Marina De Sousa is a CHIP master's student who recently finished up her internship with Patients & Purpose, a healthcare advertising company based out of New York. Her unique project management internship experience exposed her to a new way to use her health informatics training to support patients. Healthcare data, such as insurance claims, was used to guide communication and marketing strategy and an analytics dashboard was used to monitor performance of communication campaigns and ways to improve efforts and increase population reach. Read more about Mariana's experience below.
What was your internship like? What did you do day to day?
I was a project management intern for a healthcare advertising/communications agency. As an intern, I worked closely with project managers to develop timelines and budgets for each deliverable. I was on the Pfizer team, so our clients would come to us with different deliverables to communicate important information about non-small cell lung cancer, melanoma, and colorectal cancer to patients and healthcare providers. The marketing materials we created were designed to empower patients by providing them with valuable information, resources, and support to better manage their health conditions and advocate for their well-being. These materials include doctor discussion guides, brochures, videos, and more.
I also worked closely with the account team to utilize technology and healthcare data to improve care delivery and patient outcomes. The account team creates a project brief (requested by the client) that addresses a specific healthcare challenge or communicates specific healthcare information. The projects move throughout the account, project management, and creative teams to come to life as seen fit by the client. Once marketing materials were deployed to patients and healthcare providers, the analytics dashboard was used to monitor the performance and determine how to improve campaign efforts and population reach. Tracking metrics such as clicks, visits, engagement rates, and conversions to measure the effectiveness of marketing efforts helped make data-driven optimizations as needed.
What did you learn from your work?
Through my internship, I gained an understanding of pharmaceutical marketing processes and regulations as there are many legal constraints associated with marketing pharmaceutical products and messages to patients and healthcare providers. I also strengthened my project management skills, learned about different approaches to developing patient-focused materials, and furthered my health informatics knowledge looking at patient data and the reach that our materials had.
What was the most challenging aspect of your internship? What was most rewarding?
The most challenging part of my internship was picking up in the middle of some projects. A normal project takes months to develop on average, so there were a lot of projects that I was working on that were in the middle or end stages. When a project kicks off, we are able to have the purpose/background of the project, who it’s aimed for, and see the whole life cycle of it.
It has been very rewarding to not only see a project through from start to finish, but also seeing it be deployed and used by patients. As we are a patient-focused company, the information we provide to them is invaluable as we help empower them to advocate for themselves and their cancer journey.
How did the internship contribute to your professional growth?
This internship contributed to my professional growth in a way that opened my eyes to a career field I had no idea existed. I am so grateful to be part of a company that constantly works to have a meaningful impact on patients' lives by providing them with the resources and support they need to lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. I’m excited to grow in this career field and see where it leads!
What advice you would give to students seeking an internship or getting ready to start one?
One piece of advice I would give to students seeking an internship or getting ready to start one is to be open to learning and growing. As someone who didn’t know what I wanted to do career-wise, I was able to go into the process with an open mind and accept any opportunity with open arms. Throughout the summer, I was always asking questions, asking to sit in on meetings to learn more, and having meetings with executives to connect and hear about their experience at the company. As I found myself toward the end of my internship, I realized that my mindset got me to where I was, and I was so thankful to get a full time offer to return!
