Jacqueline Shen (’18)

I spent my summer working at the Department of Health and Human Services in the Office of Business Management and Transformation, which focuses on innovation throughout the department. The challenge I tackled was stimulating innovation in kidney disease treatments. The end goals were to improve current treatment conditions, decrease costs to Medicare, and improve patient quality of life. To that end I helped engineer the conceptual model for a Kidney Accelerator that would support early-stage companies developing new products for kidney disease treatment. To inform the conceptual model I conducted informational interviews with federal employees in various departments, including the NIH, FDA, CMS, and VA, for a better understanding of regulatory processes and existing funding opportunities. I also conducted research into the dialysis market and the costs of drug development. Additionally I created slide decks and executive summaries to pitch the idea to senior leadership. Ultimately I incorporated all my research into a playbook for the Kidney Accelerator, which will be used as a guide for implementing the project in the coming months.