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Reading things like this make me reflect that more people should go into medicine. Medical advances are way more profound than new apps or web pages. What are

Reading things like this make me reflect that more people should go into medicine. Medical advances are way more profound than new apps or web pages. What are some good ways for a programmer to help the field? Maybe learning data science would allow me to help researchers while not knowing medicine myself.

afshin 11y ago
Bioinformatics might be a great halfway field.
denzil_correa 11y ago
Apparently, Steve Jobs felt that the next generation of cutting edge innovation would happen at the intersection of medicine and computer science.
- yoda_sl 11y ago
  I think SJ because of his cancer started to look closer at that industry... I will not be surprised that Tim Cook because of Steve's passing started to look too in that area and the Watch is just the first small attempt by Apple to enter in that space. Tim and Steve were close friends, and Tim being too an avid cyclist, morning gym has no problem to have a few Engineers and R&D spent in that area.
  - neuronic 11y ago
    Maybe that is very obvious or something but I know for a fact that SJ had some connections to some very capable people in that field. It might have partially been his cancer. I am convinced that he was on point nonetheless.
ende 11y ago
I would say that there is more of a shortage of data engineers to develop systems for facilitating data driven research in medicine. Medical biotechs are full of statisticians but research tends to be conducted in an ad hoc manner similar to in academia; disorganized data, poor coding standards, and manually driven processes. I feel that biotechs could really benefit from placing more emphasis on the -tech part. I hope this isn't bad form posting outside of the monthly Who 's Hiring post, but my company is hiring in data engineering and DevOps. My team develops machine learning classifiers for cancer diagnostics. If you (or anyone reading) are interested I'd love to hesr from you: andrew@veracyte.com
aaron695 11y ago
> Medical advances are way more profound than new apps or web pages. One of the main reasons medical advances are are coming out hard and fast is because of "new apps or web pages." I really don't get this anti-tech bent. These technologies and connections are what is transforming science everywhere. Personally I think saying most web apps are a waste is like saying the space program is a waste. Personally I think these cutting edge technologies that seems to have no use are taking us amazing places.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- ende 11y ago
  I agree with you whole heartedly. I would say that what medicine and biotechnology need their own apps and web technologies. Imagine if the next Uber or Instagram clone could instead be a patient facing app that integrates personal medical, genetic, fitness and dietary data with epidemiological trends to improve patient-doctor interactions for diagnoses and treatment? Or if biotech firms adopted the same open source ethos that many tech giants have embraced to contribute to a software development ecosystem that fuels innovation in the personalized medicine space? Unfortunately bioinformatics-in-practice tends to be about 10 years behind the rest of the tech sector, and the only thing that the giants of biotech share with their tech sector counterparts is a love for IP. Still, an inflow of ambitious tech talent into the biotech and biomedical space could hack the industry open. Then again, there's also regulatory capture.
- saraid216 11y ago
  > Personally I think saying most web apps are a waste is like saying the space program is a waste. While I think you have a point, I think this line is taking it a step too far. If a successful space program completely failed to actually produce any side effect innovation, at the end of the day, we still go to space. If a successful web app fails to produce side effects, you have a web app. Depending on the app, this might be a good thing, but it's hard to reliably say that a web app is comparable to going to space. In my mind, the advantage of having so many smart people working on trivial applications is that the risk of failure is low. If they were developing these technologies in the medical world, the risk of failure is debilitation and death. Comparatively, a giant privacy intrusion or not being able to play League of Legends for a day is something I can, literally, live with.
Toenex 11y ago
I'm an engineer and have worked in medical imaging for my entire career (20+ years) writing software to transport, analyze and report on images from MR, CT and X-ray systems. I originally did a PhD in computer vision and jumped into medical imaging, first as a post doc at University but I've since worked in the pharma industry and in the last 10 years at medical imaging startups. It's a fantastic intersection of software development, pattern recognition and algorithmic development in a space that gives your work definite meaning - spending your days looking at images of people with cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, lung disease etc can help focus you on the MVP that matters. You learn some radiology as you go too; I'm pretty good at KL scoring for OA on hip and knee radiographs for example. Development in this space can also have it's frustrations, having to combine the latest innovations with the need to meet FDA and European regulatory requirements requires a little lateral thinking sometimes. Historically there was a reluctance in the field to adopt newer technologies but in the last 5-10 years that has really started to change with a lot of imaging moving into the cloud and the regulators waking up to fact that software isn't built like a syringe!

