I'm not a developer (I'm a physicist), but someday I'd like to go into medical research. I like the idea of coming up with things that directly help suffering people. I hope that the problem solving skills I've acquired would prove useful. Of course, I'd need to go back to school for a few years to get up to speed first.
Unfortunately, I have too much to do still in the applied physics world. It takes too damn long to commercialize inventions. I'd love to move on to the next new thing, but there is no one you can just hand off an invention to; if you want to see it deployed and profitable it seems you have to carry it all the way yourself.
Have you looked into Medical Physics (mostly concerned with radiation therapy and imaging). Best of both worlds in my opinion! If you tire of research you can likely pursue a clinical career and clinical physicists get paid pretty well ($120k-$200k in Canada at least, not sure about US).
I appreciate the kind advice, since you are correct that Med Phys is a rewarding field for many. However, I'm already more than familiar with Med Phys, since that's most of the "boring day job" I use to pay the bills. I was on the design team for some of the most widely used devices in the field. Unfortunately, as a field of applied physics, it is the epitome of slow steady progress with almost no real breakthroughs. There's nothing wrong with that, especially when it helps people, but I'd prefer to work on things with the potential for big breakthroughs. So I work on the boring stuff during the day, and do mad science at night.
Unfortunately, I have too much to do still in the applied physics world. It takes too damn long to commercialize inventions. I'd love to move on to the next new thing, but there is no one you can just hand off an invention to; if you want to see it deployed and profitable it seems you have to carry it all the way yourself.