Ever wonder what it's like to have a summer internship at IQVIA? I asked Harvard graduate student Monica Wang to share her experience interning with this company known for working with pharmaceutical and biotech companies in the areas of health information technology and clinical research.
Editorial note: Many summer internships at pharma/biotech companies or related agencies and contract organizations have been cancelled or modified this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We hope that this Q&A gives trainees some tips and ideas for future internships. Join our Facebook community for more discussions.
Summer Internship Q&A
1. What/where was your summer internship?
During the summer between my first and second year of grad school, I had an internship at IQVIA's Beijing Office, supporting the Real World Insights team.
2. How did you find out about the summer internship at IQVIA?
I actually came across the job posting for the internship at IQVIA on social media, so I directly emailed the HR.
3. What was the application and interview process?
I sent my application package (resume, cover letter and also transcript) to HR. Within a day, I got a phone call from the HR to complete a background screening. This included questions about my educational background, ability to work as a full-time intern and desired start date.
I had a Skype interview scheduled two weeks later. The interview was with one analyst and two managers on the Real World Insights team. They asked me questions that were mainly about my past projects. They also had questions to make sure I had a solid understanding of some basic Epidemiology- and Health Economics & Outcomes Research-related concepts.
4. Briefly describe your responsibilities or projects during the internship.
During the three months of the internship at IQVIA, I was involved with several activities to support the products of pharmaceutical clients. I did the following:
- extensive literature research
- engaged in real-world data study design for feasibility assessments
- comparative effectiveness and disease burden studies
- constructed project deliverables, such as study protocols, statistical analysis plans, final reports and slide decks
The Real World Evidence (RWE) projects that I worked on all used electronic health records (EHR). Some of the projects supported pharmaceutical products that were pre-launch, while others were in the post-marketing phase. In addition, I was lucky enough to participate in a project from start to end during my internship.
Editorial note: Interested in RWE and data analytics? Check out the post on the Data Science function.
5. Who did you interact with most during your internship at IQVIA?
An IQVIA consultant assigned most of my work. I mostly reported to this consultant as well as the manager on the Real World Insights team. However, I did have some work assigned by other people as well because I was one of the two interns supporting the team.
6. What were the most challenging aspects of the internship experience?
The most challenging thing was that the team was not able to directly work with patient-level EHR data due to data privacy regulations in China. Therefore, we worked with a data vendor that had access to the data. All of the statistical programming was conducted by this vendor after we gave them detailed statistical analysis plans and data specifications.
The communication back and forth with the external technicians and trying to get inferences from the “second-hand” analysis increased the difficulty of doing this research. Nevertheless, I was able to improve my skills for client-facing communication and structural thinking.
7. What was the most valuable thing you learned from this internship experience?
The ability to extract information from desk research. In school, my instructors assign most of the literature that I read. This literature primarily focuses on the aspect of study design. However, working on a client-oriented RWE project requires me to become very familiar with the therapeutic area and the product of interest. I learned a lot by doing extensive literature searches and filtering out useful information to support the evidence-generating process for the projects.
8. How did the internship at IQVIA help to inform your current career strategy?
I found myself really enjoying this type of work. Therefore, I’m currently searching for a full-time job that is also technically related and allows me to fully exploit my academic training in epidemiology.
9. Do you have any advice for those who are considering a similar internship?
Make sure to explicitly tell the team what your interests are, and don’t hesitate to ask for feedback. Those were the most important aspects that kept me always motivated during the three-month internship.
About Monica Wang:
I’m currently a second-year masters student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, studying Pharmacoepidemiology. My interest is in secondary healthcare data analysis using EHR or claims data. I received my undergrad training at UC San Diego, majoring in Biochemistry and Cell Biology. So far, I really like the transition from wet lab to dry lab!
Thank you, Monica, for sharing your experiences with us!