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We’re hiring top-notch talent to join our small but mighty software development and incubation team. We build technology that gives patients convenient and easy access to healthcare virtually anywhere, anytime. In short, we write code that literally changes—and sometimes saves—lives.

We’re hosting two upcoming recruiting and networking events for developers interested in coding the future of healthcare. These events give potential applicants the chance to learn about what we do here at DIG, talk to hiring managers who can put them in touch with the right contacts and get feedback on how they can win during an interview.

EVENT DETAILS

Providence Digital Innovation Group Open House
April 24, 2018
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Bank of America Tower
800 5th Ave, 11^th Floor
Seattle, WA 98104

Tour our work space and get a feel for the work we do through product demos and conversations with the engineers who are solving problems in this challenging space.

Providence Digital Innovation Group Eastside Happy Hour
May 15, 2018
5:30 PM – 8:00 PM
Lot No. 3
460 106^th Ave NE
Bellevue, WA 98005

Meet with our leadership team and other developers to get a feel for our team dynamics and some of the projects we’re working on.

RSVP Here!

Know before you go

Be sure to bring your resume to either recruitment event to get valuable exposure to and feedback from our experienced hiring managers. They’ll take your resume and connect you with the right manager—often times potential hires hear back within a week. These events are one of the best ways for software developers to get a foot in the door at DIG.

For software engineering job interview tips, click here >

“Usually you never put innovation and health care in one sentence, and we are challenging that,” says Nipun Dureja, VP of Engineering at Providence Digital Innovation group (DIG).  We’re here to shake up the industry with disruptive technology in order to make healthcare accessible to all. Our focus is on innovating to simplify healthcare and push the industry forward. Here are several ways we foster an innovative culture.

Challenging and rewarding

Software engineers working in technology are often highly coveted. But with that can come a few tradeoffs. This can happen particularly with startups, which can require employees to compromise on work/life balance, forgo benefits available at other companies, and miss out on training and advancement opportunities found at other, more established employers. The culture at DIG feels like the good side of a startup and offers the best of both worlds—the exhilaration of an incubation organization paired with the resources and security of an industry leader. That’s why, when we recruit from the world of technology, many engineers opt to make the switch. We highly value our employees, offering competitive salaries and benefits—but we also offer something else: the ability to help improve lives through technology, and, potentially even save lives.

Providing time to innovate

According to Fast Company, back in 1944, 3M set up the first innovation lab, which it called the Products Fabrication Laboratory. It was designed for “lab technicians to dream big without constraints. The impact: 3M’s misfits of science invented such breakthroughs as surgical tape. Xerox PARC and Google X’s moonshot labs owe 3M a debt.”

At DIG, we don’t have an innovation lab—DIG is the innovation lab. We work as if we’re in a lab environment. According to Billy Jackson, Manager of Telehealth Solutions and Support, “We’re encouraged to experiment, try new things, understand the results and then put them in place. We’re allowed to break rules.”

Another way we encourage innovation is through regular hackathons that give employees free reign to work on code outside of their normal work activities. All employees are encouraged to have fun and experiment and bring with them their different perspectives and skills. One innovation that came out of giving employees the time, space and freedom to come up with new things the new “Find a physician” feature for patients in Seattle area. This feature uses technology to match patients with the right providers, based on things like location, specialty, gender, language and medical group. The tool makes finding a doctor as easy as locating and ordering at the local Starbucks.

Rewarding innovation

At DIG, rewarding innovation goes deeper than putting an employee’s name on a plaque. Often, the little things matter more when it comes to showing employees that creativity and inventive thinking is truly valued.

Innovation can be rewarded with a bonus, promotion or role expansion—or through a rewarding experience such as lunch with the CEO or a company-hosted outing for the employee and his/her team.

Healthcare is an industry desperately needing innovative creators, coders, thinkers. Healthcare technology is still in its infancy; however, with great work, comes great reward. “By hiring folks from different industries and companies, we ensure we bring an open mind towards pushing the envelope in healthcare,” says Dureja.

Are you down for the challenge? If so, check out our latest job openings >

There’s been a sharp rise in healthcare apps in recent years, with more than 165,000 available at the App Store according to Healthcare IT News. But not all are created equal. With so many options, which are best for helping patients prioritize and manage their health? And how will healthcare apps in 2018 evolve with new technologies?

