[pschuegr]

I'm not currently working on it, but for years I worked for a telehealth startup/research project, building and maintaining their systems. The quantitative and qualitative analysis (including RCTs) done by the research arm all indicated that it has meaningful positive effects on the users.

I did have to make sacrifices financially (I doubled my salary within a month of leaving) but I went in knowing what I was doing so I don't regret that. That's a pretty substantial downside, so it's completely understandable that more people don't go that route. It's unfortunately a bit of a self-reinforcing problem because working with highly competent, friendly coworkers like you get at big tech is an experience that is hard to find at places without big tech budgets.

[nmoadev]

That's a helpful perspective, thanks for sharing!