Edited by Halle Tecco, MBA, MPH & Rebecca Mitchell, MD.

Left to right: Kate McAllister, MPH, Chief Commercial Officer @ Hibiscus Health; Kevin Stephens Jr., MD/MBA, VP of Clinical Operations @ K Health; Laura Demuth, NP-BC, EMBA, SVP of People and Patients @ Curology

I started my career providing direct social work services, supporting patients one-on-one through some of the most challenging moments in their lives. Over time, I found myself drawn to the systems shaping those experiences and the growing movement using technology to make healthcare more human, accessible, and effective at scale. That pull led me to digital health, where I’ve since worked across customer success, operations, partnerships, and product.

Many clinicians, myself included, are motivated by a deep frustration with the status quo. We see firsthand what isn’t working, and we want to be part of building something better. Increasingly, that drive is leading clinicians to nontraditional roles where they can shape care at scale. In this piece, I aim to shed light on the varied ways clinicians have made that transition – and help chart the path for those ready to make the leap.

I interviewed clinicians across license types (including doctors, nurses, mental health therapists, pharmacists, and occupational/physical/speech therapists) working in digital health in non-direct care roles at companies like Hopelab, Doximity, K Health, Curology, Brightline, Curai, and more. I paired those learnings with insights from leaders who have hired clinicians into non-direct care roles at companies like PillPack, Nest Health, Oshi Health, General Medicine, and Spring Health to paint a clear picture of the many ways clinicians are navigating the digital health landscape.

In short, this is a guide for clinicians ready to step outside of direct care and help rebuild healthcare from the inside out.

Clinicians belong beyond the proverbial bedside too

Clinicians are often told – and internalize – that their “real” value lies in providing direct care. While bias and siloing aren't unique to digital health, gatekeeping clinicians from work outside direct patient care can deeply limit innovation and the healthcare improvements we all desperately need.

Working in digital health offers the opportunity to work upstream and at scale, solving problems that ripple across entire populations rather than impacting one patient at a time. Both levels of impact are valuable and necessary, but those who want to operate at the macro-level to close the gap between what care is and what care could be must be welcomed into a variety of seats at the digital health table. Not as an act of kindness or nod to equity, but because clinicians can be incredibly effective in non-direct care roles – not despite their clinical training but because of it.

The growing clinician interest in non-direct care roles

According to McKinsey's The Next Specialty: The Physician CEO, 60% of physicians surveyed reported interest in becoming CEOs (while only ~15% of healthcare CEOs in 2025 come from clinical backgrounds). That level of interest in leadership roles isn’t unique to physicians, holding true for therapists, nurses, pharmacists, rehabilitation therapists, and other clinical specialists.

It's challenging to find concrete data on the number of clinicians who have successfully transitioned to non-direct care roles in healthcare broadly or digital health specifically. That said, there are indicators of the density of those currently active or interested in moving into these roles in digital health:

Scrub Collaborative, a free Slack community for clinicians across license types interested in digital health sponsored by early-stage venture capital firm Scrub Capital (founded in 2024), has 1,000+ members and is growing fast.
Therapists in Tech, a free Slack community for mental health therapists working in or interested in entering digital health (founded in 2020), has 4,800+ members.

So, yes, there’s real and sustained interest.

*Mike Arevalo, PsyD psychologist, PMP, Director of Clinical Strategy @ Core Solutions*

Paths to entry

After talking with dozens of clinicians who’ve successfully transitioned into non–direct care roles in digital health, I’ve identified four common paths they’ve taken to get there:

Path I: Start in a direct-care role and intentionally grow from there
Path II: Start in a care-adjacent role
Path III: Start as a part-time Advisor/Consultant
Path IV: Upskill

Path I: Start in a direct care role and intentionally grow from there

Laura Demuth, NP-BC, EMBA, SVP of People and Patients @ Curology, successfully transitioned from a direct care role into non-direct care by proactively taking on non-clinical responsibilities “off the side of my desk.” Laura believes the easiest setting to use this strategy successfully is at an early-stage startup (typically no later than Series A) because young startups have too much to do and too few people to do it.

