Published 3/21/25 | Written by Audrey Baker

Qijin Wang joined Cornell Public Health’s inaugural cohort of MPH students in 2017. “There were only twelve of us that first year,” she remembers with a smile, “so we got a lot of attention!” These days, Wang lives in Beijing while working for China IQVIA, a healthcare-focused data consulting company. “Our clients are some of the top pharmaceutical companies in the world,” she says. These companies come to IQVIA for business solutions for their products. Clients have different goals for each unique product, says Wang, so she tailors her research to each unique situation.

“We do studies, and then we offer solutions,” says Wang, who is involved in every stage of research for each client, starting with a literature review to understand existing studies. “In the MPH Program, we were exposed to a lot of epidemiologic data through secondary publications, and I learned what was valid and how to interpret it,” she recalls. “Now, that’s a foundational part of my work.”

After exploring existing literature, Wang launches the product study. “The qualitative always comes before the quantitative,” she says. The goal in the qualitative phase is to understand physicians’ prescription behaviors and perceptions of a product compared with others on the market through dozens of interviews. After discussing these findings with the client, she launches a quantitative survey with a larger sample of hundreds of physicians. Wang tailors each interview guide and survey to each pharmaceutical product to ensure client goals are addressed.

Wang first sharpened her qualitative research skills during her MPH internship, interviewing local fishers in two Cambodian villages with the NGO WorldFish—a longtime partner and collaborator of Dr. Kathryn Fiorella, Associate Professor and Food Systems & Health Concentration Chief for Cornell Public Health. For that study, Fiorella and Wang sought to understand multiple social, behavioral, nutritional, and microbial dimensions of fermented fish paste commonly consumed in these communities. A paper resulting from this research, with Wang as first author, was published in 2023. In Cambodia, a translator helped her conduct each interview. Now that she interviews physicians in her native language, Mandarin, she “can understand their emotions and their perceptions on a deeper level.”

After the interview and survey phases of a study are complete, Wang presents her findings. “Sharing the information with clients is the most rewarding part,” she says, especially when she hears back months later that her recommendations were implemented and successful. In the future, she sees herself working within the healthcare system itself. “I’d love to be involved in the implementation side of this work someday.” For now, moving forward in her current role, she has been part of conversations about how AI can “support and improve efficiency for our mixed methods analysis.”