Practicum Opportunity, RSPH

Opportunity Description

Dr. Michael Goodman in the Department of Epidemiology has a practicum opportunity for students to collaborate with an organization that represents men who do not identify as transgender, but express themselves as gender non-conforming, “cross-dressers”.

The partner institution is interested in conducting a survey of their members both in the US and internationally.  The survey itself is being developed by the organization, but the student would be in charge of developing an online instrument, and collecting/analyzing the data. Dr. Vin Tangpricha from the Division of Endocrinology is also involved in this project. 

Contact Information

To learn more about this practicum opportunity, please send an email to Dr. Goodman at mgoodm2 [at] emory [dot] edu to express interest. 

National Cancer Database APE Opportunities, Winship Cancer Institute

COVID-19 Prevention in Nursing Homes APE Opportunity, Emory

Opportunity Description

The COPING Study (COVID-19 Prevention in Nursing Homes) is an Emory University research study funded by the CDC that aims to examine COVID-19 serology among healthcare workers in nursing homes in Georgia. This APE opportunity is for Epi and BSHES masters students and primary data collection opportunity for Epi PhD students.

For this study, Dr. Scott Fridkin, the principal investigator, is looking for one or more students to assist with on-site data collection activities at participating nursing homes. All study staff, including any participating students, will be compliant with nursing homes’ requirements to be allowed on site.

See the flyer below for a more detailed description of the study and the position requirements.

How to Apply 

• If interested, please send an email expressing interest to Joseph Kellogg at joseph [dot] kellogg [at] emory [dot] edu 

COVID-19 Related APE Opportunities, RSPH

General Description:

The following positions are being offered as Applied Practice Experiences (APE) for current MPH students in the Rollins School of Public Health.  These positions will work in partnership with Emory faculty and key staff at the Georgia Department of Public Health (GDPH) to enhance GDPH’s surveillance and response process to the current COVID-19 pandemic in Georgia.  There are seven projects or APE opportunities available.  Interested students are asked to review the general job responsibilities and project-specific descriptions outlined below and indicate in a cover letter which top two projects/APE opportunities interest them. After a student has been selected for an APE opportunity they will meet with the designated Emory faculty who will serve as the student’s APE Field Supervisor.  The student and Field Supervisor will meet to identify how the APE will meet MPH foundational and concentration competencies, discuss the project’s goals/objectives, and outline the specific deliverables that will be produced at the end of the APE.

General Job Responsibilities (Students will assist with some but not likely all of the following):

1. Provide assistance with data collection, data cleaning and data quality assurance of data reported to the GDPH on COVID-related cases in Georgia
2. Provide assistance with descriptive analyses, network analyses and the development of risk profiles for various demographics related to COVID-related infection
3. Provide assistance in the development of public health reports/tools to assist GDPH with COVID-related risk mitigation and decision-making

Project Descriptions:

Project I: Geospatial

1. Assist in geocoding process and develop central repository of geocoded information
2. Establish spatial connections among cases (e.g., network analysis)
3. Assist in the development of descriptive and predictive analyses, including the development of items/products for dissemination
4. Assist in the ongoing development and maintenance of Facility Tool in SendSS

Project II: Persons Under Investigation

1. Ensure data quality by:
   1. Identifying where pertinent data are missing (e.g., county, city, exposures, symptoms, outcomes); providing a standard file with documentation of which data points to modify and how, and; creating standard code to perform data quality checks
   2. Identifying where data are logically inconsistent and providing standard file with documentation of which data points to modify and how
   3. Providing weekly standardized analytic file following data quality checks
2. Provide standardized means of characterizing the burden of COVID-19 in Georgia. Consider analyses conducted in other projects (Geospatial, Health Inequity, etc.)

Project III: Syndromic Surveillance

1. Analyze textual information from syndromic surveillance data to identify potential COVID emergency department visits
2. Analyze textual information on death certificates as a means of determining if they may be used as syndromic surveillance

Project IV: Health Inequities and Underlying Conditions

1. Characterize health inequities specific to COVID in Georgia (e.g., health care access, health care coverage)
2. Characterize burden of COVID among persons with known underlying conditions
3. Assist in the development of risk profiles for differing demographics (e.g., care takers)
4. Develop recommendations to mitigate impact of health inequity on COVID-19 transmission

Project V: Injury

1. Describe injury-related outcomes (e.g., homicide, suicide, accidental firearm, overdoses) using available data sources
2. Monitor motor vehicle crash burden
3. Assist in the analyses of burden of injury among the elderly who are living at home
4. Identify analyses to characterize the relationship between domestic violence and sheltering in place policies

