Local medical coder focused on career building, role modeling

MOSES LAKE — Richa Sudlan started out thinking she wanted to help people and have a positive impact on their lives. She first considered a career in medicine, but along the way found a path to becoming a business intelligence analyst for the Moses Lake Community Health Center.  

“I first was in medicine, so I was in med school, and then I was like, ‘Okay, this is not something that I want to do the rest of my life,’” Sudlan said. “So, I actually changed my career. I had a transition from med school to tech school.” 

The transition worked out. Sudlan went on to earn her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Tufts University in Data Science and Health Analytics. She said her time as a medical student paid off because it gave her the vocabulary to specialize in medical data which helps her to understand what the physicians and medical administrators she works with need.  

“I think that was (what made it) easy for me, because when I have to pull some information from the HER — electronic health records — then I can understand, ‘OK, this is what that information means. I don’t have to Google, for example, because I already have that background, so it’s easy for me to understand.”  

While she may not be working with patients every day, she does make sure that physicians, nurses and administration at the clinic have the information they need to take care of the people who trust them with their care.  

“All in all, I think, in medicine, you work on the front end, right? But in tech, you work in the back end and (help) make decisions used to make a meaningful impact,” Sudlan said. “I always wanted to help people, so I think it’s just worked out in my favor to be able to do both.” 

Working in the health care industry allows Sudlan to help patients while enjoying coding and data analysis. Using the data at the MLCHC, she is able to help providers identify trends in patient populations. The providers can then ensure they are prepared to help patients navigate health issues that are common in the community, or in the demographic portions of the population they are part of.  

On a day-to-day basis, Sudlan pulls data for a variety of uses. Stephanie Melcher, MLCHC’s marketing director, said the dashboards and datasets Sudlan provides not only help physicians, they help her with the marketing side of the clinic.  

“As a marketer, data is very important. (It’s vital) that we’re utilizing data correctly, or you’re just kind of throwing money out to the wind and hoping it sticks somewhere. So, for me, data is amazing in that portion, and then for providers, obviously, it’s a lot more tangible because they’re talking to their patients,” Melcher said.  

Providers use data to verify everything from vaccination records to identifying if there’s an uptick in a certain illness. Having Sudlan on staff — the second person working with the clinic’s data — has been beneficial because she’s been able to make sure the data for the clinic’s thousands of patients is maintained and usable, Melcher said. 

Sudlan said she loves her role and is excited to see how it grows and how she continues to be able to assist providers and patients. She’s working to build her skillset and has earned a scholarship of sorts to attend the PASS Data Community Summit 2024 coming up next week.  

The summit is a regional event in Seattle that allows techies to get together and examine everything related to data management and administration. Sessions focus on a variety of topics from managing data portals to utilizing artificial intelligence for a variety of purposes. Sudlan applied for a full-ride scholarship that covers her admission to the event — worth about $2,600 — as well as other travel expenses like lodging during the conference.  

Melcher said one of the criteria was being in a medically underserved community, which much of Central Washington fits into. While the region has facilities, the remoteness and population living below the poverty level, as well as other factors, qualifies the area as underserved.  

For Sudlan, though, much of it is about being a positive example for young women who want to go into a technical field.  

“What I wrote in the scholarship (application) was that I want to be a role model, and also, I want to be an active member in women in tech, because I think that, coming from a smaller community where you don’t see women in tech, it’s very rare,” Sudlan said.  

Sudlan wants to show young women and girls that they can succeed in STEM-related fields like programming and medicine because they can make a difference. They can be someone who solves problems communities and clients are facing.  

“I want to be an inspiration for the young girls, because I think, coming from a small community, you don’t see women in tech that much,” Sudlan said.