Category Archives: Student Opportunities

Analyst Internship, Dekalb County Medical Examiner’s Office

Internship Description

  • This internship will occur on-site and can potentially be used as a practicum for MPH students 
  • Location: On-site DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office 3550 Kensington Road, Decatur, GA 30032
  • Time period: Summer (Possibly starting in early to mid-June) extending into August and potentially beyond.

Objectives

  • Collecting data concerning infectious disease, overdose, violent death, child fatality, SUID, elder abuse, and in-custody deaths for the Department of Public Health and other agencies.
  • Maximizing the effectiveness of the medicolegal death investigation database.
  • Evaluating data qualitatively and quantitatively for future research. 
  • Assisting with data analysis and modeling to demonstrate the impact of COVID-19 and other causes of death.
  • Designing outreach materials for community health education.

Requirements

  • Flexible, but able to commit to at least two to three days per week between 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
  • Must complete a minimum of 120 hours over a 12 week period if completing for course credit.
  • Background check and drug screen may be required.

Applicant Criteria

  • Able to evaluate and Analyze trends, such as recurring medication such as cause of death.
  • Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and professionalism.
  • Excellent organizational and communication skills.
  • Self-Motivated, Excellent interpersonal skills, a positive attitude, and a strong work ethic.
  • Proficiency with Microsoft Office and Google Docs.

How to Apply


Fall Course Offering, Info 550: Data Science Toolkit

Instructor 

Dr. David Benkeser 

Course Description

This course is an elective for Masters and PhD students interested in learning some fundamental tools used in modern data science. Together, the tools covered in the course will provide the ability to develop fully reproducible pipelines for data analysis, from data processing and cleaning to analysis to result tables and summaries. By the end of the course students will have learned the tools necessary to: develop reproducible workflows collaboratively (using version control based on Git/GitHub), execute these workflows on a local computer (using command line operations, RMarkdown, and GNU Makefiles), execute the workflows in a containerized environment allowing end-to-end reproducibility (using Docker), and execute the workflow in a cloud environment (using Amazon Web Services EC2 and S3 services). Along the way, we will cover a few other tools for data science including best coding practices, basic python, software unit testing, and continuous integration services.

Pre-Requisites 

Many topics covered will involve the R programming language and so familiarity with R is needed (e.g., BIOS 544/545 or similar level of competency). Necessary skills include: reading data into R, basic data cleaning in R (e.g., subsetting data, finding missing values, merging data), operating on data.frames (e.g., changing column names, row names, summarizing rows/columns of data using simple statistics), basic graphics (e.g., plot or ggplot2).

Given the similarities between python and R, students with a background in python programming should also be equipped to succeed in the class, but will possibly require more effort to get up to speed with R.

Course Learning Objectives 

  • -Understand why automation is a key element of reproducible data science.
  • Develop reproducible workflows for data cleaning, analysis and report generation using the suite of tools learned in the class.
  • Understand the importance of version control and best practices for collaborative coding projects.
  • Use Docker to develop containerized workflows.
  • Set up and work in Jupyter notebooks.
  • Utilize cloud computing services for computation and storage.

Click here to view a PDF of the course syllabus! 


Contact Tracers, Georgia DPH

Program Mission: 

To protect State of Georgia employees by preventing disease, injury and disability through the promotion of health and wellbeing.

Description:

The Georgia Department of Public Health is seeking Contact Tracers to support the Department of Public Health and Local Boards of Health to perform COVID-19 contact tracing.

The Department of Public Health (DPH) will hire, train and supervise a team of community contact tracing staff across Georgia. The aim of this will be to call every person diagnosed with COVID-19, gather their contacts, and proceed to call every contact in Georgia. This will fortify efforts to control the pandemic in Georgia.

 

Job Responsibilities:

The Contact Tracer will call all every case and either call or virtually monitor every contact of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 to document a symptom check, refer them for testing according to established protocols, and provide them with instructions for quarantine. Contact Tracers are required to follow all scripts, policies and procedures provided by DPH, and comply with DPH training regarding confidential information related to personal information.

  • Understand Contact Interviewing and Contact Tracing in the context of a pandemic
  • Basic introduction into the standardized processes of Contact Interviewing and Contact Tracing
  • Conducting Interviews
  • Documentation of Interviews in a digital system
  • Introduction to Daily Workflow
  • Response to Common Requests and Referral for Testing

All applicants will need computer access and wifi access.

May work various hours and weekends.

