National Director, Cardiac Rehab — Matt Crow

This week’s spotlight is on Matt Crow, PT, DPT, CCS, a Non-Clinical 101 graduate who is now National Director, Cardiac Rehab for ROM Technologies!

What is your full name, title, and company name for your current, primary role?

Matt Crow, PT, DPT, CCS (Board-Certified Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Clinical Specialist).

My current primary role is National Director, Cardiac Rehab at ROM Technologies, Inc.

Where are you located?

I live in Golden, Colorado (outside of Denver) but travel across the United States nearly 100% of the time as part of my role.

Where did you go to PT school, and what year did you graduate?

University of Colorado, 2016.

What did you do when you first finished school, and for how long?

My very first job out of PT school was in acute care. I didn’t do a clinical rotation in that setting and was unsure of exactly what I was getting into, but my plan was to take a PRN position until I got a job in another area.

Little did I know I would fall in love with the setting and spend the rest of my time as a clinician working in the hospital.

In what setting(s) did you work, and what types of patients did you treat?

My entire clinical career was spent working in the inpatient acute setting, albeit with a wide variety of patient populations. While I worked with patients in nearly every unit, the bulk of my time was spent in the cardiothoracic ICU, cardiac ICU, medical ICU, COVID ICU, and emergency department.

What did you enjoy about your early roles? What didn’t you enjoy?

I enjoyed the constant exposure to new patient populations, diagnoses, and interventions offered in acute care. I saw something new each day, which pushed me to seek out experts in various clinical areas and add to my skill set. It also allowed me to sample many clinical areas to better understand my interests.

I had similar gripes to many clinicians regarding day-to-day challenges: the hierarchical model of healthcare delivery, moral injury surrounding the inability to provide the quality of care we’d like, excessive documentation, etc.

The final catalyst behind my decision to leave the bedside was limited upward mobility. The roles on the path to growth within the hospital were not particularly appealing to me, and the compensation was not adequate relative to the increase in responsibilities, in my opinion.

What else have you done since then, prior to your current role?

While ROMTech has been my one and only stop when moving from clinical to non-clinical, I’ve held other positions at the company before entering my current role.

As a consultant, I participated heavily in:

• Research and development
• Product management
• User experience and user interface (UX/UI)
• Billing and payor access
• Clinical protocol development
• Treatment of our initial telehealth patient cohort
• Selection and testing of our remote monitoring equipment
• Creation of work instructions and standard operating procedures
• The building of our clinical staffing structure

I hired some highly skilled cardiac rehab experts to help further develop the program and managed the group for a period before handing it over to a talented colleague. I then spent significant time working on a cross-functional team, helping develop our operational workflow at scale.

When and why did you decide to do something non-clinical?

After two years working in the COVID ICU at the tail end of my clinical career, I needed a break from providing patient care.

I think even aside from that challenging experience, I had a strong, persistent curiosity about opportunities beyond the bedside and was eager to venture down another path.

I knew I still wanted to impact patients but also recognized my interest in special projects, interdisciplinary communication, and public speaking while working in the hospital setting, so I was eager to explore ways to focus on developing those skills.

I also wanted to address healthcare disparities after noticing so many glaring shortcomings between groups while working as a clinician.

Before discovering The Non-Clinical PT, I believed the only non-clinical option as a PT was entering academia, but I quickly discovered how many additional opportunities exist.

What are you doing these days?

While I was actively working in multiple roles during my first year at ROMTech, I gradually became more involved in public outreach to physicians, health systems, and health insurance organizations as a subject matter expert.

After successfully landing a key partnership that helped propel the company forward, I was given the opportunity to move into a full-time role as National Director.

Broadly, my responsibilities include identifying potential strategic partnerships with large health systems, meeting with hospital executives to secure those partnerships, and operationalizing each partnering site.

Are you still treating patients, or are you solely non-clinical?

I am solely non-clinical.

How long have you been in your current national director role?

I’ve been in the role of National Director since September of 2023.

What do you wish you would’ve known before going into this role?

I think the most valuable learning comes from experience, so I don’t regret diving in headfirst with only a limited idea of what was coming.

With that said, if I could go back, I’d tell myself to be more confident.