Here's what Laura's path looked like, all while working at the same startup, Curology (10 years and counting!):

Worked as a nurse and nurse practitioner in a variety of traditional healthcare settings for six years
Hired into a direct patient care role and quickly tapped to build out the clinical team that directly treats patients (natural fit)
Took on the licensing and credentialing function (natural extension)
Elevated the Customer Success function (further extension of patient-facing operations)
Currently leads the People & Culture (HR/People Operations) function (significant stretch she was ready for after effectively growing other areas of the business)

During each step, Laura says, "I was given the space to stretch my wings and lean into the strengths I had always gravitated toward – building relationships, solving operational challenges, and scaling teams. What surprised me was how naturally those skills translated outside of direct patient care. For the areas that felt more foreign, I studied my way into it and asked for help as needed."

Key strategies for success via Path I:

Jaclyn Satchel, LCSW-S, PMH-C, Group Practice Owner and Advisor, former Executive Director @ Therapists in Tech advises clinicians to focus on gaining business experience from a company that already sees their value. Be proactive about learning the nuts and bolts of the business. What is the business model? How does the product or service work end-to-end and for whom? Who are the company's biggest competitors?

If the organization is supportive of you taking on non-direct care work in addition to your clinical responsibilities, get very specific about what that means from the business’s perspective, advises Nathaan Demers, PsyD psychologist, Investor @ Hopelab. Ask if others at the company have made a full transition from direct to non-direct care and pursue the details. If others have done so, conduct reverse interviews to understand what enabled them to make that leap successfully.

Company culture and structure can matter as much as stage when it comes to finding a setting that supports clinician growth into non-direct care roles. While many of the clinicians interviewed successfully made this transition at early stage startups like Ted Faneuff, LCSW, MBA, Head of Clinical Operations @ Upheal did at NOCD, that does not mean making such a transition at a later stage organization is untenable. Some of the leaders and hiring managers interviewed described having more flexibility and bandwidth to support such a transition when a company is more mature with additional layers of support and process in place. Stay open-minded and ask questions.

Path II: Start in a care adjacent role

Per behavioral science wisdom, most people find that a phased approach is the most effective way to create sustained change. In that vein, it’s no surprise that clinicians have successfully made the initial transition from direct to non-direct care by moving into care-adjacent roles such as clinical training, quality, research, and program development.

Kevin Stephens Jr., MD/MBA, VP of Clinical Operations @ K Health knew early on that he wouldn’t have a traditional medical career. Living through Hurricane Katrina showed him "how fragile healthcare systems can be, and I knew I wanted to be a physician who not only cared for patients but also helped lead change. I realized you can create new models of care rather than incrementally improve existing ones." But getting there takes time (even with an MBA, which he completed alongside his MD in a dual-degree program).

Here’s what Kevin’s path looked like, across three startups:

Joined Oak Street Health as a frontline physician for ~1 year
Promoted to Medical Director there (natural extension)
Hired as Chief Clinical Officer for the South at Juno Medical (first business-facing role, stretch role)
Hired as VP of Clinical Operations at K Health (biggest stretch to date)

Key Strategies for Success via Path II:

To continue growing into diverse non-direct care roles, be strategic and proactive about building connections outside your immediate team (especially in functions of interest). Get involved in work outside your role’s scope to hone new skills and experiences you can highlight during formal and informational interviews. That’s the path Rebecca Mitchell, MD, Co-Founder & Managing Partner @ Scrub Capital, former VP of Product Management @ Livongo/Teladoc took as she transitioned from clinical product and program management to full scope product management and then venture capital.
Mike Arevalo, PsyD psychologist, PMP, Director of Clinical Strategy @ Core Solutions highlights the importance of approaching stretch work with curiosity, hunger, and an eagerness to learn. Unsurprisingly, many leaders and hiring managers we spoke to cited these specific traits as intangibles they look for when assessing hireability.

