Sector
Health
A patient on a ward is getting worse. The score does not trigger. A relative can see something is wrong.
3briefings
10essays
2patterns
The same failures, wherever you look
Two patterns run through health. Neither is unique to it.
Designed for the person who isn’t there
4 of its 10 essays are in health.
Systems are built around the capable, average, organised user, and fail exactly at the point where the person in front of them is least able to advocate for themselves.
The science works; access hasn’t followed
6 of its 6 essays are in health.
The scientific or clinical capability is real and proven. The barrier is who gets to it, at what cost, and on whose terms.
Read
Start with the evidence.
83%of scored Martha’s Rule calls: the score would not have escalated. Not a failure rate.NHS acute care39%of real-world notes flagged out of scope by the MHRA’s sandboxHealthTech£498mthe record quarter without one deal. £2.05bn with it.BioTech
Ten essays
Designed for the person who isn’t there
- The Screen That Broke the TrustAn NHS digital prescription system that worked exactly as designed, for a patient it wasn’t designed for.
- The Body That RemembersSystems built around emergency response, not the person living inside the risk every day after.
- The App That Actually HelpedCounter-example: designed from what it feels like to manage a condition.
- While patients waitProven AI diagnostics, blocked by funding and infrastructure from the people who need them most.
The science works; access hasn’t followed
- The Body as a LabIn-vivo gene editing; governance decides who gets access.
- The Machine That Designs MedicinesAI drug discovery outpacing the access question.
- What the Cold Chain Cannot ReachBiological medicine manufacturing concentrated in wealthy countries.
- Reading the Map Inside the CellSpatial diagnostics confined to specialist centres.
- The instruction in the injectionPersonalised mRNA cancer vaccines, where personalisation itself is the access barrier.
- The bottleneck movedDrug discovery compressed to eighteen months; trial and regulatory pace hasn’t moved.
Two books
Use
How to Co-create Experiences of Efficiency and EquityFor when a service gets faster for the people who already found it easy, and nobody asks who got left behind.
How to Build Trust Into Unseen InfrastructureFor when the system that decided about you won’t say why, and neither will anyone you can actually reach.
How to Design for Digital Well-being and Mental HealthFor when the phone in your pocket has more say over your mood than you do.
Something to do about it.
How to Co-create Experiences of Efficiency and EquityFor when a service gets faster for the people who already found it easy, and nobody asks who got left behind.How to Build Trust Into Unseen InfrastructureFor when the system that decided about you won’t say why, and neither will anyone you can actually reach.How to Design for Digital Well-being and Mental HealthFor when the phone in your pocket has more say over your mood than you do.
Work with me
Done before, in health.
- 400mcitizens: a national health service. Chief Architect through to the bid win. The project continues.Health, India
- M&Adue diligence on a health analytics business, so it could be run after acquisition.Health