People Behind the Product: Cyd La Luz
This is the first in a new series of interviews with the DIG engineers. We’ll introduce you to an engineer, and give you a peek into what it’s like to work for DIG. If you’re interested in a career at DIG, check out our current openings.
Meet Cyd, a software engineer on our web platform team. His team is building the next generation of online scheduling for Express Care and virtual visits.
What team are you on?
We call ourselves the Festivus team. We maintain a number of applications from primary care scheduling to retail time slot scheduling and now we’ve just recently released virtual scheduling through web — which is of course both desktop and mobile responsive.
It’s a lot of fun. We try to prioritize best practices in web development as they are coming out and being written. The use of React and Node.JS is what drew me to this team.
Within Festivus, what’s your favorite project?
Recently we pulled together to launch Virtual Visits along with Auth0 helping with ease of patient access. Just seeing all the teams involved unite and come together to get out a release ahead of time was awesome. I’m proud of us collectively.
Any projects you’re tackling outside of Festivus?
I like to keep a pulse on customer feedback, so will regularly pick up a commonly complained about bug. I say customers but these are patients we’re talking about and if our tools aren’t working for them that can have serious implications.
A while ago I released a time slot picking interface. Immediately upon release customer feedback came in thanking us for the time slot options and praising the new easy workflow. Seeing an immediate rush of positive feedback from patients always makes me fondly remember a project.
Do you ever get to see your tools in action?
I have a patient engagement center visit scheduled for this month! It’s an opportunity to job shadow the medical professionals who use our tools, and gauge how the features are helping or hindering them. I’m really looking forward to it.
What brought you to health tech?
I used to work at Tesla, so when DIG reached out to me, the opportunity just spoke to me. It was in line with what I’ve always have been interested in long term, which is developing software that delivers value to people and isn’t just delivering some cool new app.
How does engineering differ in health care?
Actually, I was surprised how similar it is. Health care technology quality standards are quite high. Companies tend to use health care as an excuse for low standards, but DIG doesn’t. One of the biggest differences is figuring out how to deliver convenience and personalization that are HIPAA compliant.
What excites you about the future of DIG?
It’s a great time to be in health care. We’ve integrated early with a lot of FHIR compliant applications, such as Apple health. There’s a lot of opportunity to set the standards and lead the way.
If you were a donut, what would you be?
Chocolate with peanuts on it.
