MD -> CS -> ??

[Tuloste]

I'm 1,5 years away from graduation, but would already like to weight my options and plan ahead. Instead of going down the route of traditional residency, I've been entertaining an idea of getting a degree in CS while working 2-3 days/nights a week. But, how valuable would this combination be on the job market? Ideally I'd like to work as a consultant or as a designer of electronic patient records systems, but able to work regularly on the side in primary care. The angle being that I'd understand the limitations of the systems not only in theory, but would be acquainted with their shortcomings in real day to day work. What I wouldn't want is to end up as somebody's code monkey . Is this a feasible plan?

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[clibby]

Honestly, probably not all that much. As a physician, your primary focus will be clinical. You are not going to be the software engineer who spends his/her days learning new coding concepts. They are separate fields. What will separate you from the rest will be an ability to speak the two languages of medicine and "tech speak" to both stakeholders in ways that they can understand and then put it into a context that allows them to see both sides of a problem. This comes from experience. It was one of the rarest skills I found when working in the health IT industry and why I was able to succeed. Granted, I am a now medical student like you, but I had a career in health IT that sounds similar to what you want to do. A few coding classes that you can learn from Coursera should cover the technical concepts and then you would be better served to get an MBA, MIS, or even a PMP certification and try to get involved with the EHR teams at your hospital for workflow analysis and/or QI work as a segue into the more technical stuff.

If you want to talk more about the field, feel free to PM me.