One of the digital health sector’s long-standing influencers and industry contributors– Peter Birch the founder of Talking Health Tech – speaks from the heart when he encourages others to get started in the health tech industry.
“I’ve spent years talking to people in health tech and healthcare and startups and innovation and technology and policy and leadership. And through hundreds of conversations, I’ve seen how people actually build careers and create opportunities in this space.
“If you keep waiting for everything to make sense before you start, you’ll probably be watching from the sidelines for a while,” he says.
Free toolkit
At this year’s Digital Health Festival, he launched a career toolkit. Unsurprisingly, it’s free to download and access the email course. Peter Birch has been generous in his contribution to the digital health community, becoming an active industry volunteer as an AIDH branch leader, obtaining his Certified Health Informatician Australasia (CHIA) status and serving with the MSIA.
He’s published 600+ episodes of the Talking HealthTech Podcast and attended and addressed most of the prestigious international conferences like HIMSS, HLTH, WHX and Digital Health Festival.
So, he means it when he says digital health and health tech is a pretty cool industry to work in, and he sees heaps of opportunities for people from a diverse range of backgrounds and experience.
In his promotional video ( always within arm’s reach of a mic) he says candidly, “In fact, you might already be dabbling in it a little bit, but the challenge is you don’t know what to do next. And from all the conversations that I’ve had with people in healthcare, I’ve seen the same thing time and time again.
“ People are interested but they don’t take action because they assume they need more experience or more qualifications or more confidence or someone to literally tap you on the shoulder and invite you in.”
Entry point
He poses the question – “where is your entry point into working in digital health?”
The THT Plus Digital Health Career Toolkit has some great advice and practical suggestions.
The five-day email course has easy-to-follow ways to better understand digital health, work out where you might fit and start building some real momentum.
“On day one, we start with mindset because it’s very easy to rule yourself out before you even get started.
“On day two, we look at your strengths and your experiences and what you already do that might make you more valuable in this space. Day three, we cover where the real opportunities are and how you get closer to them. Day four, we get into upskilling and how you can build relevance and value over time.
And finally, on day five, we talk about your network because in digital health, relationships and conversations open more doors than what people realise.
Access the free toolkit HERE.
