I agree that being a programmer doesn't make you an expert at everything, but OP brought up a good point. Tech is a lot more accessible than other fields. It would be nice if I could pivot into other fields as easily as someone could pivot into tech.
Aside from going to college for many years, there's really no other way to break into the medical field. College is expensive and quite daunting to many (myself included), which is a shame because I'd really like to contribute more to humanity than moving pixels around on a screen and helping businesses with their data problems.
The reason you can ‘pivot’ into tech is because you’re able to run programs and see their output on your own device.
You can do some data-oriented research at home, though you’d also have a lot of reading to do first.
Medicine requires seeing patients and their ailments and their recovery - not something we’ll ever be able to simulate well (for many reasons).
You can get a good medical education all online, but nobody will accept you’re not having seen patients