What is your experience in a software company?

I spent the first two post-graduation years in a startup software company, whose main focus is digital pathology and AI application in pathology. This is, in fact, a huge decision in my career given that most medical graduates continue their careers as physicians. I have always been looking forward to sharing these amazing times of my life. Now that I have resigned, perhaps, it is time for me to retrospect and defend my decision.

In the 2019 spring, one of my friends glimpsed a post on Facebook recruiting new graduates to join the startup. The post was created by the boss, who is also a medical graduate of my medical school. He showed his sincerity and insight into the prospect of AI application in pathology. Anyway, my friend shared the post with me during the application season. I was touched by his sincere tone in the post, and after consideration, I sent a direct message on Facebook to the boss, and he expressed his interest to recruit me into the team. Considering my multidisciplinary background, he was willing to give me a product management position and I accepted the offer. That's how the story started.

I was mainly responsible for delivering a differentiated product to the clients that addressed a market need. During my tenure, I focused on designing AI applications in pathology. I discovered the strenuous effort it required for pathologists to estimate a score from immunohistochemistry (IHC) staining. I envisioned that an automatic scoring system could save pathologists from manual counting. I prioritized important product features and created a product roadmap using a Gantt chart that the engineering team could follow and develop the product. I was able to integrate the product into the NTU Hospital Department of Pathology's digital pathology platform. My multidisciplinary knowledge perfectly filled in the gaps between clinicians and engineers.

Besides being a product manager, my strong desire to get my hands dirty and develop a product propelled me to also engage in programming a few products. I modularized AI inference functionality to enable seamless integration into the digital pathology system. Moreover, I developed the core image reader for various whole slide image formats. Through these works, I have significantly enhanced my programming proficiency by incorporating architectural design concepts into software development. Moreover, my participation in the software development team has enabled me to make valuable contributions and develop my teamwork skills.

The best way to defend my decision to take a detour to work at a software company is by showing how much I have grown from those experiences. The experience taught me the management of the product lifecycle from inception to implementation. In addition, I became experienced in proposing engineering solutions to clinical problems. This had not have been possible without the training from the company full of opportunities to explore my own interests and freely develop my skills.

Highlight (2019/07/01-2021/08/01): As a software engineer, I was responsible for developing reliable software to clients. The core product of aetherAI is a digital pathology platform that enables pathologists to review digital slides on their computers. During my tenure, my main contribution was to integrate AI inference capabilities into the platform, such as whole-slide classification and segmentation. These features enhanced the clinical research workflow and received positive feedback from the pathologists. Moreover, I implemented the core image reader that supported various whole slide image formats, such as Hamamatsu NDPI and Philips iSyntax. The software I developed fulfilled the requirement from the clients and made the product possible. Through the experience, I honed my skills in developing high-quality software and applying engineering mindset to solve clinical problems.