A Healthy Career Change

Nora (Szasz) Iluri ’99, MEng ’99, PhD ’03 was working at Google when an email from LinkedIn caught her eye. “I got one of those LinkedIn recruiting messages, you know everybody gets, about Pieces Technologies. It talked about the ability to transform healthcare…I forwarded it to my husband and said ‘Wow, this sounds like a dream job.’”

Pieces is a health information technology company on a mission to advance health at every decision. They provide data-driven solutions that monitor and provide real-time feedback to healthcare facilities and communities to help them make the best decisions. The company, which started under a non-profit umbrella launched Pieces Technologies in March 2016 and have been growing rapidly ever since.

Within six months, Iluri took a job as senior vice president of product for these solutions, which use predictive analytics—data, algorithms, and machine learning—to make inferences about the future health of patients and ultimately save lives. “The hospital solution can actually identify patients that are at a high risk of being re-admitted to the hospital, or even identify patients in the hospital that are at risk of undergoing cardiopulmonary arrest. Then, they can provide better treatment trying to keep the patient alive, healthy, and well.”

In addition to their hospital solution, which analyzes the emergency medical records, they also have a community solution, which provides individualized case management. The tool leverages healthcare solutions and controlled information sharing so that you can get the full 360-degree view of each patient. “Before a patient gets released, we want the provider to know that, for instance, that person doesn’t have a home to go to, or they won’t be able to afford their medication, or they might have issues with affording their wheelchair. Then, the providers can identify the necessary resources for the patients to stay healthy and recover through use of community organizations and to be sure that there’s a comprehensive care plan.”

The rapid growth of Pieces is just one of the reasons Iluri says they’re participating in the October 28 MIT Alumni Virtual Career Fair. “We signed up last minute for the one in January,” she explained, referring to the Alumni Association's first-ever virtual career fair. “We knew we were going to split out and were looking at ways to capture talent. Sometimes it’s very difficult to get high-caliber talent when you’re doing a search and this event pulls together very experienced alumni in a very efficient forum and was able to generate a lot of leads quickly.”

The virtual career fair gives MIT alumni exclusive access to top employers looking for high-caliber candidates. The four-hour fair allows participants to log in and out throughout the fair and be alerted when a company is available to chat. The one-on-one, informal, online chats (you just have to type) take place anywhere that is convenient for participants (work or home) and are done through your computer, tablet, or smartphone. The quick chats can lead to additional conversations with hiring managers. Learn more about the fair.