Working at HealthSparq: Meet the Interns

Working at HealthSparq, we have two different intern programs that welcome students into our offices each year. The first is a traditional summer internship for those who have completed at least two years at a university. This full-time summer internship program can lead to a continued part-time internship through the school year and even hire after completion. The second is a MECOP program, which is a six-month program formally incorporated into a student’s education program and can serve as a great path to full-time employment with us after graduation. Given the full-time length of the MECOP internship, it’s also a much more in-depth experience with our team.

HealthSparq’s Summer Internship Program

Over the past four summers, our Data Insights team has hired summer interns to work on creating cost estimates from claims data and projects that align with their individual interests and skill sets. Megan Lien, Senior Health Care Informatics Analyst, who hires and manages our summer Data Insights interns, had this to say about the program,

“Interns are a huge help to our team since we often have a backlog of client work to get through. Teaching an intern our process always helps to highlight areas for improvement and I love getting feedback from an outsider’s perspective. Hopefully, working with messy claims data and an ever-changing process should help our interns gain an understanding of the complicated world of health care pricing while also advancing their technical skills.”

Meet Our Summer Intern, Rebekah Padua

Graduation year: May 2020

University: University of Portland

Areas of study: Math and Theology major, Economics minor

Hometown: Ewa Beach, Oahu, Hawaii

Which team were you working in and what kind of work did you focus on while you were with us?

I worked under Megan on the data insights team. My major projects were the client implementations/refreshes, so I did a lot of cost research, writing reports and debugging. I also contributed to process improvements by writing code and doing fun claims data research.

What new skills did you gain from this internship?

Technical skills in data manipulation tools without a doubt. My desk was also next to a heavy foot traffic isle, so I even got really good at staying maniacally focused at my desk while dozens of people passed by me every day.

What did you first expect coming to work in health care technology?

I actually wasn’t too sure what to expect other than being frightened, but reality was quite the opposite. Everyone I worked with and talked to was gracious, hilarious and so smart. After this wonderful experience, I can definitely see myself starting my career in health care tech. I’m all for health care transparency and I love everything that HealthSparq is working toward.

What is the coolest or most surprising thing you learned while at HealthSparq?

Jeans are appropriate in the HealthSparq workplace, and we sure love happy hour here! It’s awesome.

What’s next for you?

I’m graduating in less than a year, so one thing I’ll be focused is professional networking for sure. In the meantime, I’m excited to be flying back home to Hawaii before the school year starts, and I’ll be pursuing my typical college student dream job of being a barista – mainly to feed my coffee addiction at a discounted rate ????

HealthSparq’s MECOP Program

We currently have two MECOP interns working in our engineering department. Our VP of Engineering, Mark Vo, is a strong champion of this great opportunity for students and for HealthSparq, and had this to say about the program:

“The Internship and MECOP programs are critical to HealthSparq’s success and have been a priority for the company since we were founded. It’s a great way for us to tap into passionate and highly motivated talent to help achieve our company mission. Interns have a fresh and unique perspective into HealthSparq’s problems and that opens the doors to solving problems in a different way. Additionally, interns will get industry exposure and mentorship from more experienced employees to help them with their career aspirations and growth.”

Meet Our MECOP Intern, Daniel Domme

Graduation Year: 2020

University: Oregon State University

Area of study: Computer Science, Undergraduate

Hometown: Albany, OR

Which team are you working in and what kind(s) of work/projects are you focused on?

I am working with the HealthSparq Emerging Products team as a backend Java developer.

What new skills have you gained so far from this internship? Or, what skills do you expect to gain?

I have learned better programming habits involving test driven development. I am also getting experience with agile development and programming using RESTful architecture.

What did you first expect coming to work in health care technology?

I expected to mainly be working on databases or handling processing large datasets. I have learned that there is much more to health care technology.

What is the coolest or most surprising thing you learned while working at HealthSparq so far?

The most surprising thing that I learned is that HealthSparq seems to be on the cutting-edge of software technology. Software tools are readily adopted, and there seems to be a well-organized flow of work.

What’s next for you after you complete your internship?

I will finish up my degree and hopefully find work as meaningful as at HealthSparq.

Meet Our MECOP Intern, Junmin Yee

Graduation year: 2020

University: Oregon Institute of Technology

Areas of study: Software Engineering and Applied Mathematics

Hometown: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Which team are you working in and what kind(s) of work/projects are you focused on?

I’m currently working in the Emerging Products Team focused on improving the auditing process for rewards.

What new skills have you gained so far from this internship? Or, what skills do you expect to gain?

I’ve learned about the various different technologies that the team uses and how to work together in the development environment. I hope to gain a better judgement of good design principles.

What did you first expect coming to work in health care technology?

Honestly did not know what to expect, but definitely enjoy working in it.

What is the coolest or most surprising thing you learned while at HealthSparq so far?

How willing everyone is to help in the learning process for various concepts.

What’s next for you after you complete your internship?

Finish up final year at university.

We’re proud to welcome interns interested in working at HealthSparq each year. If you’re a student that’s interested in learning more about either of our internship programs, or applying to be an intern next year, just keep an eye out for listings here.