Minimum Qualifications:

  • High School Diploma
  • Ability to exhibit a professional, positive attitude and work ethic
  • Excellent interpersonal skills required and ability to interact professionally with culturally diverse individuals during a time of crisis and distress
  • Ability to show empathy to distressed individuals
  • Excellent organizational and communication skills
  • Ability to speak, read, and write English
  • Second or multiple languages a plus
  • Critical thinking and sound judgment required
  • Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and professionalism
  • Proficiency with computers

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Bilingual
  • Bachelor’s degree
  • Current College Student (Undergraduate or Graduate) majoring in Public Health or a closely related field or Recent Graduate. 
  • Completion of coursework in Epidemiology
 

Additional Information:

This is temporary or hourly paid work performing professional health care services. Positions in this job are established for less than 9 months or scheduled for less than 30 hours per week and are not eligible for benefits if the position status is temporary (i.e., SCOA 513). Positions in this job are established for greater than 9 months and scheduled for greater than 30 hours per week if the position status is permanent labor (i.e., SCOA 512). Normally permanent labor positions are eligible for Health Insurance benefits.

Apply: 

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

Graduate Research Assistant, RSPH

Position Description

Dr. Cam Escoffery seeks to hire a Graduate Research Assistant for federally funded cancer related projects. Primary responsibilities may include:

  • Data collection and quality control of surveys of parents, young adolescents, adolescents about SurvivorLink and cancer care and clinics about program delivery
  • Assist with mixed methods data collection and analyses
  • Data cleaning
  • Conducting descriptive data analyses and presenting data in tables
  • Report writing
  • Assist with administrative research tasks (i.e., research-related mailings)
  • Other tasks may include: attend research meetings and assist in manuscript writing

Background

Many evidence-based interventions (EBIs) exist. However, their adoption and implementation in clinical and community setting is not optimal. Capacity building and active dissemination are required to enhance their update.. The main project will package, evaluate and disseminate an educational and electronic personal health record for pediatric cancer survivors (SurvivorLink) among pediatric cancer centers.  GRAs will assist in program training, data collection  and data analyses.

Minimum Qualifications

Highly motivated, efficient, organized, detail-oriented and interested in or experience working on research projects.

Preferred Qualifications

Prior work experience and research preferred. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Experience with Microsoft Office products and databases, especially Excel, and online data collection. Experience with SAS and REDCap preferred.

Additional Information 

  • Hours per week: 10-12 hours/week
  • Position Type: Part Time
  • Organization: Rollins School of Public Health
  • Operating Unit: Rollins School of Public Health
  • Department: Behavioral Sciences and Health Education
  • Compensation:  $12/hour.
  • Start Date: as early as May 17, 2020

Apply 

  • Application Deadline: May 24, 2020 (Applications will be screened as they arrive; positions may be filled prior to this deadline.)         
  • Please send resume and cover letter by email to: Cam Escoffery, PhD, MPH, CHES, (cescoff [at] emory [dot] edu) and Hallie Udelson, MPH, CHES, (hudelso [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 (1st or 2nd 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 15th:

  • 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

 

 

 


Data Intern, DBHDD

State of Opioid Response- Health Education and Program Development Intern

About DBHDD: 

Created by the Governor and General Assembly in 2009, the Georgia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities (DBHDD) and its network of community providers offer treatment and support services to help people with behavioral health challenges achieve recovery by focusing on their strengths. Through uniquely tailored supports and services, we help people with intellectual and developmental disabilities attain independence and lead meaningful and fulfilling lives. Within DBHDD, the Office of Behavioral Health Prevention and Federal Grants (OBHPFG) is charged with providing prevention leadership, strategic planning, and services to improve the mental/emotional well-being of communities, families, and individuals in Georgia. OBHPFG works in substance abuse prevention, suicide prevention, and mental health promotion while being mindful of cultural and linguistic competency in all three areas. OBHPFG assists its providers in developing strategic plans specific to their communities to provide appropriate services to pre- vent substance abuse, prevent suicide, and promote public health. OBHPFG gathers data from its providers and analyzes their effectiveness in reducing the burden of substance abuse and suicide throughout Georgia. OBHPFG uses data from various sources to first develop the state’s priority issues and then to develop a statewide strategy to then assess progress made towards those priority issues.

 

Intern Description: 

The Data Intern will assist the OBHPFG Data Analyst in supporting the projects and ac- tivities of OBHPFG. OBHPFG manages and operates 22 prevention projects throughout the state of Georgia. The intern will become familiar with the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF) and understand how it is used to effectively plan and im- plement prevention work. Intern experience will include working closely with OBHPFG staff, particularly in the review of data products either for the public or in-office use. Intern may conduct literature reviews on specific data indicators within substance abuse prevention or suicide prevention. Intern will assist with developing and producing infographics and fact sheets for in-office use as well as office-sponsored public events. This will include translating data into consumable facts, effectively writing for a specified audience, and using the ba- sics of graphic design to create a visually appealing product. Intern will participate in and assist with planning the State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup.

 

Eligibility Requirements:

  • Student currently pursuing a master’s degree in Public Health or a related field who will have completed on year of coursework upon starting the internship
  • Ability to work at assigned office (2 Peachtree Street, Atlanta, GA 30303) as needed
  • Ability to effectively work from home, including participation in virtual meetings

Preferred Qualifications:

  • Strong written and verbal communication skills
  • Strong computer skills, particularly with Excel, PowerPoint, and Stata
  • Research experience (can include skills gained from completing coursework)
  • Working knowledge of prevention, health promotion, and health literacy

How to Apply and Additional Information:  


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. 

