Determined to contribute to future advances in healthcare provision, I seek to become a Business Intelligence Analyst who deploys Predictive Analytics and Big Data techniques in addition to traditional BI in this vital area. I am applying for The Master of Information Systems Management (MISM) Degree through the Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (BIDA) program of XXU to learn the most advanced methods to achieve my long-term goals.
I realized that cutting-edge technology would change future healthcare during my internship training at IBM’s most significant client center in China. Introduced to many technologies, I was particularly fascinated with IBM Content and Predictive Analytics for Healthcare solutions, which provides diagnostic assistance for doctors and improves clinical treatment effectiveness by combining predictive modeling with healthcare-specific content analysis. I admire my mum, a physician who diagnoses the disease from her great mental store of knowledge and experience. While discussing diagnostics with my mother, it occurred to me that Predictive Analytics could go beyond traditional diagnosis and provide more clinical and operational insights by identifying trends, patterns, and deviations with an even more significant amount of clinical data.
Having interned in Banking, Transport, Energy, and Car industries, I firmly believe in the irreplaceable power of technology that leverages data for effective business decision-making. But in Healthcare, I see technology's impact as potentially even more far-reaching and meaningful by helping clinical decisions. This would improve patient care and optimize outcomes, and in the long run, improve human life quality and people’s happiness. However, our world is limited in medical resources and faces additional and multiple challenges related to a rapidly aging population. It is estimated that late or inaccurate diagnoses harm 1.5 million patients in the US. In China, the latest trial of the system of family medication in Hangzhou resulted in each doctor taking care of more than 3000 people, primarily senior citizens, and seeing the healthcare concerns and the great potential of technology increasing healthcare quality and efficiency have fired a great desire to contribute in this field.
According to health informatics research from the University of XXXX, XXX College of Medicine, in 2014, medical data will double every 73 days by 2020; however, most of this data is discarded or underutilized. Highly aware of the power of Business Intelligence in transforming raw data into meaningful information to support decision-making, I believe BI is one of the most effective ways to take advantage of this vast store of clinical data and make sense of it. That is why I am determined to pursue a career in Business Intelligence and apply my knowledge and skills in information technology and data analytics to healthcare.
My educational background and internships have contributed to my goal as a Business Intelligence analyst. I have greatly enjoyed my undergraduate studies majoring in Management Information Systems, with Economics as my minor subject. I particularly enjoyed studying Database Management, Information System Design, and Decision-making Architecture, demonstrating the great transition from data storage to data-driven decision-making. The one-semester exchange study at the CS department of the University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne has dramatically improved my knowledge of statistics in SAS, my programming skills in Data structure, and I learned NPL and statistical language modeling of unstructured data from Text Information System. These studies equipped me with technical knowledge of decision-making based on structured and unstructured data. They stimulated a desire to explore the subject further in real-world projects which I have during my internships to date.
I have my first hands-on experience in Business Intelligence at IBM France, working on material management reporting for the biggest client in the French rail industry. I formulated high-level reports for diverse decision goals. I contributed to the ETL process behind them based on massive data collected from 45 technical operation centers and warehouses. I have improved my technical skills such SQL, DataStage, and Cognos, and my understanding of data warehouse architecture. Interestingly, my other internships at Electricity of France, Natixis Bank, and IBM China have made the BI project easier to approach. They contributed to my understanding of data extraction, data visualization development, and requirement analysis.
I understand that a Business Intelligence analyst is not only a technology expert who dives deep into data sets and software programs but also someone who translates industry-specific concerns to data requirements. My internships both as a developer and salesperson have formed an ideal basis for honing my technical skills in handling raw data and my skills in ‘pain point’ analysis, serving as a foundation for my future career in BI.
Aside from my academic and practical experience in BI, I am highly aware of the knowledge I still need to develop to achieve my career goal. During my BI internship, I have seen first-hand real-world situations where traditional BI focusing on backward-looking analysis cannot provide insights for preventive actions. To maximize BI potential with forward-looking analysis, I seek to develop my knowledge of statistical and computational techniques such as predictive modeling and pattern recognition. I also seek exposure to healthcare information systems to learn how to apply predictive analytics best to satisfy genuine healthcare needs. I do not doubt that BIDA program is the best way to develop or obtain the knowledge and skills I need to achieve all these goals. The program curriculum covers all my areas of interest (you might list these in brackets here, but I would not bother, the reader will know what is in the curriculum). The fact that I would be able to study Healthcare Information Systems specifically makes it an ideal fit for my purposes.
Today’s IT companies such as Google and IBM have already started cooperating with pharmaceutical companies such as Sanofi and Novartis to work on digital health solutions. I see a growing trend in IT-Healthcare collaboration. With XXU’s reputation and high-quality courses that perfectly fit my needs, I believe I can contribute to this increasing trend and fulfill my goal as a healthcare BI analyst. Following my experience as a BI analyst, I want to take more responsibility. I hope to be a project manager, working on large-scale projects in digital healthcare. Notably, three of the top four pharmaceutical companies worldwide are from French-speaking countries. My fluency in French, gained over a five-year residence in France, is, therefore, a further and significant advantage in enabling me to work effectively in my area of choice.
It is estimated that, in the future, every person will likely generate more than one million gigabytes of health-related data in their lifetime. I want to help health professionals to harness the power of massive bodies of clinical data to improve healthcare quality and lower costs. I believe that my academic background and internship experiences make me an excellent ‘fit’ for the BIDA program at CMU. It will be a solid stepping-stone for my career goal and my ambitions about providing healthcare in the future.