Aaron Gerber, MD, MBA, President of Diversified Businesses and SVP @ Mass General Brigham has seen clinicians succeed quickly in these roles, as they can provide immediate value and credibility by serving as SME on the clinical aspects of the position while accelerating their learning in other areas.

Path III: Start as a part-time Advisor/Consultant

Get hands-on experience with a digital health startup by acting as a clinical advisor or consultant for companies whose offerings align with your area(s) of expertise. Advisors and consultants may support companies across various areas, including serving as the clinical voice in product development, facilitating connections and sales, providing implementation guidance, and more. Starting part-time also lets you test out leaving clinical work before quitting your day job.

Dhiren Patel, PharmD, Co-Founder and General Partner @ Taurus Health was hired into his first non-direct care role in digital health after years spent as an advisor. He credits the combination of his clinical background and years of advisory work for building the trust and visibility that led Pack Health to take a chance on him.

Here’s what Dhiren’s path looked like, across several companies:

Worked as a clinical pharmacist for 10 years in a traditional healthcare setting
Started consulting for pharmaceutical and biotech companies while still practicing, using advisory roles to build relationships and gain exposure (natural fit)
Hired at Pack Health to lead Medical Affairs, applying both clinical insight and advisory experience to shape strategy (natural extension)
Expanded the scope of his role at Pack Health to include leading Sales, Marketing, and Customer Success (sizable stretch but manageable given years of industry experience)
Co-founded a consultancy and venture capital firm (biggest stretch to date)

Key Strategies for Success via Path III:

Build connections in the digital health ecosystem to gain visibility and access to advisor and consultant opportunities. Look at the Appendix for a list of community resources to help you build that network.

Advisory/consultant positions usually come with equity, not cash compensation, so go into it purely to learn and build connections. Check out this article, On Being a Startup Advisor, for more information.

Path IV: Upskill

There are brave and creative souls who manufacture their own opportunities out of what can feel like whole cloth. That’s what Rachel Wynn, SLP, Fractional Principal Product Manager and Advisor, former Principal Product Manager @ ProductPlan did in 2015 – teaching herself to code and creating a portfolio of design projects she could point to in interviews as her source of credibility after years of clinical work. Using a variety of tools (before AI was accessible to all), Rachel designed products that showcased her approach to solving real-world problems.

Here’s what Rachel’s path looked like, across a few organizations:

Worked as a speech-language pathologist for five years in traditional healthcare settings
Hired as a product manager and UX designer at DaVita Kidney Care’s Falcon Physician EMR (big jump, thanks portfolio!)
Managed increasingly senior product roles at startups of various scale, leading through one IPO and one acquisition (vertical growth in the same function)
Launched her own business as a fractional product manager and advisor (testing new ways of working and staying open to what’s next)

Key Strategies for Success via Path IV:

Like the rest of us, leaders and hiring managers are busy. They understandably don’t want to hire someone they worry they’ll have to train to meet the demands of the role because they almost certainly don't have bandwidth for that. It's your job to teach yourself the tooling, language, and market information to convince someone in the hiring position that you don't need unique onboarding or ramp infrastructure to succeed in the role.

Graduate and certificate programs can be expensive, and not all of them have a positive ROI. However, good programs will help you upskill and network. Check out this list of Digital Health Graduate Programs to learn about the options out there.

There are also a growing number of unique digital health-focused learning opportunities, including:

Bitelabs - Digital Health, AI, & Innovation Fellowship for clinicians to learn about and build AI-healthcare solutions over 8 weeks

Doximity Digital Health Fellowship - Year-long opportunity for physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants to collaborate with various functions across Doximity’s business
WELL Career Accelerator - Designed to help women clinicians in digital health gain the business knowledge to rise in their careers
Doximity's Physician Executive Program - 6 month training to provide physicians with financial skills and leadership experience

Even with credibility (from a portfolio, degree, or certification), you still have to find a way into the room. The best way to do that, if you don’t already have a connection, is through networking. Yes, you likely already knew that, but it bears repeating because it’s that significant. Bryce Platt, PharmD, RPh, Pharmacy Management Consultant @ Milliman used networking practices he learned from The 2-Hour Job Search, which directly kicked off his non-traditional pharmacy career. Here’s the simple framework he swears by: Reach out to people with whom you have weak ties in areas of interest. Do your research. Set up informational interviews to learn about their career journey, the problems they’re trying to solve, and the market trends they’re seeing. Do NOT ask for a job during these conversations. Listen and learn. Maintain those connections through semi-regular outreach.

