Health Economics & Outcomes Research (HEOR) Intern

Intuitive•Sunnyvale, CA

About The Position

The HEOR Intern will join Intuitive’s Future Forward Medical Affairs team for a 10–12 week summer internship and report to the Staff Epidemiologist, Future Forward Medical Affairs. The intern will own 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 senior epidemiology, data science, and market access colleagues, the intern will contribute analyses that inform value propositions and may translate findings into inputs for budget impact or other economic models. The internship concludes with a presentation to Future Forward leadership and cross-functional partners. The position is a full-time summer internship, approximately 40 hours per week, during a 10–12 week period starting in May or June. Specific start dates are shared during recruiting. The intern must be currently enrolled in and returning to an accredited degree-seeking academic program after the internship. The required program is at the doctorate (PhD) level in Health Economics, Health Outcomes/Services Research, Health Policy, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or a related field. The role offers hourly base pay, benefits, and a housing allowance. Compensation is determined by factors including relevant skills and experience, academic program, year in school, and location. The hourly rate is prorated against intern program salaries, and total program compensation depends on internship duration.

Requirements

Hands-on experience with reimbursement coding systems (CPT/HCPCS, ICD-10-CM/PCS, and MS-DRG), gained through dissertation research, research-assistant work, or prior employment, 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 and 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.
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.
Current enrollment in a doctorate (PhD)-level degree-seeking program in Health Economics, Health Outcomes/Services Research, Health Policy, Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, or a related field.

Nice To Haves

Experience developing or adapting budget impact models or other health economic models, such as cost-effectiveness or cost-consequence models, in Excel, 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 from senior team members, 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 for 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 clear visualizations and slides and deliver a final presentation to Future Forward leadership.
Contribute to a draft abstract where findings warrant.