Sorry if this isn’t the right place for this question but I couldn’t think of anywhere better to put it.
So I finished my degree in computer science a couple years ago right when the tech crash just started hitting, and the job market has been an enormous clusterfuck. Instead of trying to get a job where everyone seems to be going all-in on LLMs, machine learning, and crypto bullshit, I’d really like to be able to put my programming skills to good use helping out scientific research in some way, but I have no clue where to start. While in college I did help out my university’s biology research department by writing small programs here and there to help undergrad/grad students who weren’t very knowledgeable about technical solutions, but because of the recent funding cuts to scientific research and education, everyone there is struggling harder than I am.
Ideally I’d love to help contribute to causes that help improve people’s lives (or astronomy just because space is cool). Does anyone know of resources I could look into to start down this path?
I would love some examples of how they aren’t a good choice for their customers.
Drawbacks of EPIC
Super expensive - only large outfits can even afford it.
Poor design - a multitude of modules that often use different design principles so knowing one module doesn’t help much with another.
Extreme vendor lock-in - EPIC is very similar in business model to Microsoft in the first decades, basically a mafia.
Lack of interoperability - EPIC interfaces poorly with lab and diagnostic equipment, EPIC actively fights development and adoption of interoperabilty standards.
Dictating Clinical Workflow - EPIC is designed primarily to assist billing, not record keeping for patient benefit. Thus workflows are highly constrained and significant time must be spent clicking about to get the system to let one do normal things.
I mean, EHR is inherently complex so any EHR, but EPIC makes it much worse than it needs to be.