Inside Health Technology Careers: From Smartwatches to Safe Medicines
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How does a smartwatch actually know your heart rate?
James, our teen Flight Crew moderator from Texas, posed this simple question that sparked an exciting discussion about the science behind the technology we wear and the medicines we rely on, revealing how multiple disciplines come together to drive innovation that saves lives.
During STEM Next’s career chat on health technologies, two industry professionals shared how they got interested in STEM, their winding career paths, and advice for young people who are interested in similar careers in health technology.
Understanding Sensors
A member of Apple’s Health team explained that the optical heart sensor on the back of the Apple Watch uses green and infrared lights to detect changes in blood flow beneath the skin, allowing the device to measure heart rate in real time. What appears to users as a seamless feature is the result of years of experimentation, calibration, and interdisciplinary collaboration across clinical, design, hardware engineering, and software engineering.
Ensuring Medicines Are Safe for the Heart
On the pharmaceutical side, a Takeda leader described her role in evaluating whether new medicines could unintentionally affect heart function. “My job is to make sure that a drug designed to help you doesn’t create a problem
somewhere else, especially in the heart,” she explained. Her journey began in São Paulo, Brazil, where she conducted undergraduate research before earning a PhD in molecular biology and completing postdoctoral work at Harvard Medical School.
There’s No Single Path Into STEM
One of the session’s most reassuring themes: neither speaker had it all figured out as a teenager. From learning the word “engineer” at a high school science fair that opened a world of learning and a career path that involved designing, building, and understanding of technology, structures, or systems to detail how initial interests in engineering contributed to a non-linear path through high-precision measurement, instrumentation, space, and now health technology.
Their stories and lived experiences encouraged students to embrace diverse interests, amplify their aspirations beyond a single box, and grow strong skills that will very often transfer to other projects, disciplines, or challenges. “You don’t have to fit yourself into one box. The skills you build in one area often transfer in ways you don’t expect.”
Career Advice: Embrace the Unknown
Teen participants asked thoughtful questions about which high school and college courses provide the strongest preparation for careers in biomedical engineering and pharmaceutical research, how internships open doors to future opportunities, and whether it is necessary to map out an entire career path early on. Both career professionals emphasized that building a strong foundation in math and science is important, but also emphasized that career journeys are about constantly learning and embarking on new, unknown paths. “Sometimes I feel like STEM is something that people feel like you gotta master. I don’t know if you ever really master it. You’re always learning, and you learn because you say, ‘I don’t know, that’s an interesting question…’”
The other speaker built on this: “It’s a lot of learning, more than knowing… Be comfortable not knowing the answer, but learning how to get there.”
Both speakers urged teens not to worry about specializing too soon. The Takeda leader said she’d tell her teenage self to “learn about different things, enjoy your different interests… because in the future, all those abilities that you learn at that stage when your brain is really developing, you’re gonna apply that. You might not know how, but you will.”
Their parting advice to the next generation? Build strong skills, stay open to unexpected opportunities, and allow curiosity to guide their journeys, because the most exciting breakthroughs often emerge at the intersection of disciplines.
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