Data Science Clinical AI Intern

Ascension

21h • $17 - $24 • Remote

About The Position

Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all, especially to those most in need. In FY2018, Ascension provided nearly $2 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs.
Ascension includes approximately 156,000 associates and 34,000 aligned providers. The national health system operates more than 2,600 sites of care – including 151 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 21 states and the District of Columbia, while providing a variety of services including
physician practice management, venture capital investing, investment management, biomedical
engineering, facilities management, clinical care management, information services, risk management,
and contracting through Ascension’s own group purchasing organization.
The Ascension Data Sciences Institute (ADSI) was created in July 2019 with the mission of supporting Ascension in achieving its Quadruple Aim with uniquely skilled, high-performing associates who develop analyses, models, and applications to enable Ascension in providing higher value healthcare and making strategic decisions. We recognize that the healthcare environment is a complex ecosystem of rapidly evolving clinical and economic practices that affect patient and provider experience and demands increasingly sophisticated and complex measurement. Our objective is for analytics and data science to play a critical and foundational role in the transformation of care delivery, quality and financial outcomes to enable our organization’s competitive advantage.
The Internship Program with Ascension is designed to provide an on-the-job learning opportunity aimed at gaining "real world" work experience in a large healthcare environment, supporting leadership with data driven insights that deliver value to those we serve. Ascension’s objective is to provide a working and learning environment where interns can develop the skills and competencies necessary to grow into successful professionals and potential Ascension associates. The intern will work in the Ascension Data Science Institute team, within the Clinical AI team.

Requirements

• Currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s, Master’s, or PhD degree in data science and/or a related STEM field.
• High school diploma equivalency OR Enrolled in accredited program specific to discipline required.
• Strong work ethic
• Outstanding attendance record
• Participation in Training and Learning programs
• Remote work location, but need for regular, set daytime hours

Nice To Haves

• Proficiency in Python for data manipulation (e.g., pandas, NumPy) and machine learning (e.g., scikit-learn, LightGBM).
• Familiarity with NLP or GenAI frameworks (e.g., Hugging Face, LangChain) or experience with Prompt Engineering concepts.
• Exposure to healthcare data structures (e.g., ICD-10, CPT codes) or experience working with clinical data is a strong plus.
• Effective critical thinking skills, specifically the ability to translate ambiguous business or clinical questions into technical requirements.
• Excellent communication skills, particularly when explaining technical concepts or model limitations to non-technical audiences.
• Experience with version control (GitHub) and collaborative coding environments.

Responsibilities

• Design and build novel prototypes utilizing predictive machine learning and text-based Generative AI to address complex clinical challenges.
• Develop and validate predictive models using structured tabular data (EHR, billing, and claims), focusing on feature engineering and handling the unique noise and missingness found in real-world healthcare data.
• Experiment with Large Language Model (LLM) workflows (e.g., summarization, information extraction) using Vertex AI to unlock insights from unstructured clinical notes.
• Perform rigorous model evaluation that goes beyond standard accuracy metrics to assess clinical utility, fairness, and potential algorithmic bias.
• Collaborate with team mentors to translate open-ended clinical questions into solvable data science problems, developing project plans and timelines.
• Acquire or improve proficiency with SQL, Python, GitHub, and Google Cloud Platform products such as Vertex AI and BigQuery.
• Document modeling decisions and architectural choices clearly to ensure reproducibility and enable future deployment by the Clinical AI team.
• Present the final project analysis or model to team members, data science leadership, and relevant clinical stakeholders.

Benefits

• Comprehensive health coverage: medical, dental, vision, prescription coverage and HSA/FSA options
• Financial security & retirement: employer-matched 403(b), planning and hardship resources, disability and life insurance
• Time to recharge: pro-rated paid time off (PTO) and holidays
• Career growth: Ascension-paid tuition (Vocare), reimbursement, ongoing professional development and online learning
• Emotional well-being: Employee Assistance Program, counseling and peer support, spiritual care and stress management resources
• Family support: parental leave, adoption assistance and family benefits
• Other benefits: optional legal and pet insurance, transportation savings and more

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees