Internship Opportunities

Download a listing of locations where MPH students have completed internships.

View the internship guidelines.

posted 10/28/09:

• Fulfill your MPH internship requirement at the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB)!
• This project has already received IRB approval.  Project infrastructure and research tools are well established.  Data-entry is provided.  No tedious set-up work!  Jump in immediately!
• Work with a local American Indian tribe to improve health services for tribal members – make a true impact!
• Gain valuable experience using the national BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System) questionnaire to collect primary data on risk factors for chronic diseases
• Interview tribal members by telephone – work around your school schedule!
• Internship responsibilities include: phone interview training, completion of 75 BRFSS questionnaires, editing, data clean-up, and statistical analysis (depending on your specific MPH program’s internship requirements)
• Project advisor is the fabulous Victoria Warren-Mears, Epicenter Director, NPAIHB

If interested, email Annika Giesbrecht (MD/MPH) ASAP (giesbrea@ohsu.edu).Internship positions will be filled on a first come, first serve basis!

posted 9/2/09:

Pacific Northwest Regional Center of Excellence (PNWRCE) in Biodefense and Emerging Diseases

posted 5/19/09:

Biostatistics Core (BC) of Methamphetamine Abuse Research Center (MARC, www.ohsu.edu/marc) at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) is looking for a paid graduate student intern to assist its central database development. The position is immediately open and remains open until filled, pending the final approval of 2010 budget on the week of 5/18/09. The initial hiring period will end on 6/30/2010 with possibility of extension for another year. The work load will be up to 10 hrs per week. One of BC’s main tasks is to develop flexible central databases to housing all data generated by various research components of MARC to promote data sharing and collaborations. The intern will work under the supervision of Dr. Dongseok Choi and main job includes but not limited to

1) participate in meeting with investigators,

2) participate in designing /developing databases,

3) perform initial data quality check and descriptive analysis,

4) upload/retrieve data,

5) participate in data analysis projects

Prior experience with a statistical package will be desirable. It is expected to learn R, MySQL and basic level UNIX OS environment for projects. The pay level will be commensurate with experience. Please contact Dr. Dongseok Choi (choid@ohsu.edu, 503-494-5336) for further questions. OHSU is an equal opportunity employer.

• Closing date: open until filled
• Starting date: ASAP

posted 2/13/09:

Intracranial Hypertension Registry

The Registry, a joint project of the Casey Eye institute at OHSU and the Intracranial Hypertension Research Foundation, Vancouver, Washington is located one floor (7 th) above the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine office at:

The Intracranial Hypertension Registry seeks interns (MD/MPH and MPH) and candidates for thesis projects. Our database, designed exclusively for research, contains detailed longitudinal health information on more than 1200 patients. This is the largest collection of medical data on patients with this disorder. Chronic intracranial hypertension is a disorder of neuro-hydrodynamics with undetermined etiology. Patient symptoms include severe headache, visual disturbances with potential loss of vision, and tinnitus. Signs of intracranial hypertension include papilledema, cranial nerve palsies, and CSF pressure elevations. This disorder has been under-researched and, therefore, provides MPH candidates excellent opportunities for original investigation involving epidemiology and biostatistics.

Examples of intern/thesis projects done or in progress are the association between weight gain and visual status in women with idiopathic intracranial hypertension and predictors of successful optic nerve sheath decompression in chronic intracranial hypertension. The Registry has a multitude of different studies possible. We are also open to consider suggested projects by degree candidates. The following illustrates several projects immediately available:

