ACV21: Moving from Medicine to Machine Learning (Dr Chris Lovejoy, Doctor / Machine Learning Student, Part 1)

Alternative CV

Dr Chris Lovejoy talks about how he got started in the MedTech / Machine Learning space whilst balancing a career in medicine. We also touch on where professionals might fit into the Machine Learning / AI space.
Chris Lovejoy is a Junior Doctor dedicated to changing the medical industry though tech and education. Alongside his Medical career, Chris has worked with Cera Care, a technology-enabled homecare company which uses machine learning to identify and predict health risks among the elderly population to allow early intervention.
Chris runs a blog, YouTube channel and online courses on applications of Machine Learning in Medicine. He is currently taking a year out of Medical practice to complete a Masters in Data Science and Machine Learning at UCL.
3 Things I Learned:

1. Love the process, not the goal - when it came to indulging his interest in tech, Chris learned to love the process of learning about machine learning, rather than a goal of attaining some level of mastery. Because at times, the task of learning isn’t always as fulfilling as we may think.
   
2. Keep your side hobbies accountable - having a project to work towards helps make your side hobbies stick, and takes your learning out of the abstract. Chris would consolidate his coding by taking on projects such as designing his College’s MedSoc’s website. This gave him the motivation to keep learning and finish online courses and stay on top of his learning.
   
3. There is a place for everyone in the tech space - although general professionals such as doctors and lawyers may lack the technical knowledge to build new technologies themselves, they serve a valuable purpose in that space because they have an intimate knowledge of the problems that exist in the industry, and the realms of possibility for intervention.