Meet our Changemakers: Melissa Estevez, Senior Research Scientist

At Flatiron Health, we believe that every employee has the power to make a difference. That’s why we are proud to shine a spotlight on our changemakers, the individuals who are driving meaningful impact across our organization and beyond. From engineering to clinical operations to data science and beyond, our changemakers are innovating, collaborating, and pushing boundaries to improve and extend the lives of people with cancer. In this series, we will introduce you to some of the remarkable individuals who make Flatiron Health a great place to work and a force for good in healthcare.

Meet Melissa Estevez , Senior Research Scientist at Flatiron Health. In this article, Melissa shares her experiences, motivations, and day-to-day work. She also discusses how her work in Research Sciences is shaping the world of cancer care. 

Q. Can you share with us the journey that led you to join Flatiron and your excitement about being part of the team that's now establishing our presence in the Research Triangle?

I began my career in Life Sciences consulting, where conversations with physicians highlighted the need for real-world evidence to address gaps in clinical trial data. This experience sparked my passion for the impact of real-world evidence in identifying unmet needs, characterizing the standard of care, and understanding how patients respond to existing therapies, particularly those patients who are not eligible for clinical trials. Joining Flatiron, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of our real-world evidence, such as supporting label expansions for treatments like palbociclib in men with breast cancer. Getting to this result involved a massive cross-functional effort, and it was powerful to see the impact all that work had on patients' access to valuable treatment. Now, as Flatiron’s real-world evidence business evolves from being a company that primarily produces data to one that delivers a full set of services, including evidence and insights, I couldn’t think of a better place to be than the research triangle where we have access to a rich and diverse talent pool. 

Q. What is your current location, and what has your experience been working with your teammates in a remote or hybrid work environment?

I spent my first few years at Flatiron working in our New York City office, but since 2019, I have been working as a fully remote employee from Raleigh, NC. The collaborative culture in New York was one of my favorite things about Flatiron. I am grateful we have held onto that as we adapted new hybrid working methods. For example, pairing on code or collaborating on a project now happens through a zoom screen share rather than side-by-side laptops. Still, I spend much of my day collaborating closely with my colleagues. Between 1:1s, virtual lunches, and team events on Zoom, I’ve gotten to know my remote colleagues as well as I knew my NYC based colleagues when I lived in New York. And now, with the new office open, my network is expanding beyond colleagues I work with on a day-to-day basis through in-person lunches and coffee breaks in our new space.

Q. Provide an overview of the structure and dynamics of your team. What excites you most about the work that the Research Sciences team is doing? How will growing this Life Sciences Hub progress the mission of the team?

Research Sciences is a functional team with expertise in epidemiology and biostatistics. In our day-to-day, we sit across various project teams throughout the business. I work with internally facing teams applying artificial Intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) to extract data elements from unstructured electronic health records (EHR). Using AI to curate data at scale allows us to unlock solutions with larger cohort sizes and coverage across the entire patient journey. Research Sciences plays a vital role in characterizing the fit for data extracted using AI. 

Many of my colleagues in Research Sciences are aligned with the customer-facing teams that build and deliver solutions (data and analyses) to our customers. Through this collaboration, we have defined new roles within Research Sciences, including statistical programmers that bring expertise in our data along with technical and coding skills, and  research scientists that bring expertise in our data and real-world evidence methodologies. By each bringing deep expertise in different areas of the project, these roles can collaborate to generate real-world evidence at a grander scale and efficiency.  

Our solutions-oriented approach’s success relies on having team members with the right expertise. The Research Triangle is filled with universities and professionals in the healthcare sector, making it possible to access top talent with relevant experience and foster a collaborative environment necessary for executing our vision effectively. 

Q. How do you envision the Life Sciences Hub contributing to Flatiron Health's mission? 

The Life Sciences Hub contributes to Flatiron’s mission in two key ways: access to talent and fostering collaboration. By centralizing teams we will enhance knowledge sharing and accelerate learning. The central location in Durham offers opportunities for informal meetings, such as trips outside for coffee. Since opening this spring, I have already connected with new colleagues, including those in our clinical research business unit, allowing me to expand my understanding of other parts of Flatiron’s business. 

Q. What makes Flatiron stand out from other healthcare and tech companies?

Flatiron is unique as a healthtech company because we cover the whole process of real-world evidence generation, from data entry at the point of care to curating real-world data and finally analyzing it. I can’t stress enough how unique and powerful this is. At the point of data entry, designing our own oncology-specific EHR means that we can make changes to the EHR that improve workflows for oncologists and increase the utility of data collected for research. For example, when new molecular markers become standard to test for as part of routine care, we can update the EHR to collect that information in a structured way, making that information more easily accessible. Then, as we develop real-world data models and curation approaches, we become deep experts in our data. This allows us to bring a wealth of experience and methods to analyze real-world data to generate real-world evidence.

The second thing that makes Flatiron unique is the quality of our people and our science. Not only do I work with some of the kindest and most collaborative people I have ever encountered in my career, but everyone brings a high level of competence to their respective fields. When combined, collaboration and domain expertise allow us to produce high-quality science and solutions. For example, in the past year, I have attended several conferences. Attending workshops and sessions led by my peers, I always leave feeling impressed with our ability to leverage novel methods and develop creative solutions to our work.

Q. Reflecting on your time at Flatiron, what's one specific aspect of our culture that you've found particularly valuable, and how do you envision fostering this in our new location? 

I am one of many working parents at Flatiron, with three kids ages four and under. Flatiron provides flexibility for employees to set their own schedules. This allows me to start my day earlier than most of my peers and block my calendar during school pickup. My team accommodates by scheduling meetings within my designated working hours. This alone has such a positive impact on my quality of life. I can fully engage in my career at Flatiron without missing out on the quality time I get with my children between school pickup and bedtime. My team in the Raleigh-Durham office can look forward to the same culture, as I will encourage everyone to choose which days and hours they come into the office to achieve their unique version of work/life balance.

Q. How significant is cross-functional collaboration in your daily work?

Cross-functional collaboration is absolutely vital in my daily work at Flatiron. ML data scientists build AI algorithms that extract data elements from the EHR. Understanding from them how our models work allows me to best validate the data they produce. Oncologists play a key role in ensuring that data models, AI algorithms, and patient cohorts are designed in a manner that is closely aligned with real-world clinical practice. Product managers are instrumental in setting the vision for the product, prioritizing tasks according to long-term product roadmaps and driving progress within tight deadlines. Clinical data experts support the development of new variables and drive data quality activities. These are just a few examples. Our work is highly complex and we often need to make decisions and weigh tradeoffs quickly. Working efficiently and  cross-functionally allows us to move quickly while still considering all perspectives in our decision-making.

Q. If you had to offer one piece of advice to a candidate interested in joining your team, what would it be?

The Research Sciences team mostly works with our curated datasets to answer customer research questions. However I encourage Research Science members to take advantage of the unique opportunity we have at Flatiron to understand the EHR source data and how it is curated. 

In addition, there is a lot to know and learn about oncology real-world evidence. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and leverage the experience of those around you. Having prior knowledge about oncology isn’t a requirement to being successful as a research scientist.

Are you ready to be the next changemaker in cancer care? Head over to our LinkedIn page Flatiron Health, visit our careers page, or join our talent community to learn more.