I gave up medicine to make a real difference as an entrepreneur

The paediatricians who started a children’s medical education organisation

Paediatricians Dr Kate Hersov and Dr Kim Chilman-Blair started Medikidz, a children’s medical education organisation, after becoming frustrated at the lack of resources to help explain health conditions to children.

“As a doctor, I could see this lack of knowledge was leading to fear, isolation, added anxiety and sometimes anger in children that already had the weight of the world on their shoulders,” Hersov says. “We did a lot of research and [decided to use] comic books and superheroes. It’s an amazing medium that spans age range and culture [and is] fantastic for low literacy.”

The first issue, which covered asthma, was published seven years ago. Today, the business has offices in London, New York and Sydney and has distributed more than 4.5m comics in 30 languages to hospitals and clinics across 50 countries. They’ve covered hundreds of conditions that affect children and their loved ones. The most popular so far have been those that cover ADHD, autism and breast cancer.

Each title is written by a doctor on the Medikidz team and sponsored by a private healthcare company, such as Johnson & Johnson, Siemens or Pfizer, which enables the company to distribute the comics for free. Patient groups, leading physicians, nurses and patient families are all consulted on the content before it goes to print, an exercise that usually takes four months.

“It’s very much a collaborative process,” Hersov says. “We believe that to create the best content, you need the perspective of a lot of different voices.”

Although Hersov no longer works as a doctor, she still believes she’s making a real difference to healthcare as an entrepreneur. “The response has been fantastic. Really the best part of Medikidz for me is the feedback from the children and young people who are touched by what we do.”

The midwife who set up an app to help expectant mothers with health advice

Hannah Harvey, founder of the UK’s first health advice app run by midwives, has always been interested in using digital tools to make healthcare more accessible. She still works night shifts as an NHS midwife, but launched Ask the Midwife in July 2016.

“There was a US study that suggested 84% of pregnant women use the internet for health advice,” she says. “So I [wanted to] create something where they could ask questions, instead of using Google or parenting forums.”

The app already has 2,500 users, who can connect with 40 midwives across the UK for a small charge (starting at £1.99). Harvey has plans to expand the business’s offering to video and face-to-face consultations, and hopes to work in partnership with the NHS in the future. “We are there to offer an advice service for non-urgent concerns [so] midwives working in clinical practice [can] focus on continuity of face-to-face care,” she says.

It’s a model the midwives are behind. When Harvey advertised for consultants online, she received more than 500 applications in three days. The midwives all have at least three years’ experience and get paid commission per question they answer. Many manage the work around their NHS shifts.

“I wanted a service for women and their families but it’s been beneficial for the midwives as well,” Harvey says. “Sometimes they need extra work [particularly after they’ve had children], and that’s hard to find outside of clinical practice. We’re really filling a gap there, which is fantastic.”

The biggest challenge, she adds, has been making sure the service is compliant with midwifery regulations and data protection legislation. After months of discussion with lawyers, the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the Care Quality Commission, the advice service is regulated by the Federation of Antenatal Educators.

“‘I believe there is a big market for digital healthcare services,” Harvey adds. “We don’t want to replace triage and community services but rather run alongside them to alleviate the pressure on our NHS.”

The GP who set up a business available across six countries in 19 languages

Dr Mohammad al-Ubaydli saw the difference technology could make to medicine during his ward rotation while at university. After spending a year as a GP, al-Ubaydli went into research and wrote a number of books on IT and healthcare, the last of which proposed giving patients access to their medical records.

“That got me obsessed with the problem,” he says. “I spent a year trying to convince IT directors [to develop something]. But they weren’t doing it at the scale and the pace that I wanted. So I did it myself.”

Patients Know Best, is a platform that contains a patient’s medical records from various healthcare professionals including GPs, hospital staff, social workers and mental health providers. Patients can track symptoms, connect wearable activity devices and message their consultants securely. The business launched in 2008, and is now available across six countries, in 19 languages. Approximately half a million patients use the service.

The success of the business, which secured £5.7m of investment (paywall) in 2015, lay in convincing institutions of the benefits and working collaboratively with them to overcome their initial reservations. The platform has been shown to save time on both sides of the consulting desk – doctors have found that “just in case” appointments are reduced because patients can ask questions online. It empowers the patients – they invite doctors, nurses, carers and relatives to view their records, rather than the other way around. And it enables remote monitoring – an epilepsy team in Peterborough, for example, could view uploaded videos of seizures at home to produce better diagnoses.

Some may argue the business world is incompatible with medicine, but al-Ubaydli believes that everyone working in the healthcare sector has an obligation to make it better.

“A lot of people go through [medical training] thinking there’s only one way to do things and there’s only one way to make a contribution … [But] if you see a problem, you’ve got to fix it. Healthcare will not be fixed without people doing that every day, with every problem that they see.”

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I gave up medicine to make a real difference as an entrepreneur

Three Unglamorous Truths Each and every Entrepreneur Need to Know

Having been a supporter of females entrepreneurs for a lot more than 15 many years, I’ve had a special window into the realities of their lives, from the boot strapping have-nots to the VC-backed Stanford grads.  As a person who started out my first social venture at 24, it is challenging not to search back on my personal job and wish a person had told me about the unglamorous facets of entrepreneurship.
Right now in my perform coaching senior girls entrepreneurs,  no matter who I speak with – no matter whether it is for-revenue founders in excess of 50, or young social entrepreneurs, the sentiments are comparable – 80 to 90-hour weeks in the early many years with tiny return along with personal struggles that frequently do not get mentioned amongst the entrepreneurship hype of Silicon Valley.  Here are a couple of things I want someone had warned me about when I was starting up.

one.    You might find your self creating sacrifices, sometimes to the detriment of your own overall health.