Most useful types of healthcare apps

At Providence Digital Innovation Group (DIG), we are prioritizing two types of healthcare apps: resource apps and care-on-demand apps.  We’re pursing projects in both areas because they have the potential to move the needle on some of the greatest unmet healthcare needs; from improving quality to making care more affordable and available.  Digital solutions may also provide streamlined workflow for clinicians’ and caregivers’, and eventually help improve the health of a large group of patients.

Resource apps

Living with a condition or disease is easier when you have a network of resources at your fingertips. That way, you can find answers to questions without having to contact your healthcare provider. Circle by Providence is an example of one such tool.

Circle is a free app that lets expectant mothers tap into a vast network of resources and tools for moms and moms-to-be. From pregnancy through the teen years, Circle has answers to your questions about raising healthy kids. Circle offers:

• Articles with answers to your questions about pregnancy, babies and parenting.
• Breastfeeding support from videos and articles, and a guide to local resources.
• Information about classes and groups for new moms and moms with older children.
• A to-do checklist from Providence experts to guide you through every stage of pregnancy and motherhood.
• Health-tracking tools so you can update providers about your pregnancy and your growing child.

Care on demand apps

When it’s late at night and you’re too sick to drive, or when you’re traveling and need to see your doctor, virtual care is a convenient option. Care on demand apps, such as Providence’s Express Care Virtual, lets you get access to a provider remotely, whereas apps like Express Care at Home enable you to request a doctor visit your home; all from your smart device.

Express Care Virtual is like having a doctor’s appointment via FaceTime. You use your phone, tablet or computer to have a video chat in real time with a health care provider. This service is good for health issues that don’t require a visit in person, such as when you are experiencing cold and flu symptoms, , sore throat, rashes, diarrhea and vomiting or conjunctivitis.

The Express Care at Home service lets you use an app to request a provider visit you in person in your home, hotel, or place of business.

The changing face of apps in 2018

Innovative healthcare companies are placing a premium on recruiting standout development talent to create cutting-edge apps that cut through the clutter and solve for the greatest need. In 2018 and beyond, we’ll see many of these trends start to filter in to healthcare apps:

Personalized healthcare apps that are tailored to a user’s location, usage and behavior – perhaps sending a notification to pick up a prescription when the patient is near his or her pharmacy of choice.

Apps that integrate AR and VR into healthcare. From Big Think, “Fully immersive 3D operating room simulations could be used to train young doctors in real life situations, helping them to gain experience, become more confident, and be able to make the snap decisions necessary in order to save lives.”

An influx of medial sensors and wearables with apps to monitor everything from safety to post-surgery recovery to detection of disease. Recently announced sensors can do some of what happens at a patient’s routine physical, monitoring everything from oxygen saturation to heart rate over time to blood pressure.

Are you a developer interested in helping to propel the healthcare industry forward by developing technologies that help the largest amount of people? Check out our latest job listings >

After all of your hard work, you’ve landed an interview for your ideal job. Now, how do you nail the interview? Everyone knows you should research the organization and the position, but what next? Following are some tips and tricks from our team of hiring managers at Providence Digital Innovation Group.

Know the details
Be prepared to talk about the details of a project, a technical problem you solved or a challenge you faced. Details matter as they help communicate your thought process and your problem-solving skills. This helps the interviewer understand your point of view and how decisions were being made. Examples include: “Tell me about a challenging problem you worked on.” Think of your responses as a mini case study, stating the situation, the opportunity, your approach and the results.

Brush up on the technical basics
It’s good idea to remind yourself of CS basics such as data structures. That’s because many times, you’ll be expected to pass a technical screening before you hear the first interview question. For example, at DIG, you’re not usually asked to formally apply until you’ve gone through a tech screen and a video coding session with a DIG employee. Pass those, and a hiring manager will connect with you for an interview loop.

During the interview, you may be asked to solve problems on a whiteboard, so it’s a good idea to run through a trial interview with a developer friend beforehand. Narrate your steps as you write so the interviewer gets a sense of your thought process.

Ask questions
Be prepared to ask questions during your interview loop as they indicate that you are inviested in finding a career rather than just the next job. Below is a list of sample questions:

• How does your organization create a developer-first culture?
• What types of training programs do you offer?
• What type of conferences do software engineers at your company typically attend?
• What’s the process for raising new ideas with management?
• Will I report to another technical person?
• What’s the day-to-day experience like for a software engineer in your organization?
• What’s your tech stack?