Project VI: Social Media

1. Develop method for surveilling COVID-19 using social media feeds
2. Develop analyses and products to assist in using this analysis for the purpose of ongoing surveillance
3. Perform retrospective analysis of social media

Project VII: Transmission Dynamics

1. Ensure quality and completeness of data fields germane to disease transmission (e.g., exposures – household, institution, incarceration, travel), also subsequent data cleaning and curation.
2. Estimate reproductive numbers at county-level and facility-level.
3. Estimate serial interval based on contact tracing data and explore potential heterogeneity among different types of contacts (e.g. between different age groups and sex), potentially can be cross validated with third-party (e.g. facebook) social contact information.
4. Conduct social distancing and disease transmission analyses to better understand relationships between: a) policies, b) social distancing and other “behaviors” (e.g., transportation), and c) disease transmission.

How to Apply: 

Submit a cover letter and resume to Laura Donnelly at ldonnel [at] emory [dot] edu. 

*Please note that in the cover letter you should specifically indicate which top two of the seven projects you would like to apply to as an APE.

Timeline: 

These APE positions will begin in May 2020.

Practicum Opportunity, Morningside Center

Practicum Goal:

For each type of cancer, find, evaluate and summarize existing clinical data (retrospective and small prospective studies) on supporting the use of off-label combinations of FDA approved non-cancer and cancer drugs. 

Background:

Cancer patients have co-morbid conditions like diabetes, arthritis, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.  Therefore, along with their cancer treatments (surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, etc.) they are also taking drugs like metformin, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), beta blockers, ACE inhibitors, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBS), and statins.  Many observational studies (case-control and cohort) have investigated the associations of these non-cancer drugs with cancer outcomes (off-label use).  Evaluation of quality and statistical methods used in these studies will allow us to determine if a given drug is ready for prospective clinical trials.

Tasks:

• For each type of cancer, search PUBMED and other databases for Human data on off-label use.
• Review statistical methods used and determine quality of the paper.
• Summarize papers using a pre-agreed format and considering both safety and efficacy (QOL, PFS, OS; RR), and any biomarker use.
• Tabulate studies for different agents (Aspirin/NSAIDS, metformin, statins, etc.).
• Summarize the reviewed literature in a form of a meta-analysis (if sufficient number of studies is available)

Organization Description:

The Morningside Center for Innovative and Affordable Medicine (Morningside Center): We are an interdisciplinary unit within the Woodruff Health Sciences Center at Emory University consisting of a core group of staff, and affiliated faculty from across Emory. Extending the vision of GlobalCures Inc., a non-profit medical research organization, the Morningside Center was created to promote research, education, and advocacy for effective and affordable medical treatments.

Preferred Qualifications:

• MPH (1^st or 2^nd year) or PhD candidate

How to Apply: 

Send an email to Nika Fedirko vfedirk [at] emory [dot] edu and Krista Charen kharkre [at] emory [dot] edu by May 15^th:

• In the subject line indicate that you are applying for the summer position/practicum
• Attach your CV and a writing example
• Describe your level of proficiency with reviewing and summarizing epidemiologic literature

Summer 2020 Internship, Remedy Partners

General Application:

Remedy hires interns across our company including Analytics, Technology, Product, and Corporate departments. If you’re interested in healthcare but are unsure what you want to do, please submit an application here and we’re happy to work with you to find what’s best!

Our Mission:

Remedy Partners is an innovative healthcare services and technology company specializing in “bundled payment” programs. Bundled payments are an innovative new payment model that includes financial and performance accountability in episodes of care. Episode payment programs represent an important advance in the organization and financing of health care services in both the public and private sectors. 

The company’s mission is to dramatically improve the quality and efficiency of healthcare delivery by developing and managing episodic payment programs in partnership with leading healthcare organizations.

We take our role seriously and constantly remind each other that every patient in Remedy’s program is someone’s mother, brother, father, sister, friend or other relative. Empathy for the challenges patients face after a hospitalization keeps us focused on the important role we can play. 

• Interest in a career in the healthcare field
• An ability to independently find solutions to a problem; organizational skills to breakdown a complex issue into a manageable action plan
• Strong analytical and trouble-shooting skills
• Ability to work cross-functionally and communicate with both technical and non-technical audiences
• Strong listening skills to gather requirements and understand the technical and non-technical barriers to project completion
• An interest in learning about healthcare data and technology and how it’s applied in a professional setting
• Expected graduation date in 2021

• Paid internship
• Potential opportunity for full-time position
• Volunteer opportunities
• Weekly Lunch & Learns with executive leadership

Apply

Click here to learn more about the position and apply on Handshake!