Business as a second language

Clinicians are professional problem-solvers and systems thinkers who routinely make high-stakes decisions with imperfect information. Those skills would benefit any business. The challenge is helping clinicians articulate their skills in ways digital health leaders and hiring teams can understand – and having those decision-makers recognize that the same judgment, empathy, and analytical rigor that make clinicians successful at providing direct care would also make them great operators, strategists, product managers, marketers, and more.

*Rinki Varindani Desai, SLPD, Founder of Theratactix Digital Health Consulting, Research and Education Consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital*

Practical tips for landing the job

To transition into a non-direct care role in digital health, you’ll need to translate your clinical experience into business terms that resonate with the leaders making the hiring decisions. It’s your job to map your skills to the metrics and outcomes companies care about. This process is what Reena Pande, MD, Partner @ Oxeon, former CMO of AbleTo, calls "opening up the aperture" – enabling leaders and hiring managers to understand how clinical skills directly translate into business impact.

In both his role at Doximity and in clinical practice, which he’s maintained for 12+ years while climbing the ladder in non-direct care roles, Amit Phull, MD, Chief Clinical Experience Officer @ Doximity often sees clinicians blind to the translatability of their skill-set, which to Amit and many others is incredibly obvious. It’s a mindset shift that can be difficult, especially for clinicians who may have thought about their skills in only one specific context. While there are numerous exercises to help with skill identification and translation, one of the simplest ways is to identify the actions you took, spotlight their metrics-based impact, and use clear language to communicate both. You can also prompt AI to translate your resume/CV to align with the language of relevant job descriptions to give you a running start.

For example:

Instead of saying “engage patients in motivational interviewing to support medication adherence", use “experience conducting user research and implementing behavior change design, yielding x% improvement in session completion rate and y% reduction in emergency room visits over 6 months."
Rather than saying “designed clinical handoffs to support medication and DME delivery prior to discharge”, try “excel at workflow and process optimization, reducing average length of stay from x days to y, saving payers and patients money while enabling additional hospital profitability via z% improvement in bed turnover rate.”
As an alternative to saying “work with a multi-disciplinary team to engage families in difficult conversations around poor prognosis, degree of disability, and time-sensitive decision-making and document conclusions”, identify that you “align cross-functional stakeholders to develop iterative communication and decision-making frameworks that speed up time from receipt of new information to action, shortening average wait time for transition to more cost-effective care settings by x in 2025 compared to y in 2024.”

Highlighting transferable skills in language relevant to those with hiring power is helpful, and it can be done without hiding or devaluing the unique clinical value clinicians bring. A great way to leverage clinical skills in a non-direct care role for relatively immediate business impact is by proactively serving as the translational layer, driving understanding and alignment across various sides of the business. Jen Jen Chen, MD, Director of Product @ Curai did just that, acting as a bridging force for her organization. Jen Jen shared, "It was easy for me to translate clinical concepts, thinking, and reasoning into terms a non-clinical person could understand. I could adapt the language to the audience, so the team could move more quickly on whatever was being developed. That was well received by hiring managers."

While serving as translators, clinicians can uniquely identify and voice the often unspoken, sometimes disparate assumptions and expectations various teams bring to the table. Markita J. Billups, LCSW, Founder of Blackbird Strategic Solutions, former SVP of Operations @ Oshi Health shared a great example, noting how the phrase "don't let perfect be the enemy of the good" – a fan favorite for many teams – doesn't resonate with direct care teams who must hold their actions to extremely high standards because of the potential for patient harm.

