Community Q&A

Hey Health Techies!

This week has been a wild one for so many reasons, not the least of which being that I lost my largest social media audience for 12 hours. And while I don’t care so much for the vanity metrics of a large follower count, I do care about making an impact, and I felt like that was happening on TikTok.

Not only that, but I had a couple of years of great comments and questions there that always keep me motivated and provide an endless stream of content ideas for you here in the newsletter.

TikTok wasn’t even really on my radar for awhile as a millenial of the elder variety, but a few things became apparent as I first started on this journey:

First, my target audience wasn’t all on LinkedIn. In fact, a large majority of healthcare professionals aren’t there. It’s just not something that is valued in traditional practice and not the way that we normally look for jobs or network. That’s a topic for another day.

And second, many of the clients that were coming to me were relatively early in their careers. If I wanted to meet them where they were, I decided that I needed to be on TikTok.

In an effort to both memorialize some of the questions that I’ve received over the years but also provide you with some answers that may be helpful on your own career journey, I’ve put together a little Q&A. If reading through these sparks your own question, feel free to hit reply and ask!

Q: “Please help me get into this space…Love working in healthcare, but need a different role”

A: I created a video response that you can watch here, but the gist is that getting into health tech is about finding and leveraging your transferable skills. It’s not about going back to school for a different degree, which is often the first thing that clinicians think of when they think about making a change.

Q: “I’m curious about your professional experience and what you do day to day in health tech.”

A: My day to day is a lot of meetings and writing. I work with designers and engineers to build a digital health product. But at the beginning of my journey it looked a lot more like improving processes in the pharmacy. There are all sorts of jobs that need to be done outside of clinical work even at a healthcare company.

There is so much variety in my days now that it’s almost hard to remember that I used to love the repetitive days in the pharmacy (for awhile at least). Here is a sampling of the types of things that I’ve done in my roles since going nonclinical:

• drafted requirements for a ton of different features big and small

• automated hundreds of workflows

• brainstormed with CEOs, engineers, sales teams, marketers, and designers

• launched big projects

• launched small projects

• conducted user research sessions

The list goes on and on. And all of that I either learned on the job or figured out once the opportunity presented itself.

Q: “What do I search for? I don’t even know the names of companies that offer this.”

A: I built the Hey Health Tech Job Board specifically to take the guesswork out of it for you. Getting this question sure tells me that we have a long way to go in talking about digital health solutions as a broader healthcare community though — which companies are in the game, what they do, why it matters.

Q: “What courses or certifications should I get?”

A: This is always a tough one because my initial answer is “none”. And while yes I do offer career coaching and resume courses, that’s never what people mean when they ask me this question.

The question is based on the deep-seated belief that healthcare professionals have that in order to be qualified to do something, we need to be certified to do it. And outside of healthcare and a few other career paths, that’s simply not true.

Now I’ll caveat my “none” response a little bit. Once you have identified your target role or skill gaps that you may have in pursuing a particular type of pivot, it is more than acceptable (even encouraged) to fill those gaps with some courses. But I don’t recommend just going out there and taking a bunch of things just because they might sound nice on your resume. You’re better off being much more strategic and spending some of that time networking or finding ways to build the skills that you want right where you are in your current role.

Q: “Spill the tea! Would love to hear about tech positions for psych NPs!”

A: I get a lot of questions about recommendations for specific healthcare specialties, so I’ll breakdown how I answer them.

In answering this question I first focus in on the specialty: psych NP. My first thought goes to the plethora of mental health companies that there are out there, so my recommendation would be to start looking at those companies to see which interest you and whose missions feel aligned with your own.

From there I usually ask whether the person wants a clinical or nonclinical role. Lots of companies hire NPs for clinical positions, and for some seeking the balance of a remote role, sometimes that shift is all they need.

For others who want to go nonclinical, it gets a bit trickier in assessing what they actually like to do and what work they’re interested in before I’ll make any specific role recommendations.

Q: “Teach me your ways 😢😢”

A: Ha! That’s the goal. There’s no gatekeeping here.

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📰 Weekly Wrap-up

• Trump administration announces the withdrawal of the US from the World Health Organization

• A worthwhile read on the infrastructure of healthcare technology and the opportunities that still lay ahead

📌 Job Board

Don’t miss these open roles 👀

• Digital Product Success Lead, Payer - Datavant

• Enterprise Implementation Manager - Arcadia

• Director of Clinical Care - Two Chairs

• and more!

Until next time,

Lauren

P.S. If you feel you’ve got some questions for me in your own career transition, I’m opening up 3 one on one strategy session slots to answer them. This will be highly concentrated, 30 minutes of focus time together to work on the topic of your choice: resume feedback, interview prep, transferrable skills, you name it! You can book a session here.