4 answers
Danielle
Student
Sutton, Massachusetts
1
Question
Asked
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What’s a day in the life of a clinical data analyst?
I am a medical technologist looking to get into the field of data analytics, particularly for healthcare and/or clinical research. I am curious what a day in the life of a clinical data analyst is like and what skills you find most important? #data #analytics #clinical #healthcare
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4 answers
Bobby Afshin
Solve Problems & Deliver Solutions
1
Answer
Austin, Texas
Updated
Bobby’s Answer
A Clinical Data Analyst has comprehensive knowledge of the management of data, data delivery, interpreting clinical study data, sampling techniques, hypotheses testing.
Additionally, they also would need to develop forecasting and modeling programs designed to form analyses of medical records, procedures and relay the information back to the head researchers.
The day-to-day can vary from team to team but it would involve attending meetings about various projects and deliverables and then breaking off into doing actual projects
- Collection of Data (What type of sampling? Stratified? Pairwise?)
- Aggregating and storing Data (SQL server?)
- Testing out various hypotheses (Inferential Statistics? t-tests?)
- Modeling, Forecasting, Variable Importance
- Arriving at the results and forming a conclusion to be presented to various technical and non-technical audiences
Often times, the Clinical Data Analyst works closely with the lead Researcher/Data Scientist and aids in Data Manipulation and reporting any other observations or suggesting other novel approaches to tackle various medical questions.
Hope this helps.
Additionally, they also would need to develop forecasting and modeling programs designed to form analyses of medical records, procedures and relay the information back to the head researchers.
The day-to-day can vary from team to team but it would involve attending meetings about various projects and deliverables and then breaking off into doing actual projects
- Collection of Data (What type of sampling? Stratified? Pairwise?)
- Aggregating and storing Data (SQL server?)
- Testing out various hypotheses (Inferential Statistics? t-tests?)
- Modeling, Forecasting, Variable Importance
- Arriving at the results and forming a conclusion to be presented to various technical and non-technical audiences
Often times, the Clinical Data Analyst works closely with the lead Researcher/Data Scientist and aids in Data Manipulation and reporting any other observations or suggesting other novel approaches to tackle various medical questions.
Hope this helps.
Corin Reyes
Quality Management Nurse
27
Answers
San Antonio, Texas
Updated
Corin’s Answer
Hey Danielle,
I am a nurse by trade and currently work as a data analyst. I fell into this career accidently 6 years ago and honestly love it. Your experience as a technologist will help you significantly with bringing data to life which is the most important piece in my opinion. We look at massive amounts of data daily and pulling it together to tell a story is a skill you will easily master with your current knowledge. Every business utilizes different tools to analyze data so I wouldn't focus on learning any one tool but instead on getting a basic understanding of all the top used programs. All analyst do different things based on their role but a basic day in the life looks like this:
1) Gather data
2) clean data
3) organize data
4) translate data so that it tells a story
5) present data to various teams
6) work with teams to analyze data to influence business decesions
I am a nurse by trade and currently work as a data analyst. I fell into this career accidently 6 years ago and honestly love it. Your experience as a technologist will help you significantly with bringing data to life which is the most important piece in my opinion. We look at massive amounts of data daily and pulling it together to tell a story is a skill you will easily master with your current knowledge. Every business utilizes different tools to analyze data so I wouldn't focus on learning any one tool but instead on getting a basic understanding of all the top used programs. All analyst do different things based on their role but a basic day in the life looks like this:
1) Gather data
2) clean data
3) organize data
4) translate data so that it tells a story
5) present data to various teams
6) work with teams to analyze data to influence business decesions
Jason Rechtman, MA, MBA, LPC
Manager of Clinical Quality
120
Answers
Freehold Township, New Jersey
Updated
Jason’s Answer
I crunch numbers a lot! Utilize and master any spreadsheet programs such as excel and access. You will need to know statistics and master the program SPSS.
It is an interesting and very generalized job title as individual job roles can vary. For example, I produce analytical reports and then present them as well so for me, I need to have the analytical skills, the writing skills, as well as the speaking skills and the clinical knowledge, experience, and background.
I love my job because each report I write is different so there is always variety. You much be able to take criticism, that's just the way science and research work. Master your writing skills
It is an interesting and very generalized job title as individual job roles can vary. For example, I produce analytical reports and then present them as well so for me, I need to have the analytical skills, the writing skills, as well as the speaking skills and the clinical knowledge, experience, and background.
I love my job because each report I write is different so there is always variety. You much be able to take criticism, that's just the way science and research work. Master your writing skills
Rishin Pandit
Software Engineering Intern
3
Answers
Herndon, Virginia
Updated
Rishin’s Answer
Hey Danielle!
I'd say it varies a bit depending on where you work but for the most part, you'd end up spending your day in front of a computer working with numbers. This can either be in Excel or with specific statistics software like Matlab or R. Occasionally you'll meet with team members if you're working together and present what you've been working on to you manager. The frequency at which this happens varies based off where you work but you'd have flexibility as to when you get your work done. Hope this helps!
Best,
Rishin Pandit
I'd say it varies a bit depending on where you work but for the most part, you'd end up spending your day in front of a computer working with numbers. This can either be in Excel or with specific statistics software like Matlab or R. Occasionally you'll meet with team members if you're working together and present what you've been working on to you manager. The frequency at which this happens varies based off where you work but you'd have flexibility as to when you get your work done. Hope this helps!
Best,
Rishin Pandit