Meet Our Interns

This summer, Verana Health had three stellar interns join our team. Each were involved in different facets of the company and made a meaningful impact on our work in advancing medical research for patients. We at Verana were able to learn a lot from each of them and the unique talents and experiences they brought. We invite you to continue reading to learn more about each of our interns and the projects they worked on this year.

Yousef Hindy
Product Team

I just graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Physics, and will be returning this fall to complete a master’s degree in Computer Science. I found Verana through the  Mayfield Fellows Program, a nine month work-study co-op meant to teach students about entrepreneurship and leadership in high-growth and cutting edge technology startups. I was immediately drawn to the incredible potential of the datasets Verana was working with and the passion everyone has for the company’s mission. 

Because I worked with the product team, I’ve had the chance to interface cross-functionally with every team at Verana, which has given me a strong sense of the extraordinary diversity of roles that exist within the company. It’s been really rewarding to learn so much about how to organize and grow a young company while also working on a problem as significant and complex as bringing the power of big data to health care. 

My project involved managing the release of Verana Practice Insights, a new Verana solution that enables physicians to better understand their practice trends to improve patient care. I alpha-tested the initial version of the product by interviewing ophthalmologists and synthesizing their feedback into concise and clear reports, that I then translated into new features and adjustments for the product. We will be demonstrating the initial version at the American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting in October.

It’s been amazing to work on a project that has so much potential to affect people’s lives in a positive way. This internship has had an immediate impact on Verana’s beneficiaries: life science companies, doctors, and, of course, patients. I could clearly see how my project advanced the company’s goals and mission. It’s also been a really fun place to work. There’s a great sense of community, and when we get down to it, we’re all here to make doctors’ lives easier and improve patient outcomes.

Ash Kras
Clinical Data Science Team

I am currently completing my residency in ophthalmology in Australia. Realizing that big data and artificial intelligence were starting to play an increasingly significant role in medicine, I decided to take time away from clinical practice and undertook a master’s degree in bioinformatics at Harvard Medical School. My primary focus was on deep learning and retinal imaging- an emerging and particularly translational intersection of data science and ophthalmology. Following graduation, Verana presented as an unimaginably perfect environment for me to implement the skills I had acquired over the years as a medical specialist combined with the recent hands-on technical training with modern clinical informatics. 

As Verana’s first on-the-ground domain expert, I was immediately immersed and engaged with the whole team and end-to-end business operations. Verana’s deeply ingrained multidisciplinary culture facilitated my swift integration to a range of workstreams and empowered me to meaningfully contribute to high impact projects about which I was immensely passionate.  

After years of working in a clinical setting, at Verana I learned first hand what it takes and who is needed to bring bold ideas to life. In that regard, I was incredibly fortunate to work alongside many talented, experienced professionals from varied backgrounds, and I learned a great deal from each of them. Our complementary skill sets, united by a clear and powerful vision from strong leadership, is what allowed us to deliver great outcomes in a short amount of time.

Doctors who are looking for ways to affect the healthcare landscape beyond a one-to-one patient encounter may not feel equipped to do so. To those doctors I say: if you want to experience the role of a medical professional in a non-traditional clinical environment, there could be no better place than Verana through which you can simultaneously learn and have an impact.

Alisha Kumar
Life Science- Commercial Team

I am a rising senior at New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study studying history and philosophy of science, medicine, and public health, including a little bit of bioethics and data ethics. Verana tied together my interests in big data ethics and public health, so it was a perfect fit as an internship for me.

My work at Verana involved mapping out internal processes. I spent a lot of time interviewing people from different teams to understand how they work within their own teams as well as cross-functionally. I also had the opportunity to work with the commercial team to get to understand the sales process very intimately. We started a commercial implementation project to enable more efficient collaboration between the pre-sales team, the commercial team, and the data science teams, and I was able to tie in some of the findings from my interviews to make the process more streamlined.

It was really exciting to see how intricate each of the projects are and how big data can inform decision-making in action, instead of abstractly through a case study. After having the opportunity to be involved in these projects during my internship, I’m excited to continue to work in the realm of public health data in the future. 

The freedom I was given to operate made this a really meaningful experience for me. Everyone at Verana has been willing to help and to share what they were doing. I really loved the team and I really hope to have the opportunity to work with a team this kind and intelligent going forward. 

Interested in learning about opportunities to join the Verana team? View a list of open opportunities here.