Graduate Student Internship Program

2009 Catalog of Internship Opportunities

Data Analysis

New Hampshire Department of Health & Human Services, Division of Public Health Services, Maternal and Child Health Section, Concord, NH
Skill Area: Data Analysis and Monitoring

Agency Information

The Maternal and Child Health Section (MCH), located within the Division of Public Health Services in the NH Department of Health and Human Services will house the internship project. MCH funds over 20 community based health care agencies to deliver prenatal, family planning, primary care and child health services to low income families across the state. In addition, the MCH section houses the following programs: Injury Prevention, Healthy Child Care, Home Visiting, Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention, Preschool Vision and Hearing and a HRSA-funded State Systems Development Initiative (SSDI) Data Linkage project. The intern will work with the Data Linkages Project.

Purpose, goals, and objectives of internship

Purpose: To provide a mutually beneficial internship experience.

Goal: To build data linkage capacity within the NH MCH and Health Statistics sections.

Objectives: (1) Create statistical programming files (either SPSS or SAS) to facilitate preparation of NH-specific datasets for linkage (data cleaning and formatting). (2) Employ the Link Plus software (NCI) to link NH birth and hospital discharge data (at least one year). (3) Explore the quality of the data linkage and address any identified issues. (4) Document step by step linkage procedures. (5) Present procedures and findings to select NH MCH and Health Statistics section staff. (6) Explore the relationship between the discharge-based Prenatal Health Care Index and the birth-based Adequacy of Prenatal Care Utilization Index.

Data or analytic tasks and activities

See objectives. Cleaning and formatting datasets in preparation for linkage. Link and assess quality of linkage.

Data or analytic skills required

SAS or SPSS experience required. Can learn Link Plus during internship. Data cleaning experience a plus. Basic PowerPoint experience helpful but not required.

Supervisors

Primary: David Laflamme, Ph.D., M.P.H., Epidemiologist (NH MCHS) and Research Assistant Professor (UNH)

Secondary: Marie Kiely, M.S., Program Planner, SSDI Coordinator MCH Section

Internship begins

May – June 2009

Housing

Temporary apartment rentals are available in the area. MCH can provide names of local realtors and apartment complexes to the student.

Transportation

The worksite is accessible via a limited public transportation system.

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