Rob Wiblin

80,000 Hours is seeking a Head of Research

 is our sister organisation - we are cross posting this 

As Head of Research, you will become part of our founding team to lead our research efforts into how to select the most high-impact careers. Our research is what drives the advice we provide via our website and career coaching.

Specifically, you become responsible for:

Deciding what questions to investigate and personally coming up with answers to these questions, or overseeing the delegation of this research to others.

Helping to translate these findings into practical products that help people make better decisions - books, web applications, workshops and others.

Fitting the research into the overall strategy for the organisation.

We are a small team, so you'll also have the opportunity to be involved in recruitment, fundraising, publishing our findings in the media and whatever else most interests you.

This role combines great potential for impact with great potential for growth and learning. We believe 80,000 Hours has the potential to transform careers advice, and you would be playing a central role in our strategy. As one of the key team members of a rapidly growing small organisation, you'll have a huge amount of responsibility, autonomy and room to grow.

If you work for 80,000 Hours, you’ll be part of a focused team of intelligent, enthusiastic, driven colleagues who want to change the world, located in our offices within the beautiful University of Oxford, just an hour from London .

What does the research involve in more detail?

Check out our existing pages for examples. Some big questions we've focused on so far are:

what factors should you look for when comparing two careers? e.g. how to prioritise building skills against your immediate impact?

what steps should you take to make your next choice?

which career paths are most promising in general?

We set about answering these with a mixture of expert interviews, literature searches and quantitative estimates. All our research findings are applied in our one-on-one coaching to test their usefulness and get further feedback.

We're looking for someone who is highly enthusiastic about 80,000 Hours and effective altruism, who could see themselves becoming obsessed with the question 'in which career can you make the most difference?'.

You'll need a combination of research skills honed on messy real-world problems, and exceptionally clear written communication.

Some examples of experience that would be especially useful include: journalism, graduate study (especially in social science), policy research, and philosophy study - though we're interested in anyone who can demonstrate the skills.

The ideal candidate could also grow into a major leadership role within the organisation, so evidence you can run your own thing and lead people is a major plus.

Candidates will be selected on the following traits, and should aim to demonstrate them in their application:

Applications close Midnight GMT, Friday 12th December.

See other job openings at the Centre for Effective Altruism.

Iron Deficiency: Are the Answers Already out There?

Iron deficiency, or getting insufficient iron, is a large problem, affecting approximately two billion people worldwide. Iron deficiency commonly causes anaemia, higher levels of maternal mortality, and perinatal mortality. It even can increase the likelihood of contracting a disease[1]. Iron deficiency contributes substantially to global death and disability, particularly in developing countries. Pregnant women, perinatal women and young children are the most affected by iron deficiency, largely because of the high iron demands associated with pregnancy and growth.[1]

But this could be treatable. Iron deficiency has been called "the most common preventable nutritional deficiency"[2]. Interventions to reduce the health burden associated with iron deficiency, such as fortification and supplementation, have been claimed by some organizations to significantly reduce mortality and the risk of disease within a population. But are they correct?

What are the resultant health improvements following the introduction of interventions aimed to reduce iron deficiency in developing countries? Unfortunately, a quick review of the literature revealed that few studies have quantitatively measured the total health benefits from micronutrient fortification in countries where the disease has a substantial impact.

Due to the lack of directly-relevant data available, we looked to indirectly calculate the total health gain for an intervention by searching for data on four important parameters often reported within studies, albeit separately:

Health damage per person with a nutrient deficiency;

Share of the deficiency reduced through the intervention;

Share of the population with the deficiency;

Number of people within the study population.

We first searched key repositories of health related publications including PubMed, the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Cochrane websites using a variety of combinations of disease and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALY)-related search terms. Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) per person or across a population are a simple way to assess the health damage related to a disease, as they take into account the decrement to both length and quality of life that a person experiences as a result of the condition in question.

A total of 58 pertinent papers were identified. In addition to looking directly for information fulfilling at least one of our four defined parameters, we also noted additional information, such as other outcomes measured and the population sub-group studied.

