high quality-data collection practices and ensuring all study procedures are completed accurately and consistently. 
• Time Management: You’ll be managing your own time and the schedules of the participants during the study. As this is a remote study, flexibility working with participants in different time zones is crucial.
• Pleasant Persistence: To recruit participants and ensure data collection timelines and completeness with this population - people living with dementia and busy caregivers with multiple, competing life demands - the soft skill of not hesitating to initiate contact, being resilient to negative responses, continuing to reach out, yet not be overbearing will be needed.

Culture Fit

You're a good fit if you have…

• A high level of attention to detail when sticking to protocols
• A passion for helping the aging community, people with dementia,  and caregivers
• A love for learning innovative technologies and teaching others how to use them
• A passion for working with autonomy and being thoroughly organized
• Comfort working with remote teams and a fast-paced startup culture
• Knowledge about the VR industry
• Fluency in English, it is the universal company language
• A positive & energetic personality

Team Culture & Values

• Proactivity, collaboration, and communication drive success.
• We thrive when we learn together.
• Our growth inspires positive change in the world of care.
• Results matter.

Why join the Rendever team?

Rendever’s award-winning virtual reality platform is being used in hospitals, senior living communities, and with individual seniors across the US, UK, Canada, and Oceania. By joining our team, you will have an opportunity to work with exciting technologies that make a real difference in people’s lives. We’re a small, tight-knit team, but we’re in a unique and exciting position where our industry support and adoption has hit significant strides. In order to accelerate this progress, we’re working with health foundations and corporate sponsors to bring the impact of our technology to senior living communities and other in-need populations.