Health IT and Data Analytics - How to Get Hired?

Question

I have a Master's Degree in Clinical Informatics and a strong healthcare background, although I am not an experienced healthcare professional. My field of interest is in clinical data analytics - to actually work with and analyze clinical data, look for insights, and determine trends that can be used to improve the delivery of healthcare. I have the basic technical skills, although I am rusty and am trying to brush up on my skills outside of work. I have been looking for jobs as a clinical data analyst or with a similar job title so that I can do more work with the data, but all of the job positions that I have looked at ask for experienced analysts and give preference to experienced healthcare professionals who have switched fields. I am almost two years out of grad school, so I do not have much experience, but I know I have the passion and drive it takes to do this work. Does anybody have any advice for a semi-entry level analyst like me to find work in health data analytics?

Ariella Goldman · Answer

I have a computer science degree and ended up working with healthcare data. My experience is that technical skills (in this case, SQL, python, and Unix commands) are hireable skills right now with regards to healthcare data. Master those skills and have them on your LinkedIn profile.

Anonymous · Answer

I worked under Dr. Georgia Robins Sadler at UCSD Moore’s Cancer Center - Office of Community Outreach. We looked at statistics gleaned from academic sources in order address community health disparities. I hate to recommend my former employer since they were terrible to women, but it is a large company and I think you’d experience much less of the issues I dealt with if you were working in clinical research analytics. I worked in commercial business operations, which was entirely dominated by sexist male executives. They are remote friendly.

Nora Kased · Answer

Ah, unfortunately I only have contacts in California. I would suggest looking at job boards for nearby universities that are known for being research hubs. Good luck with your job search!

Nora Kased · Answer

Where are you located? I have some contacts in clinical research.

Barb Hansen · Answer

I pivoted from healthcare (laboratory work) to tech via a healthcare startup, where my medical experience made up for my lack of tech/business background because the startup was able to double-dip into my willingness to learn the tech and my extensive medical experience.

You could look into HealthTech job where your clinical informatics degree can be 'exploited' (in the best way) by the startup while you gain experience in data analytics.

builtin.com is a great web site to start investigating companies and finding jobs.

Although I no longer work in HealthTech, I have many contacts in healthcare startup on LinkedIn and you are welcome to connect with me on LinkedIn, and if you want an introduction to someone in my network, just let me know.

Health IT and Data Analytics - How to Get Hired?

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