Unfortunately, the low amount of evidence available means it's difficult to make claims with certainty. The results of our search demonstrated that iron deficiency anaemia, a key outcome of iron deficiency, was associated with a considerable and detrimental impact upon health. For instance, one study reported that the total global burden due to iron deficiency anaemia in 2004 was over 35 million DALYs.s Our spreadsheet containing our data 

It is important to bear in mind that iron deficiency is not the sole cause of anaemia, and anaemia is often used as an inappropriate proxy for iron deficiency anaemia. For example, anaemia can also be caused by other factors, such as P. falciparum malaria.[1] In 2009, WHO estimated that 60% of anaemia was due to iron deficiency in non-malarial areas and 50% in malarial areas.[3]

While not all of the information located fell neatly into our defined parameters, it was evident that simple interventions can have a major impact on health. For example, one report estimated that providing 50% of the global population with iron fortification would increase health by 59 million DALYs and ion supplementation would increase health by 59 million DALYs, when implemented over a 10-year period.[4]

Real life studies support this impressive estimate as realistic. A 21% reduction in perinatal mortality was seen in Africa after iron supplementation at a cost of only $16.59 over a year per pregnant woman, and fortification cost only $0.13 per person.[5] Put into context, the average cost-effectiveness of iron supplementation and fortification at 95% coverage in Africa was $66 and $20 per DALY averted, respectively.[5] These values are significantly below the widely accepted DALY cost-effectiveness threshold proposed by the World Bank of $150 per DALY for an intervention to qualify as an "attractive" investment for a low income country.[6]

Whilst researching, it became clear that sub-groups are affected differently by iron deficiency, with pregnant women and infants the most severely impacted, due to higher iron demands. For example, one study demonstrated that iron deficiency was responsible for 0.4% of all deaths in South Africa, but 7.4% of all deaths of pregnant women.[7] Indeed, many of the studies only considered the sub-groups of mothers and infants, or provided separate figures for them. Further investigation is warranted, as the data for the sub-groups could be weighted by their proportion of the overall population to give a more accurate picture of the total health impact.

Again, these conclusions should be looked at with a note of caution due to lack of evidence. The results are generalized from just a few epidemiological studies, and further investigation is warranted. But it does seem like that the large number of preventable DALYs caused by iron deficiency, as highlighted by our research, is just one piece of evidence in the mounting case for further action against the condition. Intervention could be promising as it could prevent large numbers of deaths as well as increasing the productivity of the workforce; in fact, annual productivity losses due to iron deficiency are thought to amount to approximately 0.57% of GDP in developing countries.[8]

There is a silver lining. Iron deficiency may be the "most common preventable nutritional deficiency"[2], but with the facts on the cost-effectiveness and health benefits of interventions laid out, one can but hope that its days as holder of that title are numbered.

By Ruth McElhone, working pro bono on behalf of Costello Medical Consulting, with Robert Wiblin

1. Stoltzfus R, Mulllany L, Black R. Iron deficiency anaemia. In: Ezzati M et al, ed. Comparative quantification of health risks: global and regional burden of disease attributable to selected major risk factors. Volume 1. Geneva, Switzerland: WHO, 2004:163-209.

2. De-Regil L, Suchdev P, Vist G, et al. Home fortification of foods with multiple micronutrient powders for health and nutrition in children under two years of age. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2011, Issue 9.

3. Mathers C, Stevens G, Mascarenhas M, et al. Global Health Risks: Mortality and burden of disease attributable to selected major risks. Volume Annex A: WHO, 2009:32-54.

4. WHO. The World Health Report. Chapter 5. 2002. Available at: 

www.who.int/whr/2002/chapter5/en/index5.html

5. Baltussen R, Knai C, Sharan M. Iron fortification and iron supplementation are cost-effective interventions to reduce iron deficiency in four subregions of the world. J Nutr. 2004;134:2678-84.

6. Shillcutt S, Walker D, Goodman C, Mills A. Cost-effectiveness in low- and middle-income countries. PharmacoEconomics. 2009;27(11):903-917.

7. Nojilana B, Norman R, Dhansay M, et al. Estimating the burden of disease attributable to iron deficiency anaemia in South Africa in 2000. S Afr Med J. 2007;97:741-6.

8. Horton S, Ross J. The economics of iron deficiency. Food Policy. 2003;28:51-75.

. He was the former Executive Director of the Centre for Effective Altruism and a former Director of Research at Giving What We Can.

Rob's research focuses on the best ways people can do good in their careers.

The 80,000 Hours podcast is focused on having 'unusually in-depth conversations about the world's most pressing problems and how you can use your career to solve them.'

, Rob studied both genetics and economics at the Australian National University (ANU), graduated top of his class, and was named Young Alumnus of the Year in 2015. He then wworked as a research economist in various Australian Government agencies including the Treasury and Productivity Commission.

Rob Wiblin

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80,000 Hours is seeking a Head of Research

Iron Deficiency: Are the Answers Already out There?