Humans First : Investing in Health

Stephanie is a health technology advisor in digital health and artificial intelligence.  She has over 15 years clinical and research experience and training and working as a surgical oncologist specialising in women's cancers. 

Stephanie is a Senior advisor at the World Health Organisation’s Department of Digital Health & Innovation working on strategy and governance in global health technology.  She is the Healthcare Lead for Women in AI (WAI), and Honorary Senior Research Fellow at UCL, London.

During her clinical career she sat on council of a national cancer society (BGCS) and was awarded numerous International travelling fellowships to; Memorial Sloane Kettering Cancer Center in New York, Cancer Hospital Pernambuco in Brazil, and Centre du Cancer Oscar Lambret in France.

Stephanie is a regular speaker on validation of health technology and has hosted a US podcast (HLTH Matters) on themes around technology and the future of health.

1. What problem are you committed to solving?

The fragmented profit-driven, Investor/market-driven approach to investing in healthcare needs and priorities.

2. How?

Build a multi-disciplinary, unbiased, human-first community with an evidence-driven approach to impact investing in healthcare, which prioritises health and social care needs over market forces, and clinical/public health impact over economic benefit.

3. How could your project elevate humanity?

Improve the due diligence and quality of PEOPLE, PRODUCTS and PLATFORMS, that get an equal opportunity for investment and support in health and tech, based on prioritisation of public health and preventative health needs, population demographics, and disease burden.

Improve public health

Change the paradigm and mindset where health impacts (not market forces) drive investment in healthcare innovation.

Rising health care costs.

A global healthcare workforce under strain.

Changing patient demographics.

Evolving consumer expectations. 

New market entrants. 

Complex health and technology ecosystems. 

Health care stakeholders need to invest in value-based care, innovative care delivery models, advanced digital technologies, data interoperability, and alternative employment models to prepare for uncertainties and build a smart health ecosystem that provides equitable access to care putting patients and the public first.

The COVID-19 Pandemic has exposed the gross inequities in healthcare investment and delivery and the market-driven nature of prioritisation of healthcare needs.  

How can we change the paradigm for impactful investment in healthcare? This requires stakeholders who are not far removed from the delivery of care and a multi-disciplinary community of investors/scientists and healthcare stakeholders invested in humanity and OUTCOMES over profits and ROI.

In line with the WHO's challenges for the decade set out in January 2020, a new approach to sustainable impact investing in healthcare is urgently needed. 

Multi-disciplinary Impact Investing community -hybrid/non-profit

Humans First - Impact Fund for Health

Evidence-based, data-driven and outcomes (not profit focused)

It will drive economic impact by focusing on clinical and public health impact

It will create and build a community of HEALTH OUTCOMES focused, multi-skilled professionals who invest time/expertise/funds/networks 

It will change the way we think about, and carry out decision -making in INVESTING IN THE FUTURE OF HEALTH.

The project will involve all stakeholders in healthcare focused on OUTCOMES over PROFIT.

It will serve all who engage who are focused on the most important problems in healthcare , directed towards reducing health inequalities - of access and outcome

The Future of Health affects us all.  By changing attitudes, mindset, behaviours, raising awareness, and levelling opportunities for those who are building solutions for healthcare, this project relates to all the dimensions of the elevate prize.

After 15 years as a clinician-scientist, I have lead multiple projects both privately (investor-led) and for the WHO (Gates/Clinton- Foundation funded) using my expertise in clinical medicine, research, and technology to advise on deep due diligence in investing in various health-technology projects.

It has become apparent to me that the factors that drive investments in large technology and innovation projects do not focus on the human-centered approach to health.  Investors remain far removed from the processes and pathways that are required to implement change that serve the greatest number of patients for reduced costs.  Clinicians and scientists have very little say in what is invested in, why and when.

The main driver for healthcare investors remains return on investment , and the desire to understand the complex system of healthcare remains poor.  Healthcare Investors at large have minimal expertise in the areas they invest in.

What if investment in healthcare was driven by the need for clinical and public health impact/ How will that impact the future of health?

This is what I aim to do- change the way we invest in healthcare by setting up a new paradigm and community of investors who look at healthcare investing differently.

After spending 15 years looking after cancer patients, I felt using my expertise in the world of innovation was important.

It was impossible to change the system from the inside. Yet whilst those outside healthcare services may have incentives to drive the future of health, there is very little effective collaboration in all stakeholders, with the main drivers for investment and change being very self-interest driven.

Those with deep expertise in healthcare, technology, research and business like myself who remain passionate about the future of health and everyone on the planet having access to affordable and effective healthcare do no not work together and I feel after working within the WHO where these conflicts are apparent, there needs to be a new way of looking at driving change in how the future of health is designed.

Deep expertise in medicine, research, technology

Strong passion and drive to be an innovator and change the future of health.

Global Health focus with strong international networks.

Strong networks and credibility within all stakeholder groups in healthcare - clinicians, government, technology, investors, WHO, non-profits, researchers

As a Black female healthcare leader, training as a surgeon and working within the NHS, I have had to fight to be listened to and yet left the NHS because I felt that I could not fulfil my potential. Leaving a career I loved was traumatic and courageous, yet drives my a desire to make a greater contributions that impact the future of healthcare.

Within the WHO I have struggled to balance the interests of the multiple stakeholders involved in the current project I am working on and have successfully balanced all interested, whilst focusing on the impact to public health of the project

As Healthcare Lead of Women in AI (WAI) - a Paris- based global community, I identified the lack of diversity in Women in technology and Healthcare.  Together with the Conduit, a social impact community in London, where I serve as Ambassador, I organised and mobilised a series of talks and events around AI, the future of health, focusing on building a community of female leaders in healthcare of diverse backgrounds.

This lead to the community being built around a large multi-ethnic group, creating a hub where we mentor young girls of diverse backgrounds and direct them into successful careers.  I remain an advocate for mentorship of black and asian girls in medicine who want to become innovators in healthcare.

During this time, I successfully cared for my brother with serious mental health issues. I continue to mentor and advise mental health initiatives in the UK

The goals of the project are steeped in innovation:

Changing process, paradigm and mindset

Changing the way we collaborate

My theory of change is based on complex systems thinking - and applying this to investing and collaboration in healthcare

http://donellameadows.org/archives/leverage-points-places-to-intervene-in-a-system/

The goal is to apply this to the influences, investments and incentives in impact investing in healthcare:

(in increasing order of effectiveness)

12. Constants, parameters, numbers (such as subsidies, taxes, standards). 11. The sizes of buffers and other stabilizing stocks, relative to their flows. 10. The structure of material stocks and flows (such as transport networks, population age structures). 9. The lengths of delays, relative to the rate of system change. 8. The strength of negative feedback loops, relative to the impacts they are trying to correct against. 7. The gain around driving positive feedback loops. 6. The structure of information flows (who does and does not have access to information). 5. The rules of the system (such as incentives, punishments, constraints). 4. The power to add, change, evolve, or self-organize system structure. 3. The goals of the system. 2. The mindset or paradigm out of which the system — its goals, structure, rules, delays, parameters — arises. 1. The power to transcend paradigms.