Working in the field of healthcare innovation is not something you hear of every day. Gijs, Health Innovator at MedScaler, is experienced in the field, as he has already worked for almost two years at the company. In the following article, Gijs will tell you everything about his job, development, innovative projects he worked on, and some challenges he had. Are you curious about working as Health Innovator at MedScaler? Make sure to check out our job page, and maybe become a colleague of Gijs.
What does an average day look like for you?
Most days, I like to get up and start early. Every day is different from the other and many projects intertwine. It is key to keep an overview and know what to do when. On an average day, I call healthcare professionals to validate innovations and learn about their expert opinion, I reach out to investors to see if they are interested to invest in one of our startups, update startups about the findings of their projects, and write reports for which I have to complement my findings with healthcare professionals through desk research.
What was the most exciting project you got to work on thus far?
The most exciting project, that’s a difficult question. I’m not sure if there is one project that immediately stands out. For me, variability is important. The projects that I do are not alike at all, which I like. In general, I’m happy if I’m able to fulfill the assignment and the startup is happy – even if the results are not as expected.
How have you grown and developed yourself over the past 1,5 years?
I think I’ve grown stronger in my business writing and project management skills. That’s good because these are essential!
What do you feel the impact of your work is?
My work impacts startups, patients, and professionals. Everybody can profit from a great innovation – reducing healthcare costs or improving care outcomes. However, not every innovation is great, or fits our healthcare system.
Are there also parts of your work that you find more challenging? And how do you deal with these?
What is challenging is presenting disappointing results to startups – they believe they have a great product so they can doubt the quality of your work. For me personally, it is also challenging that we do all our projects individually. Luckily, we are working on improving this and starting collaborating.
You are also very active in sports, how do you combine this with being Health Innovator?
I’m glad that MedScaler is very flexible with the working hours – a true employer from 2022. As I mentioned before, I like to start early which means I get to stop early and go training. It is also actively encouraged to go working remotely abroad. Last year, I have spent a week working in Portugal while being on a training camp and our CEO worked remotely from Spain and Germany for several weeks.
What does it take to be a good Health Innovator?
Hmm, I think it takes good project management skills and being able to keep an overview of different projects at once. In addition, it takes a certain level of business writing but more importantly; perseverance. The healthcare industry can be quite slow, unfortunately, so be prepared to take on that challenge!
Working as Health Innovator at MedScaler?
Are you even more curious about working as Health Innovator? Do you know we currently have three similar fulltime positions as what Gijs is doing? You can become a Health Innovator and specialize yourself in the Dutch, Belgium, or German healthcare market. If you’re more interested in traineeships, definitely check out our Health Innovator Traineeship. You can apply via our website or contact jobs@medscaler.com for more information!
