Freelance Subject Matter Expert – Internal Medicine

Cactus Communications; Los Angeles (CA); On-site; USD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Project-based hours

Job summary

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

Ideal candidates are active MDs with a strong publication record, experienced in RCTs, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses, and familiar with medical databases and research ethics.

Qualifications

• MD with Internal Medicine specialty, board-certified, and active US clinical license.
• PhD/ MPH/ MS in Clinical Research, Biomedical Informatics, or Epidemiology is highly desirable.
• Publication record as first or senior author in high-impact journals.
• Hands-on experience with RCTs, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses.
• PI experience desirable; familiarity with medical databases and data extraction tools.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert guidance in study design for systematic reviews, RCTs, and other clinical research including data extraction and evidence synthesis.
• Evaluate GenAI outputs for scientific accuracy, methodological rigor, and adherence to CONSORT/PRISMA/GRADE frameworks.
• Collaborate with product teams to translate clinical workflows into AI-enabled research capabilities and evaluation metrics.

Skills

GenAI knowledge

NLP

Machine learning

Analytical thinking

Communication

Education

MD, Internal Medicine

PhD/ MPH/ MS in Clinical Research or 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

• 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)