Most clinicians who think about moving into digital health are not thinking about the top job. They are thinking about getting a first role. Getting their foot in the door. Figuring out if the industry is actually for them.

But some clinicians are further along than that. They have been in the industry for a few years. They are good at what they do. And they are starting to wonder what the ceiling looks like, and whether they can reach it.

The Chief Medical Officer role is that ceiling for many clinicians in digital health. It is the most senior clinical voice inside a company. The person who sets clinical strategy, manages regulatory relationships, represents the organisation to health systems and payers, and ensures the product actually does what it claims.

Dr CK Wang has done it. A medical oncologist for over twelve years, he eventually joined IBM Watson Health, worked his way through the industry, and became CMO at Cota Health, a company using real-world data and AI to improve cancer care outcomes.

We sat down with him for our Physician to CMO session and he was more honest about the journey than most people in his position tend to be. Here is what he shared.

Why He Almost Did Not Make the Move

Dr Wang did not leap into digital health. He was pushed toward it gradually, and then pulled back from it repeatedly.

After more than a decade as a practicing medical oncologist, the job was getting harder. Not clinically, but operationally. Prior authorisations. Manual note-taking. The administrative complexity of modern oncology had become genuinely draining.

"I think that's what's on my mind: who are you if you don't practise or exist in that clinical space? I had to answer all those questions for myself."

That is the identity question most clinicians face when they consider this move. Medicine is not just a job. For most of us it is a significant part of who we are. Stepping back from it, even partially, requires a real reckoning.

Dr Wang ignored recruitment approaches from IBM Watson Health multiple times before he finally took a call. And even then he did not jump immediately. He transitioned gradually over three and a half years, continuing clinical work while building his industry career.

"I did not leave clinical work immediately. I transitioned over three and a half years, eventually stopping clinical practice only after becoming CMO at Cota."

That timeline is important. It is not a story about walking out of hospital one day and walking into a C-suite the next. It is a story about building deliberately over years.

What Actually Transfers from Clinical Medicine

One of the most common concerns clinicians have when thinking about senior industry roles is whether their clinical background actually means anything at the executive level. Dr Wang is clear that it does, but not always in the ways you expect.

Communication Is Sales

This is the reframe that surprised him most. As a clinician, you spend years convincing patients to follow difficult treatment plans, explaining complex information to frightened people, and building trust in high-stakes situations. That, he realised, is sales. The skills are identical.

"Clinicians are natural sellers because they must constantly educate and convince patients to follow difficult treatment plans."

In industry, that skill translates directly. Whether you are talking to a hospital system about adopting your product, presenting to a board, or negotiating with a regulator, the ability to communicate clearly under pressure and build trust with sceptical audiences is exactly what is required.

Cross-Functional Experience

Dr Wang had built cancer programmes and run clinics before moving into industry. That meant managing diverse stakeholders — surgeons, oncologists, nurses, administrators, commissioners — and coordinating teams with different priorities toward a shared goal. That is what product and medical affairs work looks like. The context changes. The underlying skill does not.

Humility in a Hierarchy

This one is harder. In clinical practice, particularly in senior roles, you develop a level of authority. People defer to you. Your judgment is rarely challenged in the room. Industry is different. You join a large organisation and find yourself one voice among many. Your clinical expertise is valued but it does not automatically trump the engineering lead or the commercial director.

"Be open-minded to ideas and challenges from folks even if they have no clinical background. I've often found that some of the most provocative questions have come from people outside of my specialty."

That adjustment — from clinical authority to collaborative contributor — is one that many senior clinicians find genuinely difficult. Dr Wang says it requires active work, not just good intentions.

What a CMO Actually Does

There is a lot of confusion about this role, partly because it looks different at different companies and different stages.

Dr Wang distinguishes between two versions of the CMO role that often get conflated. The internal Senior Medical Director handles day-to-day clinical execution — reviewing content, managing clinical operations, supporting the product team on specific clinical questions. It is an important role but largely internally focused.

The CMO proper is significantly more externally visible. They set the clinical strategy for the organisation, manage relationships with key opinion leaders and health systems, represent the company to investors and the press, and own the clinical narrative publicly.

"My current role involves managing a global remote team, supporting the sales team with clients, and helping the technology team troubleshoot clinical data issues."

