Freelance Subject Matter Expert – Internal Medicine

Cactus Communications; Houston (TX); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Project-based work (no fixed hours)

Job summary

Cactus Communications seeks accomplished physician-researchers to serve as Subject Matter Experts in Generative AI for medical research. You will guide GenAI-enabled products, ensure scientific accuracy, and bridge clinicians with engineers and product teams.

Ideal candidates are active physicians with RCT, systematic review, or meta-analysis experience, a strong publication record, and familiarity with clinical research methodology and ethics.

Qualifications

• MD in Internal Medicine with board certification and active U.S. clinical license.
• Advanced research training (PhD/MPH/MS) in relevant fields is desirable.
• Demonstrated peer‑reviewed publications as first/senior author in high‑impact journals.
• Hands‑on experience in randomized controlled trials, systematic reviews, or meta‑analyses.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert guidance in product/workflow design for diverse clinical research.
• Evaluate GenAI outputs for scientific accuracy, rigor, and compliance with CONSORT/PRISMA/GRADE.
• Facilitate integration of clinical/biomedical data into AI‑enabled research tools.
• Collaborate with product managers, GenAI data scientists, UX designers, and developers to define test cases.
• Translate clinical requirements into design specs and define evaluation metrics for GenAI agent performance.

Skills

Clinical research leadership

GenAI in medical research

Systematic reviews & meta-analyses

Publication track record

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

MD in Internal Medicine

Board certification in Internal Medicine

Active U.S. clinical license

PhD/MPH/MS in Clinical Research/Bioinformatics/Epidemiology

Tools

PubMed

Embase

ClinicalTrials.gov

Cochrane Library

Job description

We are seeking accomplished physician-researchers to serve as Subject Matter Experts (SME) in the field of Generative AI for medical research. The SME will be instrumental in supporting the development and validation of Generative AI (GenAI) products designed to advance medical research and evidence synthesis. They will collaborate closely with cross-functional teams to design GenAI-enabled products and workflow solutions that aim to improve the quality, speed, and reliability of medical evidence generation, translation, and dissemination. They will serve as a scientific bridge, connecting medical researchers, GenAI engineers, data scientists, UX designers, software developers, and product managers.

Ideal candidates will be active physicians with hands-on experience conducting, supervising, or participating in clinical research studies, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, or meta-analyses. They should also have a strong publication record as first or senior authors in peer-reviewed, high-impact journals. A thorough understanding of research methodology and publication ethics is highly desirable.

Job responsibilities

Medical and Research Expertise

• Provide expert guidance in product and workflow design to support a wide spectrum of clinical research, including systematic reviews, narrative and scoping reviews, randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and qualitative studies.
• Evaluate and validate GenAI outputs to ensure scientific accuracy, methodological rigor, and compliance with established standards and frameworks such as CONSORT, PRISMA, and GRADE.
• Facilitate the integration of clinical and biomedical data sources into AI-enabled tools and agents, with an emphasis on journal content.

Product and Technology Collaboration

• Work collaboratively with product managers, GenAI data scientists, UX designers, and software developers to define clinically relevant test cases for GenAI agents and translate clinical workflows into AI-assisted research capabilities, including protocol formulation, literature screening, structured data extraction, quality appraisal, and evidence synthesis.
• Translate complex clinical and research requirements into actionable design specifications and define evaluation metrics for GenAI agent accuracy, bias, and reliability in research and publication settings.
• Provide clinical review and feedback throughout GenAI model selection, tuning, testing, and refinement processes.

Thought Partnership

• Serve as a clinical thought leader who informs agentic product development within the medical and research domains.
• Support teams in interpreting clinical data, research methodologies, and publication standards.
• Represent the organization in selected customer engagements.

Qualifications and prerequisites

Education and Clinical Training

• An MD degree with specialization in Internal Medicine, board certification in this specialty, and an active U.S. clinical license in good standing are required.
• Additionally, advanced academic or research training is highly desirable, such as a PhD, MPH, or MS in Clinical Research, Biomedical Informatics, or Epidemiology.
• Demonstrated record of peer-reviewed publications as a first or senior author in high-impact journals.
• Hands-on experience in conducting or supervising randomized controlled trials (RCTs), systematic reviews, or meta-analyses.
• Principal Investigator experience is desirable.
• Familiarity with medical databases such as PubMed, Embase, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the Cochrane Library, as well as with modern data extraction or curation tools.

Preferred Technical and Domain Competencies

• Working knowledge of Generative AI, natural language processing (NLP), and machine learning as applied to medical research.
• Strong analytical and critical appraisal skills, particularly in evaluating GenAI-assisted outputs.
• Excellent communication skills and ability to collaborate effectively with clinicians, data scientists, engineers, and product managers.

Benefits of the role

• Project-based (no fixed hours)