Health Tech: The Grass Isn't Always Greener on the Other Side

Ever since I made the transition myself from the healthcare industry into tech (healthcare focused), 1.5 years ago, I've been fairly positive about my experiences and very supportive of others, primarily healthcare professionals, that were interested in making the pivot themselves. However, I think it may be unfair of me to only share the positives and not the negatives - or rather - reasons why you may want to reconsider pivoting to tech. In this article, I want to briefly expand on those thoughts.

Thought #1: It's relatively more volatile than healthcare

This may be fairly obvious, but I think it's still important to highlight. A few quick stats from Crunchbase (full article here) to kick this off:

1. In 2022, more than 93,000 jobs were cut in both public & private tech companies in the US

2. In 2023, more than 170,967 jobs were cut from U.S. tech companies

Largest cuts in 2023 came from:

1. Amazon (16,080 roles)

2. Alphabet Inc. (12,000 roles)

3. Microsoft (11,158 roles)

4. Meta (10,000 roles)

These stats align with a published report from Challenger, Gray & Christmas, Inc.'s June 2023 Challenger Report that had the following stats:

1. In 2023, 458,209 cuts so far in the year have been announced

2. Technology sector leads the job cuts with a total of 141,516

3. The sectors that lead next after technology are 1) Retail (48,212), Finance (39,768), and Healthcare (38,279).

You can probably look at the data in various ways since these are raw numbers, but the takeaway should remain the same:

Technology is more volatile than healthcare

This section underpins one of the most important things to consider if you're contemplating a switch: job security. Many of my colleagues have families, mortgages, student loan debt, and other obligations that they must attend to and the volatility of the job market in tech is an important consideration.

Thought #2: Mental wellness & anxiety

A nice segue from #1 since the looming idea of getting laid off is always in the back of your mind once you're in tech. In short, relative to healthcare, you'll likely find yourself a bit more stressed about whether you'll wake up one day and find yourself without a job. In tech, I'd imagine there's probably some impact on ones mental wellness, and personally, I've certainly noticed a shift in mine as I'm much more conscious about building an emergency fund to cover my expenses for upwards of 6 months to a year. That number will likely differ from one individual to another, but the number that is appropriate is subjective and likely appropriate when a peace of mind is reached.

On a related note, both on a positive and negative side, is the fact that most tech companies are also performance-driven and have a merit-based culture. In comparison to healthcare where raises and bonuses are usually flat or irrelevant to one's performance, it's usually the opposite in tech where the more you perform, the more you'll likely be compensated in the form of bonuses and equity (e.g. refresh grants). Thing is, it's a double-edged sword as the moment you stop performing you put yourself at risk of being cut. Most notorious amongst the tech companies, at least anecdotally, is Amazon's performance improvement plan (PIP) culture. Here's a quick explanation of a software developer's experience posted on Y Combinator's Hacker News forum I found with a Google search. TL;DR: if you don't continually perform, you'll likely be put on PIP and laid off.

Thought #3: It can feel distant from healthcare

Similar to an informatics role, the moment you leave direct patient care, especially the hospital and healthcare system setting, you'll likely feel more distant from the patients you once served. I think many who are already working in informatics may be able to relate (unless you're in one of those superstars with split informatics & staffing roles), it's just a step removed from direct patient care and sometimes that can lead to less fulfillment. At the end of the day, isn't that why we entered healthcare to begin with?

In tech, being surrounded by non-healthcare professionals working on projects that are a few more steps away from direct patient care can lead to a potential loss in purpose and fulfillment. I don't feel this way currently, but I do feel more distant as my work doesn't directly impact the day to day problems that our clinicians are facing every day on the frontlines.

Thought #4: The work itself might differ from your expectations

I think one of the reasons why informatics is a specialty and smaller in size compared to other areas a healthcare professional can specialize in is because it's not typically the type of work you're looking for when you want to pursue a career as a nurse, physician, or pharmacist.

In general, you entered healthcare because you want to help patients.

In pharmacy informatics, I hear plenty of examples of individuals that made the transition from pharmacy practice in retail or hospital and absolutely hated it. It's a very different type of work. I often think of informatics as impactful on the population level (e.g. a health system, a region, a cohort of some sort) vs. the individual patient level. Thus, outcomes are usually conveyed via aggregate metrics (e.g. decreased length of stay, decreased mortality, lower c.diff rates) vs. Ms. Jane Doe is clinically stable, is not able to eat and move around, and is finally discharged. The latter is so much more relatable.

If you're contemplating a pivot into a tech company, I think the effect here is likely multiplied to some extent. Obviously this isn't an absolute as there are plenty of tech companies that are more closely tied to direct patient care or one can take a clinical role within a tech company (e.g. One Medical). Nevertheless, I think because we (or at least I) care so much about purpose and fulfillment, it's an important factor to consider when choosing a path in tech.

Concluding Thoughts

With the buzz of technology and innovation at every corner, especially those involving artificial intelligence (e.g. ChatGPT/LLMs), I think it's natural to be drawn towards the tech sector. Remote/hybrid work, cool perks, great compensation, etc also add a lot to the appeal. Further, burnout rates in healthcare continually trend and/or remain high (56% of nurses, 54% of clinical staff, 47% of doctors, and 46% non-clinical staff) and may serve as another impetus for looking for alternative career paths.

Nonetheless, my north star has always been figuring out what I'd like to achieve as my life goal (e.g. healthcare interoperability) and work backwards from it. Because of that, a precision health company like Verily has undoubtedly been one of the most fulfilling roles I've had in my career thus far. I hope you all find your north star and, consequently, your ideal role(s) as well.