There is a version of this story that gets told a lot.

A doctor realises medicine is not for them, they discover healthtech, they somehow get a job at a startup, they post about it on LinkedIn, the post gets hundreds of comments and everyone is inspired.

That version is real, but it leaves out most of the actual experience. The uncertainty before the move. The identity shift during it. The things that are better and the things that are harder, and the moments of real doubt.

Emma Dyson, James Frater and Yath Prem have all been through this. They came through the BiteLabs fellowship at different times and have ended up in completely different places. I sat down with all three for our Built to Scale UK session and asked them to be honest about what the transition actually looked like.

Here is what they said.

Who They Are

Dr Emma Dyson came through the Spring 2024 BiteLabs fellowship. She was an F1 and F2 doctor in the NHS when a serious ski accident during her F3 year forced a period of reflection. Rather than returning directly to clinical training, she joined the ZINC innovator programme and co-founded a company (Mana Medical) building a precision operating system for autoimmune diseases, using wearable technology and machine learning.

Dr James Frater was part of our inaugural cohort. He had known since medical school that he wanted something beyond conventional clinical medicine. He completed an internship at Google, finished his degree, studied at Harvard and Yale with a focus on social connectedness, and is now building an organisation in the Caribbean centred on healthcare trust, community data collection and local language processing. James is now a Programme Associate and Research Manager at Yale University.

Dr Yath Prem was also a fellow in our inaugural cohort. He graduated in 2021, completed F1 and F2 training, and pivoted to healthtech. He worked at Doccla in project management and clinical product roles and is now a medical advisor at Flo Health, one of the world's most widely used women's health apps.

Three people. Three completely different trajectories. All starting from roughly the same place.

The Decision to Leave

None of them describe the decision as obvious. All three describe it as something that built slowly — a growing sense that the path they were on was not quite right, rather than a sudden moment of clarity.

For Yath, it was about joy.

Health tech provides the fulfillment I lacked in clinical rotations. I wanted work that felt joyful rather than a chore.

That is a simple thing to say and a harder thing to act on. Clinical medicine is a prestigious, secure career with a clear trajectory. Walking away from that trajectory — even partially — requires confidence that what you are moving toward is worth it. And that confidence is difficult to have before you have actually done it.

James reframed the move entirely. He did not see it as leaving medicine, rather, he saw it as an evolution.

Being a doctor is your floor, not your ceiling.

That line has stayed with a lot of people who heard it because it reframes the medical degree — not as the thing you are leaving behind, but as the foundation upon which you are building. You are not abandoning a career, but extending it into territory it was always capable of reaching.

Emma's path was shaped partly by circumstance — the ski accident gave her time that she had not planned for. But she is direct about what she found in that time.

If you don't ask, you don't get. If I don't put myself out for opportunity, I'm not going to get it.

The accident created the space to take an opportunity she might otherwise have deferred indefinitely.

What the Fellowship Actually Gave Them

All three are specific about what BiteLabs contributed — and it is worth being honest that the programme is not magic. It does not guarantee outcomes. What it provides is exposure, network and a structured reason to start.

For James, the accountability dimension was as important as the content. He credits a five-year accountability group — not the fellowship specifically — as one of the most important factors in his professional development.

My accountability group pushes me to take risks like posting on LinkedIn.

That is a small detail that points to something bigger. Building a career outside of conventional medicine requires consistent action over time. The BiteLabs Fellowship accelerates the start, but sustaining the momentum requires the kind of consistent external accountability most people do not build deliberately.

For Yath, the fellowship provided the combination of validation and practical exposure that tipped him from thinking about the move to actually making it. "You hang out with like-minded people" — and for clinicians who have spent years in an environment that can feel sceptical of non-clinical ambitions, that matters more than it sounds.

For Emma, it was about learning to ask. She encourages clinicians to move past their "reserved" tendencies and reach out directly to founders and companies.

Move past your reserved tendencies and message founders directly. Many are willing to help.