While I greatly value the expertise other clinical providers bring to the table, we are the subject matter experts on rehabilitation. We have unique knowledge that is critical to the success of a healthcare company, and I wish I had recognized that sooner.

Did you get any special certifications or training along the way to help you get into your current national director role?

My boss always jokes that I’m getting an honorary MBA, but I have not officially pursued any non-clinical degrees, certifications, or training.

I heavily utilized Non-Clinical 101 and the associated resources both before and after my start date. Reviewing the different career paths in the 101 course had a secondary benefit of helping me understand what my new team members do (product managers, marketing, etc.). It was my survival guide for months.

Having an ABPTS Board Certification in Cardiovascular and Pulmonary PT made my resume stand out amongst the masses when applying for this position. Additionally, the knowledge I gained as part of the certification process and years of treating cardiac patients contributed strongly to my success in this role.

How did you find your job? Did you apply or find it through a connection?

I found my job on Indeed and did not have any connections. I believe I was one of the rare, very lucky individuals who was in the right place at the right time. While I was an exception, I believe networking is the key for the vast majority of job searches. Network constantly, even once employed!

Did you do anything special to your resume and cover letter to land the job?

I followed the Non-Clinical 101 guidelines and created unique resumes for each type of role for which I applied (e.g. clinical specialist, product manager, clinical consultant) and a separate cover letter tailored to every individual company. I also spent time translating each bullet point of my recent clinical experience into non-clinical language.

It might seem excessive and time consuming to do so, but I can tell you from experience it dramatically increased my application response rate. In my opinion, this was the most valuable tool offered in the course.

What was the interview like for the role?

I was still working as a clinician at the time, so I had to take my first interview from a closet in the medical ICU during my lunch break—with a CPR dummy and a ventilator as my background. I had three rounds of interviews for this role.

My first was with a recruiter, who was looking to make sure I had the core requirements for the job. The recruiter was non-clinical, and the interview was only thirty minutes, so employing the Non-Clinical 101 skill of concisely translating my clinical achievements into non-clinical language was crucial during this step.

I was then passed to the President and Product Manager of the company to further dive into my past achievements and begin to explore my ideas for creating an at-home cardiac rehab program. I had a third panel interview with the Research and Development team (five people), including a cardiothoracic surgeon associated with the company, and was given a final written assignment to outline my vision for creating the company’s cardiac rehab vertical.

What are some of the things you did to stand out, take initiative, and advance in your career?

First and foremost, I was proactive and took ownership. I did not wait to be asked to do something. Instead, I identified areas for development and got to work.

I also embraced the start-up tenet of saying “yes” to all available opportunities, which allowed me to gain exposure to multiple areas of the business (product management, UX/UI, payor access, sales, marketing, IT, etc.).

Eventually, you have to set boundaries and focus your energy, but initially drinking from the proverbial fire hose increased my exposure to various roles and helped me identify my strengths and interests.

I also believe this increased my visibility to company leadership and solidified my value as a key member of the ROMTech team.

How have people reacted to you leaving patient care?

I’d say the reaction was mostly positive or neutral, at least to my knowledge.

I’ve had several connections in the rehab world reach out to me after learning about my departure from the bedside to express their frustrations with patient care and desire to explore other avenues. I’ve directed more people to The Non-Clinical PT than I can count.

While I believe providing direct patient care is incredibly important, I’m always excited to share what I’ve learned about the numerous opportunities available to impact patients in non-clinical roles to those who are seeking alternatives.

What’s a typical day or week in the life like for you? What types of tasks and responsibilities fill your time?

My days are highly variable, which I enjoy. In my current role, I’m often in an airport or a new city. Learning how to travel well is a key survival skill if you go into a role with high travel requirements.

I may be on-site presenting to a hospital’s executive team, meeting with a panel of health insurance providers, educating clinical staff on our program, giving a podium presentation at a major conference, working with hospital IT specialists to develop our order set, meeting with my team of program liaisons to solve site-specific problems, or catching up with the President and CEO of ROMTech to weigh in on a strategic question.

What are some of the rewards of your national director role? What are the biggest challenges?

I have a high degree of autonomy over my schedule, which helps me remain flexible and is key to success in an executive sales role. I love the diversity of tasks that comprise my day; I don’t do well with monotony, so being kept on my toes keeps me engaged. I also thoroughly enjoy connecting with new people in the healthcare space.

