Any resources on how to approach universities/doctors/professors for research opportunities for high school students. Preference would be medicine/bio with expertise in data science and programming to contribute. Pointers and direction hugely appreciated.
A couple of options:
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The student should reach out to potential researchers to see if they could use some summer lab help.
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In some instances, perhaps a family member is doing research and could be of assistance either providing an opportunity or giving some kind of suggestion for contacts.
I will add…a 15 year old is unlikely to be doing first author research. Very often these entry level research opportunities are things like caring for the research animals (that’s cleaning cages and feeding, for example), and doing very secondary things for the primary researcher.
I guess the other question the student will need to answer is why they wish to do research, since that likely will be asked during the interview process.
Is this student planning to apply to medical school (since this is posted in that area of this forum)? If so, why research in high school?
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My daughter was successful just cold contacting some profs online. However, she got way more nos than she got yeses - most college professors offer their research opportunities to grad students and undergrad students. Few offer research opportunities to high school students. But some do.
Indeed. It’s scrubbing data, verifying citations, fact-checking, and doing mostly grunge work. In other words, the stuff no one else wants to do 
(For example, one of the university labs she worked for had her reviewing hours of video and tagging the time stamps where certain events occurred that they needed for their data collection.)
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The National Science Foundation offers $6000 grants to high school students to do research. MPS5 is for mathematics and physical sciences. RAHSS is for biological sciences.
The NIH has 2 summer research program for high school students
Opportunities for high school students
Current high school juniors are not eligible to apply for the Summer Internship Program.
Current high school juniors who are eligible can apply for and participate in the High School Scientific Training and Enrichment Program (HiSTEP). Visit the HiSTEP page to read the eligibility criteria and learn how to apply.
Current high school seniors who meet the eligibility criteria can apply to the Summer Internship Program (SIP). Visit the SIP page to read the eligibility criteria and learn how to apply.
Note that the acceptance rate of pre-college applicants for HS-SIP/SIP has historically been less than 7%. Therefore, we strongly encourage applicants to seek other internship and employment opportunities.
If you live near a National Laboratory, they run summer programs for high school students. List of National Labs
NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in Gaithersburg, MD runs a summer program for high school students
However, my younger D got an offer to work in research lab at nearby university. She cold emailed professors (lots and lots of them) and included her resumé with the email. Her position was very low level. She started out mixing solutions for the lab and doing inventory.
My older D got an internship thru a career-exploration option offered by her gifted education teacher. She worked in an animal lab where she did animal care–feeding, cleaning cages-- and later helped prep mice for procedures and gave them injections. Another high school student who worked in the lab had to euthanize dozens of mice by guillotining them.
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In addition to contacting college profs directly, OP might look at the various programs in this database:
If OP is thinking about a healthcare provider career, they might consider doing patient facing work (assistant CNA, hospital/hospice volunteer), rather than research.
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