Think of responses aimed at both technical and non-technical people
Sure, your job lives in lines of code, but the best software engineers can also interact with people who might think code is nothing more than how spies talk. When coming up with recent examples of successes and challenges in the workplace, jot down how you’d explain them to people in various departments, from engineering to marketing to human resources.

No matter who you’re speaking with, make sure you get to the heart of your answer quickly and succinctly; try to avoid rambling or tangential stories. If the interviewer wants to know more, he/she will ask.

Be genuine
DIG hiring managers love honesty and being genuine. This applies to whether you are solving a technical problem on a whiteboard or talking about your past experiences. No one is perfect and it is okay to admit that as it helps communicate your ability to learn.

Show your enthusiasm
DIG’s hiring managers agree that a candidate’s enthusiasm speaks volumes during the interview process. Showing passion for past projects and talking about how they might translate to future work is a great way to engage. And don’t forget to share details about any outside coding you do or developer groups you belong to.

Interested in applying at DIG? Check out our latest job listings.

A decade ago, the hottest places for software engineers to work were social media and on-demand music companies, where engineers were focused on building online spaces where people could connect with their friends or favorite entertainment. Now, a focus has turned to healthcare, where it’s all about connecting people not with their friends or playlists – but with their doctors.

The demand for engineers in healthcare

Right now, there are nearly 8,000 listings for “healthcare software engineer” on Indeed; broaden that search to “healthcare software” and there are closer to 60,000 results including positions like application programmer, java developer, data scientist and software engineer. Biomedical engineer is one of the ten fastest growing jobs right now according to USA Today, and last spring, GE Healthcare, a subsidiary of General Electric, announced a $500 million investment and that it would hire 5,000 engineers by 2018 to focus on the space.

Here are the top three reasons why engineers should work in healthcare instead of in tech:

Reason 1: You’re a diamond in the rough.             

At an internet company, everyone’s a software developer. When e-commerce giant Amazon announced in January that it would hire 100,000 full-time employees in the U.S. between then and the middle of 2018, the three focus areas for called out were logistics, customer service, and – you guessed it – engineering.

In an industry full of doctors, nurses, and administrators – coders are special. In healthcare, software engineers are the ones pushing the industry forward, tasked with identifying the innovations that will matter to the largest number of people and taking on the challenge of creating them. And since the healthcare industry is the 5^th largest economy on the planet, there’s plenty of market opportunity. As a software engineer in healthcare you are forging the path for a new way to deliver healthcare.  You are translating the modern conveniences we use every day on apps like Google Maps or Uber to healthcare – giving people easy access to everything from preventative to life-saving care.

Reason 2: The tech is cutting-edge.

Technology in healthcare is just plain cool. From cancer-fighting nanobots to motion-tracking technology for physical therapy to ingestible sensors that monitor medicine intake, software engineering in healthcare isn’t your everyday coding job. According to Global Artificial Intelligence Market in Healthcare Sector: Analysis & Forecasts, 2017-2025, “Artificial intelligence continues to propel the healthcare industry with increasing revenue at a global level. The rapid pace at which the scientific innovations are taking place, the spanning of artificial intelligence into various healthcare verticals and the fact that the efficiency of systems can be improved using artificial intelligence led to the global emergence of artificial intelligence market in healthcare sector.”

Reason 3: You can write code that saves lives.

Every wanted to be superhero? Now you can be writing code that could literally save people’s lives – or, at minimum, change them for the better. At Providence DIG, one of our key focus areas is telehealth; we currently provide more than 40 telehealth services, with solutions ranging from primary care to critical care. Our technology makes it possible for a busy parent with sick kids at home to get access to a virtual doctor or a home visit; or a stroke patient living in a remote community to receive lifesaving stroke care via a specialized telecart when every minute matters.

Why you should work in healthcare, from engineers working in healthcare right now

Need more reasons to migrate from technology to healthcare? Here’s why our software engineers and engineering managers who’ve made the transition are happy they did:

Ted N., Senior Software Engineer: “I came to DIG from a background of tech startups because value isn’t measured in share prices here. Using a startup mentality to make a positive social change with similarly-passionate people makes this a job I look forward to every day!”

Timofei B., Senior Software Engineer II: “After I decided to leave a large local tech company I was considering several opportunities. The biggest factor for me in choosing DIG was the other engineers I met at one of the recruiting events – and the fact that during the interview process, the team was so much more open and responsive than at other companies.”