The through-line across all of it is clinical credibility applied in a commercial context. You are the person who makes the clinical case — internally to the product team, and externally to the market.

How to Get There from Where You Are Now

Dr Wang's path is instructive but it is not a template. He spent twelve years in clinical practice before making the move. Not everyone needs to, or should, wait that long. What matters more than the years is the accumulation of the right experiences and the right visibility.

Start Before You Feel Ready

Dr Wang had built clinical programmes, managed teams, and developed deep expertise in oncology data before anyone thought to recruit him. He was not waiting to become ready for industry — he was building things in clinical practice that happened to translate. The equivalent today might look different. A registrar who has led a QI project, built a clinical tool, published on digital health, or completed a fellowship is building the same kind of foundation.

Understand the Commercial Context

One of the biggest gaps Dr Wang identified in clinicians who want to move into senior industry roles is comfort with the business model. How does the company make money? Who are the customers? What does success look like for the commercial team?

"Analyse your passion: before leaving practice, clinicians should identify what type of contribution they want to make and what they find challenging."

If you cannot answer basic questions about the commercial model of the company you are joining, you will struggle in a senior clinical role. The CMO is not just a clinical voice — they are a business leader who happens to have clinical expertise.

Build External Visibility

Dr Wang's advice is consistent on this: the CMO role does not come from applying. It comes from being known. Publish. Speak at conferences. Take advisory board roles at companies you believe in. Write publicly about clinical topics from a product and commercial perspective. The role tends to find people who are already visible in the space, not people who submit CVs.

Watch AI Closely

This is Dr Wang's single strongest piece of advice for any clinician thinking about a senior digital health role: understand what AI can and cannot do in clinical contexts. Not technically — you do not need to deeply understand the architecture. But conceptually: what problems it solves, where it fails, how to evaluate it, and how to communicate about it credibly.

"AI is the most critical field for physicians to monitor, as it has the greatest potential to impact both patient care and daily clinical practice."

In 2026 that advice has only become more relevant. Every digital health company is building AI into its products. Every CMO needs to be able to speak credibly about it.

The Identity Question

Dr Wang came back to this repeatedly throughout our conversation. And it is worth sitting with. Becoming a CMO in digital health requires, at some level, letting go of the idea that your identity is defined by being a practicing clinician. Not abandoning it — Dr Wang still thinks of himself as an oncologist — but loosening its grip enough to build something new alongside it.

"I believe most clinicians, especially if you've made it through your training into practice, you've done a lot, seen a lot. You have a valuable set of skills that very few people possess."

That is not false modesty. It is a genuine observation that the clinical training most doctors and senior nurses have been through is extraordinary preparation for leadership — if you are willing to translate it. The translation is the work. And it does not happen overnight.

But for clinicians who are willing to do it — who are curious enough, humble enough, and patient enough to build deliberately over years — the CMO role is genuinely achievable. Dr Wang is proof of that.

What This Looks Like in the UK

The CMO pathway in UK digital health is structurally similar but with some differences worth noting. The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme and the NHS Clinical AI Fellowship both create visibility and credibility for clinicians who want to be taken seriously in industry. If you have not explored either, our comparison of UK digital health fellowships is worth reading.

UK healthtech CMOs tend to come from backgrounds in clinical informatics, NHS innovation roles, or senior advisory positions at companies that sold into the NHS. The regulatory landscape — MHRA, CQC, DCB0129 — is different from the FDA context Dr Wang navigated, but the underlying role is the same. You are the clinical voice that gives the company credibility with the health system it is selling into.

Salary benchmarks for UK CMO roles at funded healthtech companies sit between £100,000 and £180,000, with equity forming a significant part of compensation at earlier stage companies. Our full salary guide has more detail.

Where to Start

If the CMO is where you want to get to eventually, here is the honest sequencing. Start with a role that gets you inside a company — clinical product management, medical affairs, clinical partnerships. Build commercial literacy. Understand how the business works from the inside.

From there, move toward externally visible roles. Speak at conferences. Publish. Take advisory positions. Then the senior roles start to come to you rather than the other way around.

The BiteLabs fellowship is designed as the first step in that sequence — working on a real product problem with a team, finding a mentor, and building the network and credibility that makes the rest of the journey faster.

If you are further along and want to think through the specific pathway from where you are now, our career coaching service works with clinicians at all stages of this transition.