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As a research project manager at Partners Healthcare, Lana Tsurikova develops software to aid in the treatment of acute respiratory infections and coronary artery disease. Once the software is created, year-long trials will be conducted and the data analyzed to understand how the particular software application is affecting care.
Key to this job is creating and analyzing surveys, a skill Tsurikova honed while interning at the United Way as a graduate student at UMass Lowell. Tsurikova earned her master’s degree in community psychology in 2004. The internship, under the direction of Diane Franz of the United Way, involved creating a survey for all United Way agencies to determine which would be funded.
“The idea was to ask all agencies that the United Way funded the same set of questions, analyze the answers and make decisions on whom they were going to fund that year. I had to go through a lot of documents to understand the specifics of what United Way would be interested in. Then I spent hours talk to Diane about what they need, what questions they need to find answers for,” she says.
“The difference between survey for the United Way and ones we do for Partners is the amount of time and resources that we can spend,” Tsurikova says. “The one for United Way was a nice exercise for me, one of many surveys that I have created in my life.”
Tsurikova says she enjoys the fast pace of Partners. “There is no day like the previous one. Partners is a huge organization and there are numerous research activities. I also like going to conferences and showing our work and learning about other projects around the country.”
Juggling family time with a job she enjoys is a challenge, but a good challenge, she says. “My work is so interesting that I take some time from my family. My four-year-old daughter is an angel and never mentions anything to me, but sometimes I feel guilty for spending extra hours at work instead of being with her. I love what I do and I love my family. It's just the balance that I still have to find,” she says.