 
We are looking for candidates who have the following:
  • 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
Program Benefits
  • 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!

 

Surveillance Epidemiologist, California Emerging Infections Program

Description

The goal of California Emerging Infections Program (CEIP) COVID-19 surveillance is to determine the extent of laboratory-confirmed incident disease in the three bay area counties of Alameda, Contra Costa and San Francisco where active population based surveillance for hospitalized patients for a variety of diseases has been ongoing for over 25 years. This specific position will assist both CEIP and the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) Immunization Branch with COVID-related data management, long-term surveillance for COVID-19 and the writing of reports. The Surveillance Epidemiologist will help collect, manage, and analyze data; and report results on a regular basis, at least weekly. As needed, this position may also support other COVID-19 projects including, but not limited to, enhanced surveillance projects, outbreak investigations and surge efforts.

The Surveillance Epidemiologist will interact with numerous CDPH programs, local health departments (LHDs), and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to perform essential functions. Please submit a cover letter with a resume when applying.

Applicants must submit a cover letter and resume to be considered.

Essential Functions 

  • Coordinate and interact with state and local public health departments, laboratories, Communicable Disease (CD) Controllers and other health agencies.
  • Establish and maintain reliable, efficient, and effective methods for communicating with involved partners via telephone and email.
  • Ensure that the needs of CEIP surveillance are met, to the extent possible.
  • Establish and maintain standardized methods of data collection in the California Reportable Disease Information Exchange (CalREDIE) or external electronic databases.
  • Clean data and maintain data quality and completeness.
  • Analyze data to determine level of hospitalization in the catchment, stratify data by key factors (e.g., demographic groups).
  • Assist with the generation of data visualizations and written and oral reports.
  • Present at meetings and scientific conferences, if applicable.
  • Participate in conference calls with epidemiology and laboratory partners at CDPH, CDC, California LHDs, healthcare facilities, and other state and local health departments.
  • Perform other duties as directed by the supervisor.
  • Collaborate effectively in a team environment.

Job Qualifications

  • Demonstrated ability to effectively communicate orally and in writing with public health and healthcare professionals and internal partners.
  • Ability to perform data entry, data cleaning, and data quality assessment with attention to detail.
  • Knowledge and application of Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) requirements and protection of health information.
  • Demonstrated knowledge and skills related to specific tasks, methodologies, and materials.
  • High level analytical and problem solving skills.  
  • Completed assignments in a timely and efficient manner.
  • Ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks, and work independently.
  • Demonstrate reliability and integrity.
  • Prior knowledge and experience in use of CalREDIE, preferred.
  • Fluency in spoken English is required.

Education/Experience

  • Candidacy for or completed Master’s degree in public health or related field, required.
  • Experience in data entry and analysis.
  • Experience with clinical terminology and interpreting laboratory testing results.
  • Experience in coordinating complex projects.
  • Basic knowledge and use of statistical software such as Statistical Analysis Software (SAS), preferred.
  • Basic knowledge and use of data visualization software such as Tableau, preferred.

Other Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities

  • Knowledge of and skilled in the use of Microsoft Office products including Word, Excel, Access, Outlook, and Power Point

Apply 

Click here to apply online! 


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 3rd round Cooperative Agreement funding from CDC (8th 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


Upcoming Events

  • GCDTR Seminar Series Presents: "Utilizing Genomics to Study the Role of Ancestry in Racial Disparities" May 6, 2024 at 12:00 am – 1:00 am Guest Lecture Event Type: Guest LectureSeries: HybridSpeaker: Melissa B. Davis, PhDContact Name: Wendy GillContact Email: wggill@emory.eduRoom Location: RRR_R809Link: https://tinyurl.com/Melissa-Davis"Utilizing Genomics to Study the Role of Ancestry in Racial Disparities"
  • 2024 Charles C. Shepard Award Symposium May 8, 2024 at 12:00 pm – 1:15 pm zoom.us… Online Location: https://zoom.us/j/96537866614The Charles C. Shepard Award is given to thegraduating masters student who is deemed bythe faculty to have prepared the most scholarlyresearch paper. Please join us to recognize andcelebrate this year’s finalists who will present aposter of their work.
  • RSPH Staff Council Presents: Cheers and Beers - Schoolhouse Edition May 16, 2024 at 5:00 pm – 8:00 pm Networking and Special Event Event Type: Networking,Special EventContact Name: Staff CouncilContact Email: rsphstaffcouncil@emory.eduRSPH staff and post-docs are invited to an evening of camaraderie and delicious bites, presented by the RSPH Staff Council. Space is limited. Watch your email for a link to RSVP.

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