Graduate Student Internship Program

2008 Catalog of Internship Opportunities

This internship has been filled.

Data Analyst

Program: Bureau of Family Health Services
Nevada State Health Division, Reno, NV
Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Agency Information

Nevada Bureau of Family Health Services is the State Maternal and Child Health agency. In order to assess Nevada MCH status indicators, the Bureau contracted with Nevada Center for Health Statistics and Informatics at University of Nevada, Reno to conduct a special module on MCH indicators through Nevada Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) project. The data collection activities on children’s health care access, oral health and childhood immunization have started in 2007 and will continue on 2008. The internship position (data analyst) will join the research team for the data analysis and reporting on this project.

Purpose, goals, and objectives of internship

The purpose of the internship is the analysis and interpretation of data from the BRFSS on children's access to health and dental care. The data collection activities on children health care access, oral health and childhood immunization have started in 2007 and will continue on year 2008. The data cleansing and formatting for year 2007 data is ongoing. The internship position (data analyst) will join the research team and will focus on data analysis and reporting for the data collected in 2007. It is expected that 3500-3700 completed surveys will be analyzed. Besides demographic information and other more than 70 questions from "Core" or other modules in Nevada BRFSS Project, there are 10 questions specially designed regarding Nevada children's healthcare, daycare, oral health and immunization. Questions include "Does this child have any kind of health care coverage, including health insurance, prepaid plans such as HMOs, or government plans such as Medicare or Nevada Check Up?", "Do you have one person you think of as this child's personal doctor or health care provider?" "How long has it been since you last visited a dentist or a dental clinic for any reason? (Include visits to dental specialists, such as orthodontists)", "For this child, has there ever been a time when you have taken him/her to get vaccinations from the child's usual source of medical care, but could not get them?"

Data or analytic tasks and activities

The internship position (data analyst) is expected to work closely with Dr. Yang and other epidemiologists and biostatisticians in the Nevada Center for Health Statistics and Informatics, to analyze and disseminate the data, and to present the results. SAS package will be used for weighted survey frequencies and weighted survey logistic models for checking the relationships between above mentioned indicators and other contributing factors. At least one peer reviewed publication could be produced by this internship position.

Data or analytic skills required

Understand the analytical results and be able to write analytical reports which should
publishable as official agency report and peer reviewed publications.

Supervisors

Dr. Wei Yang, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Health Informatics and Director of Nevada Center for Health Statistics and Informatics will be the advisor for this project. Dr. Wei Yang is a Professor in Health Informatics at School of Public Health. He is one of the co-principal investigators for the project of Nevada Behavior Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS). Meanwhile, Dr. Yang is the P.I. who subcontracted with Nevada Bureau of Family Health Services to provide advanced analysis on Nevada MCH status indicators. William Lee, Biostatistician II at the Center will be the daily basis supervisor.

Internship begins

Later May or early June

Housing

Campus dorms will be available during the summer semester. The Campus is near Reno.

Transportation

Downtown and work site has public transportation.

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