Elsa Varghese on Leaving Residency, the Pressure of Family Expectations, and Building Medical Games 🎮
Hi everyone,
Welcome back to another edition of the Out of Programme newsletter!
In this episode, Muhammad and Jing sit down with Elsa Varghese, a former medical trainee who made the bold decision to step off the well-trodden path of residency to explore the frontiers of digital health. Elsa shares her powerful story of leaving behind a secured internal medicine training programme to build a purpose-driven career in medical education, health tech, and gamification.
From navigating cultural and family expectations to launching physician-facing clinical games at Level X, and now leading medical teams at Snake Inc., Elsa offers a compelling roadmap for clinicians who are questioning whether the traditional path is truly theirs to follow.
🎙 Key Takeaways:
👣 Leaving the Residency Track – Elsa opens up about walking away from a coveted spot in internal medicine and how she found clarity through discomfort.
📚 Turning Passion into Career Capital – What began as tutoring during clerkship blossomed into a niche in clinical education and ultimately, a role in medtech.
🎮 Pixar for Doctors? – Discover how Elsa helped build immersive clinical training games and what it’s like to collaborate with engineers, designers, and artists.
🧭 Managing Cultural Pressure – From breadcrumbing her family about her career shift to explaining “medical games” at Thanksgiving, Elsa shares her experience managing expectations.
🚀 Leadership Beyond the Clinic – Now a director at Snake Inc., Elsa talks about the challenges of managing multidisciplinary teams and why good leadership begins with empathy and clarity.
💰 Financial Realities – Elsa dives into the anxiety of student debt and earning potential — and why long-term fulfilment sometimes outweighs short-term certainty.
Elsa’s story is a must-listen for anyone who’s ever felt torn between what’s expected of them and what they truly want to pursue. If you’ve been seeking reassurance that it’s okay to carve your own path, this episode is for you.
If you enjoyed this discussion on redefining success in medicine, make sure to subscribe to us on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
Till next time,
Jing & Muhammad