In my early 20s, I was an lively dancer, went to music school, and enjoyed investing the weekend with pals hanging out in San Francisco, in addition to doing work total-time.  The much more my venture grew, the less of these items I at some point did.  It was as if growth was inversely proportional to leisure and self-care.  I by no means believed I’d be the type of particular person to give up my commitment to these things.

This, sadly, is what typically occurs with entrepreneurs.  Right after a handful of years, people who utilised to be active get started to place on fat, cease working out and consume take-out.  The self-care goes out the window.  One entrepreneur and good friend started losing her hair from fiscal tension a couple of many years into her venture.  I cannot name the quantity of entrepreneurs I know who have had cysts develop in their bodies in the course of their tenure (myself included), have had declining intercourse drives, or some other flare-up of  stress-associated signs.

There are now scientific studies carried out on the effects of persistent anxiety on the body.  In accordance to the American Psychological Association, “the publicity to stress prospects to early onset of illness and other signs.”  It goes on to hyperlink obtaining a substantial-demand task with improved danger of coronary ailment.  I’m not producing this up.  It’s science.  https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/tension.aspx

These are not necessarily the items we believe of when we picture effective entrepreneurs, but go to any females entrepreneurs’ circle and I ensure you these issues are ever current.

2.  You’ll get rid of the joy at some stage and wonder how to get it back.

This is a frequent theme I come across, particularly amongst senior females entrepreneurs who have been in their positions for two or far more decades.  They have been driven by anything to get the company began, and were able to expand it to a specified extent.  But now, as things have altered throughout the years (perhaps their business shifted, or their proper hand has left), they have a very tough time discovering the exact same joy in their perform.

This hit me personally in 12 months 10 of my initial venture.  I keep in mind when my appropriate- hand leader left to get an additional work.  The information came suddenly, and it was a bit of a shock.  We have been so utilised to working with each other that I couldn’t think about daily life at the organization without having her.  My colleague and fellow CEO shared a related sentiment when her COO determined to move on to a new task.  “It just wasn’t as exciting,” she’d say.

three.    You will never stop hustling.

Even the senior women entrepreneurs above 50 that I coach who have been at their ventures for 20+ many years are nevertheless hustling.  These ventures are created about their capabilities and expertise and are not produced scalable for development.  These ventures are run by means of the heart and soul of the founder or founding staff.  The Founder(s) by no means end hustling.  They are often marketing.  And after 20 or thirty years, well, it will get to be tiring.

These are often turning points for entrepreneurs in choosing to stay or depart their businesses.  At times, the onset of a continual illness turns into their wake-up contact.  If they are not obtaining fun, they will not be capable to sustain as long.  They are exhausted beyond belief.  The subsequent measures for them are to appear at letting go and how to exit.

So knowing all of this, what would I advise upcoming entrepreneurs to do in a different way?  Prioritizing self-care is a must.  Treat your meeting with self-care as you would a meeting with an worker or investor or client.  Routine it in your calendar.  Prepare if you need to.  This can come in the type of wholesome, prolonged breaks, every day practices like meditation or walking, and holding time sacred that is just for you and your relationships.  No one particular expects you to have it all figured out now, but being aware of what to assume can be the first stage on the path ahead or in determining whether or not to even leap, and just how far.

Farhana is an award-winning social entrepreneur, speaker and Founder of Surf Daily life Coaching where she coaches executive girls leaders in transition.  She is also an Ashoka Fellow as effectively as an Ernst and Younger Entrepreneur of the 12 months Finalist in the assistance of entrepreneurship group.

 

www.surflifecoaching.com  

Three Unglamorous Truths Each and every Entrepreneur Need to Know

Medical entrepreneur hopes to unlock secret of eternal overall health

Launched in August last year, 1 Hundred Years offers a selection of solutions, from standard overall health care to “lifestyle optimisation”, whereby clientele can enrol in bespoke health-care programmes to enhance fertility or prevent the onset of cancers.

Some of the providers provided to consumers consist of a smartphone app for individuals with cardiac concerns. The app measures ECG and sends genuine-time updates to a health-care skilled. The organization also delivers genetic testing, which can discover markers in the gene that recommend large probabilities of conditions happening. “We want to locate out no matter whether you could create a health-related circumstance long before it transpires so that we can avoid it,” mentioned Mr Bretz.

A single Hundred Years boasts a heavyweight board of healthcare pros, led by Dr Sundeep Dhillon, honorary health care adviser to the Royal Geographical Society and a founding member of the Centre for Aviation, Space and Intense Setting Medicine and Physiology. He was the youngest guy to scale the “seven summits” – the highest mountain on each continent – and runs One particular Hundred Years’ fitness programmes for the super sporty.

“We have unrivalled access to top well being-care resources,” explained Mr Bretz. “This is like private wealth management, only for overall health,” stated Mr Bretz. “We match our individuals with the very best health care talent across the planet.”

One Hundred Years’ providers begin at £2,500 a 12 months for a prevention and wellness bundle, but some programmes can value up to £100,000 a year.

Medical entrepreneur hopes to unlock secret of eternal overall health