
Ask HN: As a future medical student, what area of tech should I focus on? - LeicesterCity
Note: I&#x27;m a complete novice and don&#x27;t even know how to program, but I&#x27;m very interested in innovation and tech.<p>Is it worthwhile to learn programming&#x2F;tech knowledge, or should I save it for the experts? The reason I ask is that I believe tech + medicine is ripe for innovation. Thanks.
======
jshupe
As a recently minted family doc with a tech background, a tech background only
helps a little bit with your medical training; if you are just starting
undergrad you can try your hand at genetics, computer science, bioengineering,
biostats, etc.; however these can have negative impact on your gpa and science
gpa, so be careful.

Getting into med school, completing medical school and completing residency
are all difficult tasks in and of themselves.

If you know you want to focus on certain areas of tech there are also a few
add on fellowships after residency.

Getting an internship or job in biotech, or even working as a medical scribe
may help you more in the long run.

If you have extra cycles and really want to learn to code you could add a CS
minor to your degree or take a bunch of the online Computer Science courses
(typically CS assumes that you've had 2 years of advanced math ( calculus,
differential equations, etc.)

Under no circumstance would I recommend delaying undergraduate graduation to
add on these extra skills, Rather get a masters in an in-between year, or if
you're really crazy there are some combo MD/Phd and DO/Phd programs.

But outdoor activities are probably a better use of you time, take up running,
cycling, swimming. Something that you can do anywhere to take care of yourself
and that reduces your stress level.

------
milkcircle
Medical student here. I conduct research in genomic medicine on the side, and
programming is a large part of what I do. In my particular field I find a
solid background in algorithms and statistics to be very helpful in
interpreting large amounts of data. I encourage you to get started by taking
introductory computer science and continuing with math, especially in
probability and statistics. There is an incredible divide between medicine and
tech at the moment, and CS is a highly sought-after skill in medicine. Feel
free to follow up with any more specific questions, I'm happy to answer them!

------
justinclift
Learning at least the basics of programming is generally a good idea, as it
will help you to understand how things fit together. eg medical software +
medical hardware

As you have ideas, you'll have a greater knowledge of what can work, and
greater insight into how to approach things.

A language such as Python is very suitable for beginning programmers to learn
with, there are many books/tutorials around, and the foundations of the
language itself are reasonably stable.

eg the stuff you learn will likely still work in 5 years time :>

------
nniroclax
There are SO many areas you can go in to. Machine Learning/Non-knowledge based
clinical decision support, genomics, 'big data', pharmacogenetics, clinical
data standard creation, and the list goes on. You can check out the clinical
informatics subspecialty if you're looking for a broad curriculum of medicine
+ technology, don't want to dive specifically into learning programming,
and/or are trying to get CTO/CMIO/CIO jobs in the future.

------
kevindeasis
3d printing. Most of my friends in med and bio sci are heavily working in 3d
printing.

I've seen some working with hardware, chips to implant in the body/spine.

I haven't seen much in relation to software asides from SAAS

------
fiftyacorn
There was a doctor in the UK who was using 3-d printers to print bones and
structures to help him understand anatomy. Theres also work in this area for
replacement parts - could be interesting

------
rumpcajs
We don't like being called experts

