Hello Everyone and welcome back for week 2!

At the end of week one, I saw myself accepted to Oregon State University’s online post-baccalaureate computer science program and poised for a pivot from a career in medicine to a career in technology. When making the decision to enter the program, I knew that I would eventually be stepping away from a career of practicing medicine, and I was ready for (perhaps even looking forward to) this. However, I did not know with certainty if I was ready to walk away fully from medicine fully, and I considered integrating my medical background with my new career path. As mentioned in my first blog post, I had observed a disconnect between medical and technology experts within healthcare, and I wished to address this problem. I needed to assess what specific issue within the healthcare space I wished to work on. This brings me to the next part of my journey.

I contemplated three different aspects of healthcare technology: hardware, security, and software. I had always been fascinated by surgical instruments and machinery but realized a strong focus on engineering would be needed to contribute to this space. There are many regulations on patient data privacy within healthcare as well as between physician and patient. As you may know, HIPPA, or the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, created standards for the privacy, security, and exchange of health information. Knowing this, I surmised that there must be many avenues (mobile applications, electronic health records, insurance companies) requiring expertise in cybersecurity. Lastly, my attention turned to software, specifically with regards to the software applications and databases that stored patient medical records.

As a patient and provider, I found myself particularly frustrated with one aspect of healthcare: the organization of a patient’s personal medical record. The American healthcare system is comprised of many different hospitals, companies, and delivery modalities and each one of them has their own website or application for storing health records. With patients moving around between different providers and systems, it can become very difficult for the patient to have all their appointment history and results organized in one location. On the flipside, it is hard for the provider to gain access to this information if the information is stored in a facility that they are not a part of. Additionally, the patient “owns” this information and needs to authorize access to it. In my eyes, this inefficient and complicated system needed improvement.

While moving through this program for the last two years, I have kept in mind the above observations and pain points, using them as inspiration for my journey through computer science. These ideas have culminated into the idea for my group’s capstone project, which we will discuss more in depth next week!