Health Economics & Outcomes Research (HEOR) Intern

Intuitive•Sunnyvale, CA

5d•$62 - $82•Onsite

About The Position

The HEOR Intern joins Intuitive’s Future Forward Medical Affairs team for a 10–12 week summer internship, reporting to the Staff Epidemiologist, Future Forward Medical Affairs. The intern owns a defined real-world evidence project, using administrative claims data and reimbursement coding (CPT/HCPCS, ICD-10-CM/PCS, and MS-DRG) to characterize patient populations, procedure volumes, healthcare resource utilization, and costs for a technology in development. Working with epidemiology, data science, and market access colleagues, the intern contributes analyses that inform value propositions and may help translate results into inputs for budget impact or other economic models. The internship concludes with a presentation to Future Forward leadership and cross-functional partners. The role includes claims-based analysis, coding and cohort definition, study planning and programming, targeted literature review, economic modeling support, and communication of findings through visualizations, slides, and a final presentation. The intern may also contribute to a draft abstract when findings warrant. This is a full-time, fully onsite internship of approximately 40 hours per week for 10–12 weeks, starting in May or June. Applicants must be enrolled in and returning to an accredited degree-seeking program after the internship, and must be currently enrolled in a related doctoral-level program.

Requirements

Hands-on experience with CPT/HCPCS, ICD-10-CM/PCS, and MS-DRG reimbursement coding, including using codes to define cohorts, procedures, and outcomes.
Demonstrated experience analyzing at least one large administrative claims or hospital database, from data extraction and cleaning through analysis.
Proficiency in SAS and/or R and working knowledge of SQL.
Strong written and verbal communication skills, including the ability to translate technical analysis for non-specialist audiences.
Ability to work on a defined deliverable under senior team guidance and drive it to completion within the internship period.
Intellectual curiosity and comfort with ambiguity.
Currently enrolled in a Health Economics, Health Outcomes/Services Research, Health Policy, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or related degree-seeking program at the Doctorate (PhD) level.
Must be currently enrolled in and returning to an accredited degree-seeking academic program after the internship.
Must be available to work full-time, approximately 40 hours per week, for a 10–12 week period starting in May or June.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing or adapting budget impact or other health economic models, such as cost-effectiveness or cost-consequence models, in Excel and consistent with ISPOR good-practice guidelines.
Familiarity with Medicare payment methodologies (IPPS/MS-DRG, OPPS/APC, MPFS/RVU) and how coding drives payment across sites of service.
Research experience in medical devices, surgery, or procedural care.
Peer-reviewed publications or congress abstracts, such as ISPOR or AcademyHealth.
Experience with data visualization tools such as Tableau or Power BI.

Responsibilities

Conduct a retrospective claims-based analysis, with guidance, to characterize patient populations, estimate procedure volumes, and describe utilization, outcomes, and costs relevant to a Future Forward pipeline technology.
Identify and validate CPT/HCPCS, ICD-10-CM/PCS, and MS-DRG code sets to define target populations, procedures, comorbidities, and outcomes; document code lists and assumptions for reuse.
Contribute to a brief study protocol and statistical analysis plan.
Write, document, and quality-check analytic code, partnering with the team’s data scientist on shared data pipelines.
Conduct a targeted literature review to inform study design, benchmark findings against published evidence, and identify evidence gaps.
Where relevant, translate claims-based estimates such as procedure volumes, event rates, and costs into inputs for budget impact or other economic models, and support model development or validation.
Summarize findings in visualizations and slides, deliver a final presentation to Future Forward leadership, and contribute to a draft abstract where findings warrant.