Thesis Opportunity in Congenital Heart Defect Surveillance

Project Description

 “The Surveillance of Congenital Heart Defects in Children, Adolescents and Adults” project, is seeking MPH students for data analysis projects that can be used for student theses. 

We’re currently in a 3^rd round Cooperative Agreement funding from CDC (8^th year), and we have a multi-disciplinary team which includes faculty and staff from Epi and HPM in RSPH, cardiology from the School of Medicine and the School of Nursing.  We’ve built strong partnerships in and around Atlanta and across the state with folks from GA Dept of Public Health, Grady, Piedmont, Northside, CHOA/Sibley Heart, the MACDP (Metro-Atlanta Congenital Defects Program) birth defects registry folks at CDC etc., and we have an active CHD community advisory committee (CAC) in place comprised of not only academics, practitioners, and advocacy groups, but also patients and parents.

Specifically, we conduct state-wide surveillance of individuals with congenital heart defects (CHDs) across the lifespan with the following project aims in mind:

1. to improve understanding of age-specific mortality, healthcare utilization, comorbidities, survival and other outcomes over time;
2. to improve understanding of racial/ethnic and socioeconomic patterns in healthcare usage, and their impact on long-term outcomes over time;
3. to gain a greater understanding of the strengths and limitations of databases used for CHDs surveillance; and
4. to increase CHDs awareness among the public and stakeholders.

In conducting this work, we hope to assist individuals with CHD and their families in their expectations and healthcare decisions, improve decision-making among stakeholders, and ultimately lead to more effective secondary prevention strategies to reduce the public health impact of CHDs.

We have lots of data ready to analyze including 15 years of Medicaid claims, and 6+ years of linked data from clinical and administrative sources including data linked from GA vital birth and death records.  

Contact Information 

All interested students should contact Cheryl Raskind-Hood (co-PI of the project) to discuss the opportunity further by emailing her at craskin [at] emory [dot] edu. 

COVID-19 Related APE Opportunity, RSPH

Description

There is an opportunity to support a COVID-19 outbreak response in Northeast Georgia and to do so as an APE. There is a need to move quickly with the response, and help is needed immediately.  Dr. Jodie Guest will be leading this work from the Emory side and will serve as the APE field supervisor for this opportunity.

The Northeast GA Health System has been tracking COVID-19 cases and deaths in their own facilities across several different counties and have found higher case rates in Hall County compared to those in other counties. There is particular concern about higher case rates among the Hispanic/Latino communities as well as among workers of poultry processing plants in the area.

Responsibilities

Students are needed to help with a variety of activities, including testing, contact tracing, developing/refreshing public education materials, developing a program to train community workers to support their own communities with needs related to COVID-19, delivering meals and information on testing and other services to the homes of public school students. Some of these activities would be in person, and some would be completely virtual. Training will be provided for all of these activities, as will personal protective equipment (PPE) for in-person activities. Given the need to engage with the Hispanic/Latino community, we especially need students with Spanish speaking skills (fluency not required). Students who can speak Vietnamese are also needed.

Contact Information 

This opportunity would meet the APE eligibility criteria for GLEPI students as well as EPI students. If you are interested, please contact Dr. Jodie Guest as soon as possible at Jodie [dot] Guest [at] emory [dot] edu.  Please indicate the following:

• Spanish/Vietnamese language skills
• Willingness to go to Gainesville
• Desire/need to do work remotely
• If you have already completed contact tracing training or will need to do so
• If you have already completed CITI certification or will need to do so

Student Volunteers for COVID-19 Study in Jails, RSPH

Opportunity Description 

Dr. Anne Spaulding of the Epidemiology department is seeking students who can assist with contacting jails in the state for information on cases of COVID. They anticipate few jails have made definitive diagnoses and many might not have the bandwidth to pursue testing. Their first need is for a large group of students to help with phone calls to the jails.

We can share the protocol of our project with anyone interested. It meets criteria for non-human subjects research. We have discussed the project with GA Department of Public Health. For students who become interested in this project, their participation may lead to an APE in the coming months.

Information for interested students 

• Click here to read a lay summary of the study
• Interested students who want more information can sign up by clicking here to fill out a survey 
• If you have questions about assisting with the study, please reach out to Alicia Dunajcik (adunajc [at] emory [dot] edu) 
• For specific question about the study itself, reach out to Dr. Spaulding (aspauld [at] emory [dot] edu)