New medications, medical implants and treatment protocols can have a lifesaving and life-enhancing impact on patients around the world. Behind the scenes, professionals like Nicole Rodrigues ’22 are helping put data to work to make these important innovations happen. Additionally, she pairs her passion for data science with volunteering at her alma mater.
A dream realized, almost
As an only child growing up in India, Rodrigues used to dream of becoming a doctor. Her parents, both of whom had to drop out of high school due to financial constraints, were her greatest cheerleaders and encouraged her to pursue higher education.
Still, though, it wasn’t easy. Rodrigues attended college in India and pursued a bachelor’s degree in life sciences, a program that included many pre-med courses. She was the first person in her family to pursue STEM education.
“I aspired to get into healthcare from the beginning,” she notes. “Somehow I always knew it was my following.”
However, medical school wasn’t in the cards for Rodrigues due to a number of factors, including family responsibilities and expenses. Instead, after graduation, she began looking for a job in healthcare and pharmaceuticals.
A side door to a healthcare career
As she researched her options, Rodrigues grew intrigued by clinical research, and she decided to take an online course to learn more about it.
“I pretty much ended up in the field of clinical research and medical product development by chance,” she says.
She landed a job working in clinical data informatics and knew she had stumbled upon something that combined her love of healthcare and her aptitude for analytics.
“I grew passionate about it and never looked back,” she says.
Rodrigues spent the next several years in various data roles with increasing responsibility. Her work included clinical trial data review and analysis, quality control and set up of trial databases while interacting with other research personnel working toward common goals.
Eventually she moved to the U.S. and secured leadership roles where she oversaw end-to-end data management for clinical trials, work that included preparing study documents, developing study databases and validating data. She also reviewed clinical research data and reconciled it against external data sources.
A passion for continuous learning
In the back of her mind, Rodrigues always knew she would return to school to earn her master’s degree. In 2019, she determined that the time was right to take that step.
“After 10 years in my field, I decided to enhance my knowledge and learn more about healthcare administration and informatics,” she says.
For years, she had been researching exactly which master’s degree would provide her with the additional skills, knowledge and expertise she would need to position her for greater success in her career. She also had been saving up for tuition expenses. Ultimately, she decided to pursue a Master of Science in Healthcare Informatics Administration from UMGC.
Rodrigues credits her master’s degree with providing her with elevated expertise in data and healthcare concepts that apply to her field.
“My master’s degree definitely makes me more marketable and enables me to have conversations about topics I had exposure to through my degree,” she explains.
The benefits of earning her degree extend beyond the professional, though.
“Personally, it taught me a lot of self-discipline and work-life-study balance,” she says. “It was definitely a challenging time, but it was rewarding.
Onward and upward
Rodrigues recently accepted a new role with a clinical-stage biotechnology company that researches and produces innovative immunology therapeutics. In this new leadership-level position, she’s responsible for supporting data management activities in phase 1-4 clinical trials. Her role includes overseeing outsourced studies to ensure the correct interpretation and translation of study protocols into validated data collection applications.
Additionally, Rodrigues believes in the power of volunteering and has contributed back to her UMGC community. This spring she served as an Industry Expert in the UMGC Alumni Association’s My Volunteer Program giving her time and talent offering career advice to UMGC student and alumni job seekers. She also was interviewed by U.S. News and World Report speaking to her experience as a graduate in the University’s Master of Science in Healthcare Informatics Administration. Rodrigues also volunteered her time participating in the UMGC Global Give, a global initiative held in April to empower the UMGC community to give back to the communities in which they live and serve.
Although Rodrigues never became a doctor, her work is impacting the health and wellbeing of countless people around the world, and she has no regrets about her career path.
“Medical devices and therapies are available to patients as a result of our work, and they enhance their quality of life,” says Rodrigues. “I must honestly say that working in clinical research that is advancing medical science and working on new innovative therapies that are not in the market yet is definitely rewarding.”
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