Beyond the Dental Chair: My Journey from Clinical Practice to Health Informatics

For years, I understood healthcare primarily through direct patient care. I trained as a dentist in India, practiced clinically, and eventually managed my own dental practice. Treating patients taught me that good healthcare depends not only on clinical knowledge, but also on the quality of information available when decisions are made.

That realization gradually changed the direction of my career.

I became interested in what happens to clinical information beyond an individual patient encounter: how it is documented, managed, analyzed, and used to understand healthcare delivery across larger populations. Pursuing that interest required me to step outside a familiar clinical career and develop an entirely different set of skills.

I moved to the United States and earned a Master of Science in Health Informatics and Data Analytics from Boston University. The transition was challenging. I had to build knowledge in healthcare data, analytics, information systems, and health information management while learning how my previous clinical experience could fit into this new field.

My experiences in Health Information Management and population health analytics eventually showed me that I was not starting over. Clinical practice had already taught me how healthcare workflows operate, why documentation matters, how clinicians communicate, and how information can influence patient care.

I am currently employed as an Epic Business Intelligence Developer at Carilion Clinic, a health system based in Virginia. My role has evolved from generating information during individual patient encounters to focusing on healthcare data for reporting, quality improvement, patient safety initiatives, and organizational decision-making. I collaborate with clinical, quality, analytical, and operational teams, and my clinical background continues to enhance my understanding of the information behind the data.

For clinicians considering Health Information Management (HIM), Health Informatics (HI), or healthcare analytics, my experience has taught me two things: recognize the value of the knowledge you already have and be equally willing to learn what you don’t yet know.

I no longer treat patients directly, but I haven’t truly left healthcare. Instead, I’ve changed how I contribute to the field. My transition from dentistry to health informatics has shown that a clinical career can be a strong foundation for success in a non-clinical role.

Author:
Deepashree Rajendraprasad

References:

1. https://www.medicaltechoutlook.com/cioviewpoint/the-transition-from-clinician-to-informatician-nwid-401.html
2. https://www.ahima.org/advocacy/policy-statements/data-quality-and-integrity/
3. The Match: “Introduction to EHR Data Quality” (Nicole G. Weiskopf, 2018)
4. The Match: AMIA Board white paper: definition of biomedical informatics and specification of core competencies for graduate education in the discipline