Cold outreach is uncomfortable for most clinicians. It feels presumptuous. Emma's point is that the discomfort is mostly in your head — most people in healthtech are genuinely open to conversations with clinicians who are serious about the space.

The Things Nobody Tells You

This is where the conversation got most interesting. All three were willing to talk about the parts of the transition that are harder than they expected.

Yath was probably the most direct. The grass is not necessarily greener. It is just different.

The grass is never greener. The grass is just different. It's a different shade. You're going to find different issues to battle with.

Healthtech is faster, more commercially oriented and less structured than the NHS. That is appealing to some clinicians and genuinely difficult for others. The absence of a clear training pathway — no equivalent of the ARCP, no programmatic progression — can feel disorienting after years of structured medical training.

Yath also named something that most career transition content glosses over: discomfort is the mechanism, not a sign that something is wrong.

The beauty of being uncomfortable is that when you're uncomfortable, you're going to learn. You're going to find a way out so that you can be comfortable again.

That reframe is practically useful. The early months of any career transition involve a lot of discomfort — not knowing the language, not understanding the commercial context, not being sure if you are actually good at the new thing. That discomfort is not a warning signal, but what learning feels like.

Emma challenged something that comes up frequently in conversations about clinical careers in the UK — the idea that medicine is a stable choice.

Many colleagues struggle to find work. Medicine is not currently a stable career in the UK.

That is a pointed observation and a fair one. The NHS workforce crisis, changes to training pathways and the increasing competitiveness of specialty applications mean that the assumed stability of a medical career is not as reliable as it was. For some clinicians, the perceived risk of moving into healthtech is actually smaller than the perceived stability of staying.

What They See Coming

I asked all three about the future of healthcare. Their answers were different in content but consistent in direction.

James envisions healthcare integrated into everyday life, with blood pressure checks in shopping centres, health data woven into the fabric of daily routines rather than confined to clinical encounters. He frames it as an accessibility question as much as a technology one.

Yath's focus is on prevention. He believes the future requires a fundamental shift from reactive treatment to preventative medicine and longevity-focused care. The products and companies building in that space are the ones he finds most interesting.

Emma's answer was the most technology-forward. She anticipates that large language models combined with wearable sensors will put meaningful health management directly into the hands of patients, shifting the relationship between patients and their health data in a way that makes the current model look primitive.

Three different futures. All of them built by clinicians who understand the problem from the inside. Which is, in the end, the argument for why this transition matters beyond any individual career.

What This Means for You

If you are an NHS doctor, nurse or other allied health professional reading this and wondering whether the move is right for you, here is what I would take from Emma, James and Yath's experiences.

The uncertainty does not go away before you move — it tends to start dissipating after. Every clinician who has made this transition successfully describes the decision as something they made before they felt ready. Waiting for certainty means waiting indefinitely.

The identity shift is real and it takes time, because being a doctor is not just a job title. It is a significant part of how you see yourself. Letting that loosen — not disappear, but loosen — is part of the work.

The grass is different, not greener. Go in with honest expectations. Healthtech is not a relief from difficulty, but a different kind of difficulty, with different satisfactions alongside it.

And if you are going to do it, do it properly. Not a vague exploration, not a passive LinkedIn presence, not a half-hearted application to one role. Message founders directly. Build something. Apply for the fellowship. Make it real.

As James put it: the medical degree is your floor. What you build on top of it is up to you.

Ready to Take the Next Step?

The BiteLabs UK fellowship runs over eight weeks, part-time alongside clinical work, remote or hybrid in London. It is how Emma, James and Yath all got started.

If you want to read more about what happens on the other side, our success stories page covers a range of alumni journeys across different roles and sectors. And if you want to read about the full range of roles available to NHS clinicians, our UK jobs guide covers every major pathway in detail.

If you already know what you want and just need help getting there, our career coaching service works one-to-one with clinicians on role targeting, CV translation and interview preparation.