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Ask HN: Any good post-grad ideas for an MD wanting to do more tech stuff?

32 points by toastednz ↗ HN
Hi, I'm 34, have basically finished specialty training in anaesthesiology. I'm really keen to get into or get experience in either medical devices or medical technology of some sort. Can anyone recommend any interesting post-graduate study options, or other ideas along these lines?

19 comments

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kohanz
As an engineer in the medical device industry, I would offer that few people are in a better position to come up with those ideas than yourself. You have years of clinical experience, surely you've come across areas of practice that could be improved by technology or existing technology ripe for enhancement? Companies I work with pay good money for clinical input towards product development. If you want to get good input from a technical audience such as ours, I suggest describing your biggest pain points (no pun intended) in the profession.
ljw1001
I would second this advice. To be a little more concrete:

What aspects of your specialty are the most expensive, the most time-consuming, the most error-prone, and/or the most dangerous?

Alternately, you can look at the delivery systems for improvement. Are there people who lack access to professionals with the needed skills, equipment, or supplies? Or who can't access them when they are needed.

I would strongly recommend you take a look at this book if you haven't already: https://www.amazon.com/Disciplined-Entrepreneurship-Steps-Su...

The book is quite awesome and there are two EdX courses that go with it that I'd also recommend: They are called Entrepreneurship 101 and 102. See: https://www.edx.org/course/entrepreneurship-101-who-customer...

Finally, there other online courses (Coursera or EdX) that specifically cover new product development in the Medical Device space.

marckemil
Thanks; I'm in a similar situation myself. I'll look into those references.
LaneRendell
Not my area of expertise, but I'm a type 1 diabetic and that area seems ripe for improvement. Artificial pancreases, automatic glucose monitoring and the like are an area that is exploding.
inetsee
This is an area that is definitely ripe for improvement. Unfortunately, the bureaucratic roadblocks are very high. I am also type 1 diabetic, and I test my glucose 4 times a day (the traditional finger stick way). Continuous glucose monitoring is exceptionally expensive, and uncomfortable/painful also.

A while back I read about a method that used a very small bioactive fluorescent dye tattoo, and a light sensor to measure glucose levels. It's not continuous, but it's painless (after the tattoo), can be done often, and is much less expensive than existing continuous glucose monitoring devices.

Another article I read described some Google research that involved an instrumented contact lens that measured glucose levels by measuring something in tears and sending the results using near field communications to a monitor device. This device provides continuous monitoring, (no tattoo required), and I am guessing that total cost would be less than existing CGM devices.

I haven't heard anything about these research efforts lately, and if they're still being worked on, it could be years more before they become available.

nugget
You should put some contact info in your profile so people can reach out to you directly.
cylinder
Are you seriously about to go to school again? Work your job, save money and perhaps you can invent a device on your own, or invest in one, etc, in your spare time. Lots of physicians have done so.
Malarius
In Austria there is the possibility to study at medical informatics as Bachelor and Master Degree

You can look for example at the following link: https://www.meduniwien.ac.at/web/en/studies-further-educatio...

We got here (in Austria) plenty of ways to go in the medical technology area, as it is possible to attend a technical college for it.

As I dont now what you are looking for, I am not really able to help you.

sfifs
Please create a way to draw blood that doesn't involve groping around for a vein and sticking a big needle in.
icpmacdo
https://www.theranos.com/ ;)
Mz
We a need a new term, because vaporware doesn't quite work here.
btown
Fraud. The word you're looking for is fraud.
sfifs
forget finger pricks, can't something automatically detect a vein, position and insert the needle right vs. the clumsy prodding and guesswork that's the norm currently?
kumarski
http://www.engineersf.com/2016/04/17/a-list-of-the-technolog...

I put together a primer on all the new healthcare technologies so you can get more context on the technologies available.

I'm an advisor to semantic.md. If you want to talk to anybody on our team with an MD background who works on the tech side of things, would be happy to arrange that.

I love seeing MDs go in this direction.

Check out http://www.enzyme.io as well. Kind of a cool app I spotted a few days ago in the med-device space.

Mz
I run a google group called Health Techies. It is small and not terribly active (yet). You are more than welcome to join it.

For now, I occasionally post links to discussions like this one on HN and the occasional article. I worked in insurance for over five years, had annual HIPAA training, etc.

tangentcity
Well, here's at least one analogue (meaning a useful model to emulate, from Mullins and Komisar's "Getting to Plan B"): a friend of mine, also an anesthesiologist, noticed a pain point and did something about it: https://epreop.com/about-epreop/
nniroclax
You could check out some clinical informatics fellowships. It seems like there are more and more of them popping up every month.