Data Analytics Intern (PQM+)

The U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) is a scientific nonprofit organization that sets standards for the identity, strength, quality, and purity of medicines, food ingredients, and dietary supplements manufactured, distributed, and consumed worldwide. USP’s drug standards are enforceable in the United States by the Food and Drug Administration, and these standards are used in more than 140 countries.

Global development data is readily available across many health indicators, but in the fields of medicine quality and access, there is a relative dearth of publicly available data. PQM+, through its Medicine Quality Database, is a leader in this space and was referenced in WHO’s 2017 assessment that ~10% of medicines in LMICs in Asia and Africa are substandard and falsified; however more can be done to measure the scale of the problem and progress. Much of the data that resides in PQM+’s tools and project work lays dormant or needs regular updates turning the process time consuming. Pre-identification of regular reliable data sources and organization of regular updated templates will contribute to the agility of PQM+ template and to PQM+ learning agenda by providing new paths and options for publications. . Some of the use cases PQM+ hopes to achieve progress are:

The intern will work under the guidance of the PQM+ Sr. Advisor on Pharmaceutical Strategy and in coordination with technical staff at USP headquarters in Rockville, MD.

Internal data mapping: The intern’s initial task will be to create a data map of available internal data assets. This initial project will build on prior work within PQM+, USP Data Analytics, Medicine Supply Map teams. The intern will not have to download, or link directly to these data assets but will need to categorize the data assets according to ease of access and relevance of the data to PQM+ work.

External data assessment / benchmarking: The intern will look at other organizations that work in the medicine quality and access space to identify opportunities for collaboration, best practices in data management, approaches to public sharing of data. Although data won’t need to be blended with PQM+ data, the internal will map out how such merges could be completed. Examples of external organizations are The Global Fund, WHO, national regulators, national procurement agencies, development implement partners, etc.

Propose and execute on a research project: The intern will propose three different analytics related research projects that are related to one of the three PQM+ data use cases. After a review of the options with a small internal team, one project will be selected. The intern will then conduct the necessary research and present findings to the PQM+ team.

The anticipated period of performance will begin in February/March 2023 and run for approximately three months.

As a condition of employment with United States Pharmacopeial Convention’s (USP) duty to provide and maintain a workplace that is free of known hazards, all employees and contingent staff hired after July 1st, 2021 are required to be fully vaccinated unless a reasonable accommodation is approved. Your recruiter will advise accordingly.