afshin 11y ago

Bioinformatics might be a great halfway field.

denzil_correa 11y ago

Apparently, Steve Jobs felt that the next generation of cutting edge innovation would happen at the intersection of medicine and computer science.

yoda_sl 11y ago
I think SJ because of his cancer started to look closer at that industry... I will not be surprised that Tim Cook because of Steve's passing started to look too in that area and the Watch is just the first small attempt by Apple to enter in that space. Tim and Steve were close friends, and Tim being too an avid cyclist, morning gym has no problem to have a few Engineers and R&D spent in that area.
- neuronic 11y ago
  Maybe that is very obvious or something but I know for a fact that SJ had some connections to some very capable people in that field. It might have partially been his cancer. I am convinced that he was on point nonetheless.

ende 11y ago

I would say that there is more of a shortage of data engineers to develop systems for facilitating data driven research in medicine. Medical biotechs are full of statisticians but research tends to be conducted in an ad hoc manner similar to in academia; disorganized data, poor coding standards, and manually driven processes. I feel that biotechs could really benefit from placing more emphasis on the -tech part. I hope this isn't bad form posting outside of the monthly Who 's Hiring post, but my company is hiring in data engineering and DevOps. My team develops machine learning classifiers for cancer diagnostics. If you (or anyone reading) are interested I'd love to hesr from you: andrew@veracyte.com

aaron695 11y ago

> Medical advances are way more profound than new apps or web pages. One of the main reasons medical advances are are coming out hard and fast is because of "new apps or web pages." I really don't get this anti-tech bent. These technologies and connections are what is transforming science everywhere. Personally I think saying most web apps are a waste is like saying the space program is a waste. Personally I think these cutting edge technologies that seems to have no use are taking us amazing places.

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
ende 11y ago
I agree with you whole heartedly. I would say that what medicine and biotechnology need their own apps and web technologies. Imagine if the next Uber or Instagram clone could instead be a patient facing app that integrates personal medical, genetic, fitness and dietary data with epidemiological trends to improve patient-doctor interactions for diagnoses and treatment? Or if biotech firms adopted the same open source ethos that many tech giants have embraced to contribute to a software development ecosystem that fuels innovation in the personalized medicine space? Unfortunately bioinformatics-in-practice tends to be about 10 years behind the rest of the tech sector, and the only thing that the giants of biotech share with their tech sector counterparts is a love for IP. Still, an inflow of ambitious tech talent into the biotech and biomedical space could hack the industry open. Then again, there's also regulatory capture.
saraid216 11y ago
> Personally I think saying most web apps are a waste is like saying the space program is a waste. While I think you have a point, I think this line is taking it a step too far. If a successful space program completely failed to actually produce any side effect innovation, at the end of the day, we still go to space. If a successful web app fails to produce side effects, you have a web app. Depending on the app, this might be a good thing, but it's hard to reliably say that a web app is comparable to going to space. In my mind, the advantage of having so many smart people working on trivial applications is that the risk of failure is low. If they were developing these technologies in the medical world, the risk of failure is debilitation and death. Comparatively, a giant privacy intrusion or not being able to play League of Legends for a day is something I can, literally, live with.

Toenex 11y ago

I'm an engineer and have worked in medical imaging for my entire career (20+ years) writing software to transport, analyze and report on images from MR, CT and X-ray systems. I originally did a PhD in computer vision and jumped into medical imaging, first as a post doc at University but I've since worked in the pharma industry and in the last 10 years at medical imaging startups. It's a fantastic intersection of software development, pattern recognition and algorithmic development in a space that gives your work definite meaning - spending your days looking at images of people with cancer, osteoporosis, arthritis, lung disease etc can help focus you on the MVP that matters. You learn some radiology as you go too; I'm pretty good at KL scoring for OA on hip and knee radiographs for example. Development in this space can also have it's frustrations, having to combine the latest innovations with the need to meet FDA and European regulatory requirements requires a little lateral thinking sometimes. Historically there was a reluctance in the field to adopt newer technologies but in the last 5-10 years that has really started to change with a lot of imaging moving into the cloud and the regulators waking up to fact that software isn't built like a syringe!