It’s been over a year since I made the decision to leave my full-time high-salary cushy-benefits job in the middle of a recession and further my education in graduate school. At the time I had little to guide that decision other than instinct. Sure I had reasons but in cases like these, what more are reasons but rationalizations of instinct?
Despite the obvious monetary losses the move has been hugely rewarding. I have been able to find the research I was looking for, working on wireless implantable medical devices. My current project is to design an wireless implantable pressure sensor that requires no batteries and can be used anywhere in the body, from spinal discs to retinas to brains. Pressure monitors in the eye can predict the onset of glaucoma and allow opthamologists to intervene before the patient is blinded. Sensors in the spine can monitor back profile and help surgeons be more discerning with risky back surgery operations.
It took a long time to find this research, in a small group at UCSF that just started. My advisor just recently moved his lab out here to get more direct physician involvement. Lots of people are doing small-scale medical devices but no one, not even at Berkeley, are interested in developing therapeutic devices and directly interacting with patients. The research of this group is exactly that – exploiting the revolution in microfabrication for healing people rather than developing the next best computer chip.
Finally come the other benefits of living up here. Stress level down, job satisfaction up, health up, public transit use up, environment up. It’s not all roses here, but it’s good to look back on a big decision and realize you made the right choice.