What is the job?

I have started working as a Clinical Product Specialist for an EPR provider. Essentially I work as a clinical consultant, writing specifications for new functionality, testing and critiquing new developments, and working with customers to determine their needs. Alongside this I also run demonstrations of the product, assist with deployments, and just generally help colleagues with questions that fall inside my clinical experience.

How and why did you get into it?

I have long had a particular frustration over the poor state of NHS IT. Especially given the rapid pace of development in consumer software, I found it incredible that we were allowed to use systems in 2018 designed in the days of Windows XP. Additionally I had worked inside the IT department at an NHS Trust and had found that there were so many filters between my voice and the supplier's developers that it was very difficult to get anything meaningfully changed.

On the other side, my love for clinical work had diminished somewhat. It was hard to look ahead at my career and envisage doing the same thing for another 40 years, especially with the pressures rising and staffing levels falling.

I decided to look for a supplier that matched my ethos — they wanted to make something good, and they cared about helping the health service, not about ticking a box on their contract and running for the hills.

How does it compare to your clinical career?

It's like night and day. For one, no weekends or night-shifts (less the occasional deployment support shift) means that I can much more reliably enjoy time with my family, have a social life, take leave when I want it and so on. Working from home means I'm around for my daughter's bedtime (although now I have to do bedtime every night!).

It's not all perfect — since most of my job is designing and thinking, it's hard to switch off sometimes, whereas you can't exactly keep doing clinical work at home! But there are plenty of other ways to take clinical work home with you, and those I don't miss either.

How is it related to medicine — why were you suitable?

The most obvious way is that I'm trying to create a good user experience for myself from a year ago, and of course I know what I want, and I understand the nuances of the processes surrounding my job. But in more general terms, these roles use the same skills that clinicians exercise every day — judgment, risk balancing, communication.

How could someone go about getting into your field?

The first step is to believe you can. So many clinicians I've spoken to think they have nothing to offer beyond their clinical skills, and that is simply not the case. Rather it is a myth perpetuated by a system that needs clinicians to avoid looking elsewhere so that they don't realise the grass really is greener.

Most health IT companies are very keen for clinicians to join them in a variety of roles, and even when they're not advertising for something specific, they may well create a position if they see an opportunity for you to add something they don't have. An easy way to approach this is to go to trade shows or conferences and speak to people on the stands about what they need.

What can I earn?

The salaries will inevitably vary by the size of the company and the exact role, but in general we're talking about £50k plus, and given that this is the private sector there is always room for negotiation. At the end of the day this isn't public money — if the company is convinced you're worth it, they'll pay it.