Suresh P., Senior Software Engineer: The way the healthcare works made me upset many times in my own experience, like making and changing the appointments, understanding the bills, contacting the provider, etc.  When I got an offer from the DIG, I was so excited about getting a chance to make healthcare better.  I felt so happy when I booked my annual physical appointment through the Swedish online website in which my code is working behind the scenes.

Chad W., Manager, Software Engineering: I came to DIG for one primary reason: I wanted to work on software that makes a deeper impact on people’s lives. Something that isn’t focused on producing cash for some corporation but rather around fundamentally improving access to healthcare and easing essential services that people depend on for survival. Providence also has a wonderful mission that really connected with me and solidified itself during the new hire orientation.

Thinking of making a change? Check out our job listings >

 

This isn’t your grandpa’s health care anymore.

It wasn’t too long ago that managing your health meant an annual checkup with your family doctor and eating an apple a day. But now, when we can monitor our diet, sleep, exercise, symptoms, calories, and practically everything else under the sun via apps and wearables, staying healthy can be stressful. There is almost too much information out there for individuals to manage for themselves and their families. Tech titans are pioneering digital health advancements, like IBM’s Watson Health, which analyzes data from medical records and imaging to find patterns and figure out solutions to patient problems. Along with managing the data for you, technologies like this can drastically cut costs. According to Fortune, patients with rare diseases typically face, on average, seven doctors before a diagnosis is made.

From a software development standpoint, the pace of the health care’s digital transformation is rapid. According to The Economist, “Investment into digital health care has soared. One reason for that is the scale of potential cost-savings.” With 53 percent of consumers saying that their out-of-pocket costs for doctor visits increased year over year, according to Nielsen, giving patients great care for less money is paramount.

Some of the ways we at Providence DIG have already begun to simplify health care and bring it to more people include:

• Offering virtual visits, like Swedish’s ExpressCare Virtual, where patients can interact with a health care provider via video call from their phone, tablet or computer, resulting in less time away from work when you’re trying to figure out a solution to a minor medical problem.
• Using apps like Circle to create more frequent touchpoints between patients and their health care team – so when you have a question, you don’t always have to go in to the doctor’s office.
• Allowing patients to schedule a house call, where a provider comes to their home, like Uber or Lyft for health care.
• Enabling doctors to issue prescriptions and care instructions over Xealth, so you don’t have to spend a lot of valuable time trying to sort out medications or try to remember after the fact what steps you should take next.
• Delivering critical specialty care through telehealth carts, which allow specialist doctors to video conference with colleagues and consult on care for patients in rural areas who may otherwise not have access to specialists.

Some health care tech is better than others

According to Healthcare IT News, currently, there are more than 100,000 health-related apps available to patients. From a development standpoint, choosing what to create that will provide the most benefit to patients can be a challenge, too. “There are so many opportunities for improvement in health care that you could spend your entire life chasing a bunch of small but very valuable ideas that, at full scale, aren’t as valuable as others,” says Aaron Martin, Providence’s chief digital officer and former Amazon exec. “It’s a matter of prioritization.”

At DIG, we only pursue projects that will fundamentally increase the quality, affordability and availability of health care, make clinicians’ and caregivers’ work easier, and eventually help improve the health of a large group of patients. “Today we serve you when you’re sick. Tomorrow we want to partner with you all the time to help improve your health,” says Martin.

Are you a software developer interested in creating better health care tech? If so, check out our job listings.

You may not immediately think “health care” when you think of software engineers in Seattle. But you should.

At Providence Digital Innovation Group, or DIG for short, we’re on a mission to simplify the old school world of health care using new school tech. We create disruptive technologies that bring health care to more people – like telemedicine services that can help rural patients when they are having medical emergencies. So, instead of writing code that helps sell the latest and greatest consumer electronics, we write code that saves lives.

We’re part of a large health care organization, but we look, act, work, think, and play like a startup. And we’re always on the lookout for standout software engineers to help us deliver more cutting-edge health care technologies to more people.

That’s why we started this blog. Here, you’ll find posts designed to give you a sense of what happens at DIG, our perspective on the industry, and why Seattle is the best place to work and why. If you’re a software engineer at any level, you should check out our openings.

Comedian Jon Lovitz said, “My dad would always say, ‘What can you do to make the world a better place?’ Well, I can make people laugh.” We may not make a living making people laugh – though some of us think we’re pretty funny – but we do what we can to make the world a better place. We do that one line of code, one positive patient experience at a time.

If that sounds like you, we hope you’ll keep in touch: follow our blog and/or like us on Facebook.