While reading this Fast Company article about health care tech companies, I was struck by the following quote:
“The tech community isn’t used to dealing with studies, FDA approval, publications, and reimbursement…[but] the tech community wants things to happen fast. Obviously that doesn’t work in health care.”
I believe new technology and innovative approaches will be a net positive to the health care industry, but I think this article highlights the need for health tech companies to listen and learn from the current state of the industry. Those with industry experience are going to be invaluable partners– yes, even experience in the industry they are trying desperately to disrupt.
One of most important skills/values I learned during my MPH degree was the importance of evidence base. If you’re going to set policies or recommendations that affect how thousands (or millions) of people receive care, you need to be as confident as possible that you’re recommending the right things. One professor’s quote that I’ve never forgotten: “If a doctor makes a mistake, he or she might be responsible for the death of the patient. When a public health professional makes a mistake, they could be responsible for thousands of deaths.”
No more snake oil please.
Motivated by that principle, my classmates and I spent our time learning how to collect data and interpret it to find meaning; to evaluate new research by critically reading methods sections in academic literature; to understand who sets medical practice standards, recommends preventive measures or screening, or monitors food safety, drugs, or devices; and learning some of the complexities of who pays for care and who determines what gets paid for.
I think all of the above skills and ways of thinking will be really useful to emerging health tech companies, and I hope they’ll value that input. Not to say they aren’t already, but based on the above article, it certainly seems like it could be time for more MPH graduates to migrate into health tech.