Most importantly, I enjoy the direct results of my efforts. Securing a new partnership translates to more patients receiving cardiac rehab, which is at the core of why I went down this path.

As for challenges, I am on the road nearly 100% of the week. Fortunately, I love to travel and have a supportive family, but I do miss home during longer stints on the road. This can also present challenges for maintaining healthy diet and exercise habits, but as a traveling triathlete, I’ll tell you it can be done with some preparation and intention.

Even for those who love to travel, I’d recommend picking the brain of a seasoned road warrior before taking a travel role, especially if it involves frequent overnights.

How did your clinical background prepare you for this national director role? Which skills transferred?

As rehab professionals, we research a patient’s past medical history before our initial evaluation, develop a plan of care based on our findings, communicate with and obtain buy-in from the patient on the plan of care, potentially consult other members of the interdisciplinary team, and document the heck out of the encounter.

While this is just a day in the life of a therapist, when you break down each of these tasks, at their core lie critical skills for success in multiple areas of the business world, including the ability to sell, conduct research and development, write concisely, negotiate, communicate, lead, and act as a high functioning member of a team.

While I’ve had plenty to learn jumping from clinical to non-clinical, I’ve noticed I had a strong framework for success simply as a result of carrying out my daily clinical duties. Our work ethic is also second to none, which employers will notice.

A plug for the clinical specialists: as a CCS, my wide breadth and significant depth of knowledge in cardiovascular and pulmonary PT has proven valuable when building a cardiac-specific clinical program. With that said, the general education we receive in our respective programs prepares us well to act as a subject matter expert on rehabilitation, so be confident in your knowledge regardless of your background or level of experience!

Roughly speaking, how are the hours and pay compared to patient care?

The hours are highly variable compared to clinical life. In the early phase of my time here at ROMTech, I worked 12+ hour days every day to build our program and was on call for my team after hours as well; it was a labor of love.

In my current role, I have more control over my time, but if a potential client or colleague on my team wants to meet after regular business hours, I have to be available.

With that said, commissions are a component of your compensation package in many sales roles, including mine. Your earning potential is directly commensurate with the work you put in. It feels good to be paid adequately for my hard work.

What type of person do you think would do well in your role?

As for creating a new program or product, you have to be an organized self-starter. You may be staring down a large, general goal to work towards (e.g. build a telehealth cardiac rehab program) and must ask the right questions, seek out and develop strategic relationships with various experts to find answers, and juggle multiple responsibilities simultaneously with little to no oversight.

A sense of urgency is also key to success in this environment. Time is not on your side when creating something new. For a newer company/vertical/program to survive, you have to move quickly, and you will need to possess the intrinsic drive to set aggressive goals and execute them.

As for success in an executive sales role, you need to master the art of active listening and develop the ability to build rapport quickly. Your interactions with various healthcare executives and providers may be brief, but people only partner with those they trust. You need to become adept at quickly identifying others’ motivations, tailoring your conversation to address their identified needs, and concisely conveying the potential value add of partnering with your company or using your product.

Additionally, you have to develop resilience or a “thick skin.” People will challenge you, pick your program or product apart (kick the tires, as they say), and ask you tough questions. Remaining composed, professional, and confident in your knowledge is crucial. As rehab professionals, we are well-prepared for these situations–just think back to any difficult patient encounters you’ve had and channel that energy.

Do you work remotely or onsite?

I was 100% remote when first working for ROMTech. I’d now consider my role hybrid, participating in both remote meetings and on-site activities across the United States.

Does your organization hire PT, OT, or SLP professionals into non-clinical roles? If so, what type of roles?

Yes! ROMTech values the voice of clinicians, which was a primary reason behind my decision to go full time with the company. I can remember key moments early on where my clinical insights were not only requested during large meetings but implemented in the creation of our cardiac vertical.

Rehab professionals at my company have held the title of National Director, Product Manager, Field Specialist, and Territory Manager, to name a few. I know we are currently hiring PTs for a Patient Monitoring Specialist role as well.

Did you read any books, take any courses, or do anything special overall to get you where you are today?

I thoroughly reviewed the Non-Clinical 101 course both before and after starting my new role.

