How To Become A Clinical Data Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical data specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A clinical data specialist is a database professional who manages all health-related data services provided at a hospital or a clinic. They are responsible for maintaining databases that contain patient health records, medical records, as well as managing data related to research and clinical trials. They also query databases, create reports and analyze data, and work closely with medical professionals to ensure accurate and reliable information is readily available.

Most individuals in this role have a bachelor's degree in IT, computer science, or database management, and some may have a master's degree in medical sciences. A clinical data specialist possesses strong communication, time management, computer, database programming, and computer skills, and should be adept at trouble-shooting and working with computer networks.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median salary for a clinical data specialist is $100,000, and job growth is projected to grow by 32% in the next 10 years.

ScoreClinical Data SpecialistUS Average

Salary

4.9

Avg. Salary $62,592

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

4.9

Growth rate 31%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

2.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.22%

Asian 22.75%

Black or African American 5.06%

Hispanic or Latino 7.59%

Unknown 4.95%

White 59.43%

Gender

female 75.27%

male 24.73%

Age - 35

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 35

Stress level

4.9

Stress level is manageable

7.1 - high

Complexity level

7.2

Complexity level is challenging

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.2

Work life balance is fair

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical data specialist

Explore clinical data specialist education requirements

Most common clinical data specialist degrees

Bachelor's

57.2 %

Associate

21.1 %

Master's

12.5 %

Start to develop specific clinical data specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	18.37%
Data Collection	10.26%
Patient Care	9.63%
Data Analysis	9.11%
Medical Terminology	6.32%

Complete relevant clinical data specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical data specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clinical data specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical data specialist resumes.

Research clinical data specialist duties and responsibilities

Manage clinical trial product inventory and disbursement to patients.
Manage daily operations to strategically plan protocol studies for tandem oncology patients.
Generate SAS code that includes SAS/Macros, SAS/GRAPH, SAS/ACCESS, etc.
Create SAS ad-hoc reports as per requirements by the client PASTEC.

Prepare your clinical data specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clinical data specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clinical data specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clinical data specialist resume templates

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