Surgical Neurophysiologist Turned Software Engineer- Here’s My Story.

Throughout most of my adolescent and young adult years, I struggled with figuring out what I “wanted to do” with my life. My crux was that I took a liking to a variety of disciplines; science, writing, technology, mechanics, engineering, psychology, healthcare, art- it all fascinated me and I just loved learning. While in college, I decided to stick with a pre-med route. With this route, I realized I needed clinical experience in order to stand out as a physician assistant school applicant. I started searching for jobs and found a technical position titled “Intraoperative Neurophysiologist”. I had no clue what the job entailed, but I knew based on the title that I would be working in an operating room, and it had something to do with neurology. I applied to the training program and got it!

You’re probably asking yourself “What the heck is neurophysiology?”

Great question! It’s a sub-study of neurology that focuses on the physical function of the nervous system (brain, spine, nerves) and how electricity is conducted within those neural structures.

My job, specifically, was to work in the operating room using a high-tech machine connected to a ton of little electrodes that were placed in specific parts of the patient to monitor the electrical activity of relevant neural structures. This monitoring was important because it allowed me to see if the surgery was causing any damage to the brain, nerves, spinal cord etc. NO PRESSURE!

I did this for roughly 5 years and it gave me some of the best experiences of my life. I traveled all over the US working with surgeons from all different specialties. I spent time at the Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida working with one of the most renowned neurosurgery teams in the world removing brain tumors from patients while they were awake. That's right..the patients were awake while the surgeon removed their brain tumors. It was absolutely amazing. Netflix even recently made a documentary about the surgeon I worked with; Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa. Check it out.

“So why on earth did you leave that career to go learn software engineering?!”

Another great question!

Well, I started to feel like I was at my peak..and honestly, I was. I had learned so many different neuromonitoring procedures that there wasn't much room for growth anymore. My schedule was crazy; working 50–60 hour weeks. The work was starting to get redundant. I was getting burned out. Most importantly, though, I felt like I wasn’t reaching my fullest potential. I have always had a deep need to be a part of something that requires me to innovate, create, engineer, and help people. I wanted to be a part of something that was going to be more impactful.

I realized throughout my time working in hospitals that there was a huge opportunity with tech in healthcare. I started to wonder why we weren’t experimenting with AI or more advanced devices to help treat patients. We know so much about human diseases and disabilities, so why weren’t we seeing much innovation to diagnose and treat patients?

It was around this time that I was asking these questions that I discovered Neuralink.

As a side-note, I am a huge Elon Musk fan and have been since he first started Tesla back in the early 2000s. I relentlessly follow Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink news and what they are working on.

Neuralink is a biotechnology company founded and led by Elon Musk to start researching the potential for neurological devices to treat a variety of diseases and finally bring the future to neurology. I mean, this was HUGE news for someone like me; quadriplegics could possibly walk again?! We could use an implanted device to treat mental illness?! The movement was happening! Big-tech was finally starting to take on healthcare!

I was so excited. I knew right then and there that I wanted to be apart of this health-tech movement. After roughly a year of deliberating, I decided to make the leap. I quit my position as a Senior Surgical Neurophysiologist and enrolled at Turing School of Software and Design to learn Backend Software Engineering.

It's been one year since I started at Turing and I have officially graduated from the program. I can now write code, create applications from scratch, create and work with databases, consume/construct API’s, and so much more! A year ago, I didn't even know what a server was…

I am now not only a Surgical Neurophysiologist but a Software Engineer. I am more motivated now than ever to start utilizing my multidisciplinary skillset to help bring tech to healthcare.

I’m not sure where this journey will take me, or how I’ll get to my destination.

What I do know is that I have a clear goal, I have a purpose, I have great mentorship, and I am certainly willing to put in the work.

Wish me luck!

PS: Elon, if you see this — Hire me!! I'm ready!!