Leadership is a large part of my current role, both directly and indirectly, so I found the most value in media focused on improving leadership skills. The books The First 90 Days by Michael Watkins and Dare to Lead by Brene Brown (also a podcast), as well as numerous courses in the LinkedIn professional library helped significantly.

I also want to emphasize the importance of finding a mentor. This may be someone within your company or completely external, as it was in my case. A mentor can help you brainstorm strategies to navigate challenging situations, provide insight into your potential paths for career growth, and ask tough questions to challenge you, to name only a few benefits.

What is a typical career path for someone in your national director role?

In some ways, I traveled a somewhat unconventional path to land in my current role, so I’m sure there are more direct routes to progress into a position where you’re selling to large healthcare systems (also known as enterprise sales). Many people will start as a sales representative or territory manager, selling a particular product and/or targeting smaller practices as a first step. Once comfortable, they might seek out an enterprise sales role, which is more complex.

With that said, starting as a consultant where I participated in so many aspects of building our program (product management, UX/UI, clinical program creation, marketing, payor access, etc.) allowed me to obtain a significant amount of knowledge in a relatively short amount of time and prepared me well to step into this role.

What is next for you? What are your high-level career aspirations?

I hope to continue to grow my skills in building strategic partnerships and developing as an executive here at ROMTech. In the future, I see myself working with talented teams to solve complex problems in the healthcare space, namely by creating and growing new verticals and increasing adoption of innovative programs to improve patients’ lives.

What would you recommend to someone who is considering going into a role like yours? Do you have any special words of wisdom for the readers?

First of all, take the Non-Clinical 101 course and/or seek out a mentor. If you’re planning to dive into the non-clinical/business world, this is an excellent roadmap to not only better understand your strengths and motivations, but also to learn the vocabulary, strategy, and foundational information you’ll need to thrive.

One of my favorite humans and fellow non-clinical PTs, Amy Tsoumas, said it best when she opined, “As a PT, you possess skills and abilities that would make any company lucky to have you. Gaining a better understanding of what you want in your next career and the qualities you’re seeking in a potential employer will ensure your next move is a positive experience.”

Non-Clinical 101 had resources that allowed me to take a personal inventory of my skills, internal drivers, and ‘must-haves’ in a potential career. I think that allowed me to meaningfully follow Amy’s great advice.

What would you like to change most in your profession, and why? How would you propose doing so?

I’m concerned by the number of companies providing healthcare services who don’t have clinicians in leadership roles. In my opinion, they’re simply tech companies in healthcare, as opposed to healthcare companies using tech to improve the lives of patients. This is dangerous, and I believe we’ve seen numerous examples of these models failing both patients and the clinicians providing care recently.

While a diverse team is important for the success of a business, clinician experts are a vital part of that team. When a company aims to provide a specific healthcare service, I propose hiring clinician experts into meaningful leadership positions and seriously considering their input. This is not only ethically responsible but also a recipe for success.

What career advice would you give yourself that you wish you had during school?

You don’t have to have it all figured out. While graduate school will give you a crucial foundation on which to build your career, so much of your learning will occur on the job, not just in terms of skills, but also with regards to your career path.

While some people know from day one what they want to do and aggressively work towards that goal, if you find yourself in a bit of a gray area, simply embrace it and allow yourself to explore multiple avenues. In my case, I could never have guessed where that exploration would lead, both clinically and otherwise.

What would you teach to today’s graduate students in your profession, if you had the opportunity?

I would love to teach today’s graduate students about both clinical and non-clinical opportunities outside of traditional, in-person patient care. While recognizing preparation for general clinical practice is the primary responsibility of our respective graduate programs, there is space for a cursory introduction to other ways therapists can have an impact. I believe this would allow students to gain valuable perspective on their larger role as part of the healthcare ecosystem.

Do you have any special advice for others who want to follow in your footsteps?

Assuming you have alternative options to obtain benefits and health insurance, don’t hesitate to take 1099 or contract roles as a healthcare/clinical consultant. As I’ve alluded to above, these are great opportunities to use your skills while simultaneously gaining exposure to multiple non-clinical career paths. If it’s a good fit for both parties, these roles can even lead to full-time opportunities.