A case for the full-stack clinicians

At present, the landscape of medical innovations is fragmented. Scientists produce discoveries that take a long time to benefit bedside care; technicians might not fully grasp the patient needs, and business professionals face challenges in gaining trust for their social enterprises; clinicians could struggle to articulate practical product design. This must change.

Many clinicians are typically presented of the two main career paths: to stay in the clinical route and pursue clinical excellence, or to leave medicine and work as a biomedical scientist or consultant. Integrating these paths is often hindered by administrative difficulties, lengthy training years, and poor work-life balance. It is a pity. This must change.

The concept of “full-stack clinician”¹ came to mind: someone who is skilled and knowledgeable in the back-end of biomedical science, the media of software and hardware technology, and the front-end of clinical management - all strung together by lean business development strategies.

Perhaps, it feels like just another synonym for clinician-scientist/entrepreneur/engineer, but it is hard to ressit the excitement of integrating multiple domains to develop a minimum viable product that ultimately pushes medicine forward. Unlike any of the clinician- terms above, the role of full-stack clinicians stands from the overall development cycles of medical innovations. Our future full-stack clinicians should be proficient in science and technology without succumbing to feature creep, understand the impact of capitals but look beyond profits, and be familiar with clinical management without being accustomed to its issues.

It takes the whole medical tribe to raise full-stack clinicians. It requires a paradigm-shifting change in our medical education, both pre- and post-graduation; our healthcare systems must adopt a mindset more akin to that of technology firms, embracing innovation at every turn. Most importantly, a group of clinicians must rise to the challenge, build a community, and drive the necessary change.

Yes, change will come in the long run, but how long can we wait? We must act now to prevent our fragmented healthcare system from being repeatedly overwhelmed by global pandemics, to protect our healthcare data from exploitation by unethical firms, and to address the lack of effective innovation in our field. As John Maynard Keynes famously said, “In the long run, we are all dead.”

The change must happen within us.

Let us bring about the change.