Not only can clinicians bring these misalignments to light in a way few others can, but they also have the communication fluency and collaboration skills necessary to navigate through these differences. Hannah Weisman, PhD psychologist, Independent Consultant, former Director of Population Health @ SCAN sums it up effectively: many leaders don't realize how valuable it is to have clinicians in non-traditional roles communicating across teams with different values until they see it in action. That’s when they realize the degree to which siloes have been reduced across the business.

*Hannah Weisman, PhD psychologist, Independent Consultant, former Director of Population Health @ SCAN*

Sure, clinicians can support improved internal functioning, but can they represent the business externally in areas outside the scope of science and credentials? Kate McAllister, MPH, Chief Commercial Officer @ Hibiscus Health (who hired me into my first non-direct care role!) sure thinks so, noting that clinicians have “exceptional active listening, rapport-building, and problem-solving skills – the exact capabilities buyers value in a trusted partner. Clinicians have already navigated complex systems with patients and care teams who may have competing goals, all of which maps cleanly to adept stakeholder management.”

Strong pattern recognition and the ability to discern signal (meaningful output) from noise (typical fluctuation) augments a clinician’s utility in both direct care and business environments. For example, in a direct care setting, therapists and psychiatrists are attuned to subtle linguistic and behavioral changes, honing in on a shift in word choice or self-presentation as a possible signal of the onset of a new or recurring mental health condition. Being able to see and parse nuance like that enhances the likelihood of earlier clinical and/or business-level intervention, which benefits both the patient and the broader healthcare ecosystem. Rebecca Kavoussi, MPP, Co-Founder and COO @ Nest Health appreciates how clinicians she’s hired into non-direct care roles have used that skill at her organization, noting how they excel at "diagnosing shortfalls early and quickly developing action plans – both critical in a stressful start up environment."

Clinicians have honed the ability to think at the systems level, recognizing that nothing in healthcare operates independently; every regulatory change, new staffing model, charting requirement, novel reimbursement pilot, and failed randomized control trial is interconnected, creating unique incentives and points of friction that impact each stakeholder. Clinicians can anticipate and identify these ripple effects, putting them in a great position to anchor innovation in the realities of the healthcare environment. That’s one reason Rinki Varindani Desai, SLPD, Founder of Theratactix Digital Health Consulting, Research and Education Consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital calls clinicians “exactly the kind of bridge-builders digital health needs: grounded in patient care and fluent in innovation.”

No matter how well you voice your clinical experience in the language of business and metrics, some will struggle to discard their biased views – holding tight to the belief that clinicians can't execute tasks like managing a P&L, are hopelessly risk-averse, or require too much coaching to be effective outside direct care. That’s okay. Take a breath, and go find the people who can see and champion you. Emily Olson, RN, Head of Clinical Operations @ Braided Health echoes this: “find those people who you want to be like, spend time with them in any way possible, and ask for advice or even formal mentorship. That is often the fastest way to get to where you want to go – learning from those who have done it, many of whom have those people in their lives and want to pay it forward."

Left to right: Jaclyn Satchel, LCSW-S, PMH-C, Group Practice Owner and Advisor, former Executive Director @ Therapists in Tech; Nathaan Demers, PsyD psychologist, Investor @ Hopelab; Jen Jen Chen, MD, Director of Product @ Curai

Final thoughts

Collectively, the experiences and perspectives of those featured demonstrate that clinicians are not just care providers or implementers but also architects of healthcare’s future. Danika Mills, LCSW, LCAT, CCM, Head of Care Operations @ Grayce emphasizes that not only do clinicians belong at the digital health table in a variety of seats, but it is their mandate to occupy that space. As stewards of healthcare, clinicians must play an active role in shaping new models that improve issues of access, quality, cost, and experience as well as the technology that enables that innovation. Whatever seat at the table you choose, let it be one that fuels your drive to create lasting change in healthcare!

