For the academic to non-academic series this week, Dr Isabel Ramos is under the interview spotlight. Isabel works in the ever-growing digital innovation field for Siemens healthineers. I sat down with Isabel to discover how she transitioned from laboratory biomedical engineering, to digital health.
What first struck me when talking to Isabel was how varied and rich her career experiences have been, and how much she has enjoyed them. Isabel first got into science growing up in Portugal, where she studied biomedical engineering at university. She undertook Eramus, before finally accepting a PhD position at King’s College London in the UK, wanting to stay in the field of biomedical engineering.
“ I really enjoyed being in the lab. I just really enjoyed my PhD” she tells me. Although she does note that many of her friends and peers at the time did not feel the same way.
The academic career journey often relies on external grant funding in order to progress. Unfortunately, Isabel’s applications were unsuccessful, and so she decided to turn her mind to other directions. However it was these unsuccessful endeavours that instead led to Isabel to hunt for internships. Throughout our chat, Isabel is passionate about her recommendations for internship and shadowing experience. Even more so when trying to experience whole new areas of work.
“The first one that showed up and got my attention was one at Imperial Innovations” she explains. Imperial Innovations forms the commercialisation arms of Imperial College London. They take responsibility for bringing ideas to markets, based on Imperial’s Intellectual Property.
After 6 months taking care of Imperial’s intellectual property and patent portfolios, and a further 2.5 years in a Translation team at a large biomedical research Institute in London, Isabel arrived at her now-role at Siemens.
I’m curious to know how Isabel came out finding this position.
“the people you meet, you never know what might happen” she says. A theme we come back to often.
During Isabel’s time in the lab, she worked extensively with engineers and scientists to support her PhD work using MRI machines. Although these machines were actually Philips scanners, and in some ways were Siemens direct competitors, Isabel collaborated often with scientists in her department and field, building her network of colleagues and peers.
Some months following, when Isabel moved to the research Institute to begin her technology translation job, she had a project where she needed to speak to a licensing partner. A licensing partner is someone who might be interested in a product she was helping to market. She contacted a previous colleague from her bioengineering field. She credits them with not only being a great help with getting feedback on her new product, but this open and collaborative conversation led her to being told about this role at Siemens healthineers.
Now, Isabel works as a project manager for the tech side of digital health innovation. She is involved in software and AI-based healthcare.
Isabel is very clear that she always wanted to stay connected to science. Indeed, leaving science was simply “not an option” for her. However her dream was to be exposed to varied and extensive types of science, instead of the focused area PhD’s can bring.
She tells me the importance of just trying new things to get these experiences. When Isabel was first considering transitioning to the Imperial College innovation role, she was unsure what this might actually involve. To find out more, Isabel reached out to a previous professor from a few years back at university, who had taught a similar business-related subject she really enjoyed. The professor was able to give her really useful information about what a technology transfer and innovation role might be like.
I asked her if she thought her PhD was useful.
The short answer: yes.
‘Isabel’s top three How To’s explaining why a PhD is advantageous’:
How to approach science
How to discuss science with academics
How to read a scientific paper (and really understand it!)
“No is already the answer if you don’t try” she tells me.
Isabel recommends taking on part time positions or roles that can really support you to make transitions and learn something new. For example, Isabel carried out the LifeArc fellowship, which could be done alongside her day-to-day role.
If it’s not possible to take time out or have protected time to learn new skills, she recommends shadowing. Approaching colleagues at the same employer is a great method, as you can just ask if you can come by during lunchtimes or during down time. See what they do and how their roles work. “It doesn’t need to affect your full-time job”.
Isabel also highly recommends interacting with careers officers or careers departments at universities. They can help you bring out the transferable skills in your CV and learn how to make them relevant. She gives me an example:
“for example, we might write something like ‘I went to conferences’.” However it’s not this fact that matters so much, but what you learn from this and how it highlights your skills. “it matters how many people you speak to. Can you speak with people from different fields? Can you speak with bigger groups and smaller groups? Can you communicate clearly and simply?”
She emphasises consider the job description too. “maybe it doesn't matter that much if you spoke to 200 people, if the job needs you to be able to talk to small groups of experts”
Isabel describes how to think creatively if you don’t necessarily have the immediately relevant skill set. When applying to Siemen’s, they really cared about showing collaboration. They are highly connected with scientists, academics, and universities amongst many others. So when she was putting together her CV for applying for this role, Isabel wanted to draw out on her collaboration and scientific record. However she had not published for over 4 years.
However Isabel had been highly involved in a “Super Connector” programme. An incubator programme that was part of scientific development for industry tools at the research Institute. This required her to be continuously keeping up to date with scientific literature. Not only this, but she had to understand and be able to discuss the science. She really drew on these aspects of her collaboration and scientific skills for her job applications.
It is these skills she states on when I ask about the key skills needed for her role.
“Communication. Transparency. Management.”
Isabel recommends asking your supervisor or line manager to give you some experience in managing a budget in some way. She believes that PhD students are often not required to manage their lab finances, and having this experience would be a great asset to your job applications.
Finally, I ask Isabel what she enjoys the most. She explains to me that so much of her role is engaging with two key backgrounds. One is the clinical teams, and the other is IT teams. Supporting doctors to speak with engineers, and many other people to speak with each other, facilitating conversations. She is realising her skills more and more, particularly communication, where she can develop solutions to problems that digital health is looking to tackle. These she feels are her proudest achievements.
Going forwards I ask her what she would like to do more. “to use my own ideas to shape a prototype, to shape a product, based on needs from a hospital” she tells me. “I want to be even closer to the science!”