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) 

Student Summer Scholarship, IPRCE

APE Opportunity, Hubert Department of Global Health

Overview

A comparative analysis of published institutional Research Fairness Initiative (RFI) reports.

Opportunity

The Human Engagement Learning Platform (HELP) for Global Health, led by Dr. Jim Lavery, in the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health, is seeking 4 MPH students to conduct a comparative analysis of the first 4 published institutional reports of the Research Fairness Initiative (RFI), a new tool to help global health institutions to improve their partnership practices and promote research capacity building in low and middle income countries.

The RFI is administered by the Council for Health Research for Development (COHRED) in Geneva. HELP and COHRED have a long-standing collaborative partnership and this project will help to launch a new component of that partnership, focused on data analysis and support for participating institutions through the development of a dedicated learning platform.

The analysis will include a critical assessment of the data in the RFI reports, and forecasting and recommendations regarding additional analytic categories and strategies that might be considered for improving and/or expanding RFI data reporting and for structuring comparative analyses.

The project is an excellent opportunity for students to creatively apply skills acquired during the MPH program, including qualitative data analysis, critical appraisal, the design of data collection and analysis strategies, and persuasive writing.

Deliverables

The analysis will be conducted under the supervision of Dr. Jim Lavery, and with regular analysis meetings with the COHRED team. The final results of the analysis will be prepared in a way that will be most useful for COHRED, at their direction.

We anticipate at least one academic paper from this project and expect the participating students to be co-authors on that paper.The publication rights of any and all analyses will remain the property of COHRED.

Details

• This project will be based at the Rollins School of Public Health in Atlanta, GA. Remote working options are available.
• The project can begin as early as May 15th, pending interest
• This is an unpaid position.
  

How to Apply

• Send a resume and a brief description of previous research experience in the body of an email to Michelle Grek at mgrek [at] emory [dot] edu.
• No formal cover letter is needed.
• Applications will be accepted through April 15th.

Summer Data Science Fellowship, Data Incubator

The Data Incubator’s Summer 2020 Data Science Fellowship application is open!

Program:

The Data Incubator is an intensive 8 week fellowship that prepares masters students, PhDs, and postdocs in STEM and social science fields seeking industry careers as data scientists. The program is free for Fellows and supported by sponsorships from hundreds of employers across multiple industries. In response to the overwhelming interest in our earlier sessions, we will be holding another fellowship.

Who Should Apply:

Anyone who has already obtained a masters or PhD degree or who is within one year of graduating with a masters or PhD is welcome to apply. Applications from international students are welcome.

Locations:

You can attend our program in:

• New York City
• San Francisco Bay Area
• Washington, DC.
• Online

Application Link: https://www.thedataincubator.com/fellowship/apply.html

Session Dates: 2020-06-29 – 2020-08-21
Early Deadline: 2020-04-03
Regular Deadline: 2020-05-02

We are assessing and interviewing candidates who apply for the Early Deadline first and then based on remaining availability, will take candidates who applied for the Regular Deadline on a first-come first-serve basis.

Data Science in 30 minutes:

Learn how to build a data-science project in our upcoming free Data Science in 30-minutes webcast. Signup soon as space is limited.

Learn More:

You can learn about our fellows at The New York Times, LinkedIn, Amazon, Capital One, or Palantir. To read about our latest fellow alumni, check out our blog. To learn more about The Data Incubator, check us out on Venture Beat, The Next Web, or Harvard Business Review.