Thank you to all the clinicians and hiring leaders who shared their time and knowledge with me. While not all your stories made it into these pages, they fundamentally shaped my understanding and perspective:

Aaron Gerber - MD, MBA, President of Diversified Businesses and SVP @ Mass General Brigham
Amit Phull - MD, Chief Clinical Experience Officer @ Doximity
Bryce Platt - PharmD, RPh, Pharmacy Management Consultant @ Milliman
Byron Crowe - MD, MS in Clinical Informatics Management, Chief Medical Officer @ Doctronic
Danika Mills - LCSW, LCAT, CCM, Head of Care Operations @ Grayce
Dhiren Patel - PharmD, Co-Founder and General Partner @ Taurus Health
Elliot Cohen - Co-Founder/Chairman of the Board @ General Medicine, former Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer @ PillPack
Emily Olson - RN, Head of Clinical Operations @ Braided Health
Hannah Weisman - PhD psychologist, Independent Consultant, former Director of Population Health @ SCAN
Jaclyn Satchel - LCSW-S, PMH-C, Group Practice Owner and Advisor, former Executive Director @ Therapists in Tech
Jen Jen Chen - MD, Director of Product @ Curai
Jennifer Regan - PhD psychologist, Director of Clinical Quality & Training @ Brightline
Kate McAllister - MPH, Chief Commercial Officer @ Hibiscus Health
Kelsey Quick - Independent Consultant, former VP of Provider Operations @ Spring Health
Kevin Stephens Jr. - MD/MBA, VP of Clinical Operations @ K Health
Kylie Cicero - MS, OT/L, Clinical Customer Success Manager @ Sensi.AI and Co-Founder of Collective Coaching
Laura Demuth - NP-BC, EMBA, SVP of People and Patients @ Curology
Markita J. Billups - LCSW, Founder of Blackbird Strategic Solutions, former SVP of Operations @ Oshi Health
Mike Arevalo - PsyD psychologist, PMP, Director of Clinical Strategy @ Core Solutions
Nathaan Demers - PsyD psychologist, Investor @ Hopelab
Rachel Wynn - SLP, Fractional Principal Product Manager and Advisor, former Principal Product Manager @ ProductPlan
Rebecca Kavoussi - MPP, Co-Founder and COO @ Nest Health
Reena Pande - MD, Partner @ Oxeon, former CMO @ AbleTo
Rinki Varindani Desai - SLPD, Founder of Theratactix Digital Health Consulting, Research and Education Consultant at Massachusetts General Hospital
Ted Faneuff - LCSW, MBA, Head of Clinical Operations @ Upheal
Wendy Rasmussen - PhD psychologist, (almost!) EMBA, Independent Consultant, former Director of Clinical Strategy @ SonderMind

*Many of those interviewed have additional titles or credentials. For brevity I broadly chose to list their current and/or most relevant experience.

Appendix: Resources for getting up to speed

When considering entering the digital health space, a good place to start is growing your knowledge of the ecosystem and the broader healthcare market. Here are some of my favorite *free* resources to get you started.

Read Up 📚

Many business roles require what McKinsey calls "business fluency" To hone your ability to speak the language of digital health, check out the content in the Digital Health MBA along with these other resources.

Must-read newsletters:

Learn from the newsletters of clinicians who transitioned to non-direct care roles and publish to help others follow in their footsteps:

Listen Up 🎧

Must-listen podcasts:

The Healthtech Podcast

Join Up 🤝

Find your people. While the below are digital communities, many hold regular in-person meet-ups across numerous cities:

Scrub Collaborative - Slack community sponsored by Scrub Capital that’s a great way to learn about venture investing and meet diverse clinicians working in digital health. Application required
Digital Medicine Society (DiME - pronounced like the 10-cent coin) - Slack community for those interested in "digital medicine" (aka digital health) and also a global non-profit that convenes varied healthcare stakeholders, develops resources, and provides strategic support to organizations
Therapists in Tech - Slack community for mental health therapists to share resources and participate in the community’s mentorship program. Application required
The Clinician Transition - Slack community for rehab professionals (PT/OT/SLP)
CSweetener - Monthly mentorship program for women and non-binary individuals in healthcare led by the HLTH Foundation. Application-required

The Clinician’s Guide to Breaking Into Digital Health