• Empty Sella Syndrome: Prevalence and associations of CSF pressure levels and duration of disorder. The empty sella describes the neuroradiological appearance of the “empty” pituitary fossa as a result of compression and flattening of the pituitary gland due to the mechanical effect of sustained elevated CSF pressure. This project would make use of our Neuroimaging library which is a collection of several thousand MRI and CT head studies housed within the radiology department at OHSU. The student would work with an OHSU neuroradiologist. Clinical information in the Registry database would be used in conjunction with neuroradiologic readings of sequential studies. Questions that may be addressed: whether an empty sella is evidence of disease progression and whether it is a predictor of treatment outcome? 
• Does the degree of intracranial pressure determine potential failure of medical management and the need for surgical intervention? While there is agreement on what constitute high intracranial opening pressure readings on spinal tap,  the predictive value of these readings as to management outcomes is not known.  At what pressure levels is medical management doomed to fail? In surgical management is one type of surgery (shunt vs. optic nerve sheath decompression) offer superior outcomes based on degree of CSF pressure elevation?
• Evaluating failures of different types of neurosurgical shunts (used for CSF diversion) as a possible predictor of best shunt choice for optimal surgical outcome. There are two types of shunts used in diverting CSF: one from either a lateral ventricle (intracranial) or from the lumbar subarachnoid space to an absorptive site, most often the abdominal cavity. The former are known as VP shunts, the later as LP shunts. Both VP and LP shunts are said to have a 50% failure rate in the first year of implantation. By apparently personal experience some neurosurgeons favor one over the other. The study would determine number of failures and rate and number of revision surgeries for each type of shunt.
• Incidence of sinusitis and sinus abnormalities (based on objective neuroradiological findings) in patients with intracranial hypertension. CSF is produced within the brain (choroid plexus) and was believed only absorbed into the venous system by the one way flow through structures called arachnoid granulations. Recent studies have proposed alternative routes including the lymphatic system. Animal studies, on goats and sheep, have shown that CSF lymphatics represent the major CSF outflow channels and the nasal mucosa functions as the end destination for CSF elimination. If a similar nasal mucosal use occurs in human, under the abnormal conditions of intracranial hypertension would edematous or changes in the mucosa increase the incidence of sinusitis/sinus abnormalities? Is there a higher occurrence of sinusitis/sinus abnormalities as compared to a similar matched non IH population? In conjunction with accepted criteria would these findings improve the clinical diagnostic determination of intracranial hypertension? Of note is recent evidence that there is a reduction of smell (hyposmia) in patients with intracranial hypertension without clear explanation. Use of the Registry’s Neuroimaging Library collection of Registry patients would be utilized with the assistance of an OHSU neuroradiologist to determine the present of mucosal changes consistent with sinus abnormalities.

The IH Registry is staffed by a medical director (M.D.), 2 research co-coordinators, one completing a Registry thesis project for her MPH and one an applicant to the MPH program, and 4 OHSU volunteers. Our research coordinators are directly familiar with the MPH program and are uniquely aware and sensitive to MPH students and their circumstances.

For more information, contact:

Sara Loboy, Research Coordinator
Intracranial Hypertension Registry, Casey Eye Institute, OHSU
Mailcode - CB723
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road
Portland, OR  97239
Phone: (503) 418-2141, Fax: (503) 418-2139

posted 10/14/08:

Please see description below.  If you are interested in this internship, please contact Todd Bratton at tbratton.health@cowlitz.org

The Cowlitz Indian Tribe and the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board (NPAIHB) have a unique internship opportunity for one OHSU student in the Master of Public Health Program.

The selected student will be working on a project to identify the health status and health needs of Cowlitz Indian Tribal Members.  The majority of the student’s time will be spent revising and/or developing mail surveys which will capture the health status and needs of the tribal members.  The surveys will be developed in a manner that allows for collected information to be compared to national data. 

The Cowlitz Indian Tribe, in Washington State, was federally-recognized in 2002.  The Tribe has no reservation, but there are nearly 3700 enrolled members dispersed throughout the Northwest and beyond. A new Tribal Clinic is under construction and will open in late summer, 2009.  The Tribe’s Health and Human Services Department programs include an Ambulatory Medical Clinic, Chemical Dependency services, Vocational Rehabilitation, Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence advocacy and services, Tobacco Prevention, Diabetes Education, Contract Health Services, and Elders, Senior Nutrition and Caregiver support services. 

Project Goal:     

Provide accurate data for the Tribal Health and Human Services Department to use in planning and delivery of health services.

Project Objectives:

1.            Quantify health status of enrolled Cowlitz Indian Tribal Members

2.            Determine the health needs of Cowlitz Indian Tribal Members residing in the seven-      county Contract Health Service delivery area.

Project Activities for Intern:

1.            Revise and reformat existing comprehensive survey into separate health needs and health status questionnaires (including instruction sheets) which will capture quantifiable,      comparable data.

2.            Prepare and print survey instruments for mail-out, including preparation of confidential return envelopes.          

Internship Requirements:

1.            Be an enrolled student in the OHSU MPH program.

2.            Consult with project participants on an ongoing manner as necessary.

3.            Follow Policies, Procedures, and other applicable rules of the NPAIHB, OHSU, and the    Cowlitz Indian Tribe.

The Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Health and Human Services Department will provide a written evaluation of the Internship.

posted 8/21/08:

Community Profile Intern