In a departure from my usual interview format, today I am sharing a conversation with Ollie Smith, Director of Strategy and Innovation at Guy’s and St Thomas’ Charity. The charity describes itself as an innovation catalyst and recently put out an invitation to tender looking for organisations to help them test the hypothesis that a […]
Category: Pritpal S Tamber
Pritpal S Tamber: Interview with Jonathan Stead on transforming disadvantaged communities
It’s pretty well understood that people from disadvantaged communities have more important things to worry about than their health. However, one general practitioner (primary care physician) in the southwest of England believes that if you start from what people actually want, you can eventually impact their health and wellbeing. That general practitioner is Dr Jonathan […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Creating health—the emerging principles
The Creating Health Collaborative was formed to understand why, despite their potential, broader definitions of health remain only a fringe of health innovation. In today’s post, I am sharing their first report (opens a PDF) and have reproduced below an edited version of what the Collaborative thought were the emerging principles for creating health. We […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Moustaches, fund raising, and independence from the current healthcare system
I am growing a moustache. This is not the kind of thing you usually need to broadcast, but I am growing it as part of Movember because I believe these kinds of mission specific campaigns are crucial to finding new ways to fund health related services. […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Understanding what communities really value
There is nothing more convincing than someone citing research, and yet we often don’t know if what’s being cited is any good. Research can be bad if it’s poorly conducted or if the wrong evaluative method was used to answer the question. The methods we use in healthcare are often quite limited, especially when it […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Health 2.0 and academia—reconciling experimentation and protectionism
This week I attended a Health 2.0 London event on mobile sensors. The title of the event asked if they were key to remote patient monitoring. I think the answer is an obvious yes; without them it’s not going to be possible. But I’m not sure the event was asking the right question. For me, […]
Pritpal S Tamber: And so, it’s time for TEDMED
Regular readers of my blog will know that this week is TEDMED, the US based event that looks—with a multidisciplinary lens—at the future of health and medicine. I’m TEDMED’s clinical editor, one of the four person core editorial team that recommends topics and speakers to the curator, the ever curious Jay Walker. I thought I’d […]
Pritpal S Tamber: Innovation, lazy commentators, and data Darwinism
One of the most common questions I have had since becoming the clinical editor of TEDMED is what’s the “next big thing.” When I started the role I actually tried to answer but as time has gone on I have resisted—and felt more and more disappointed with the people asking the question. My disappointment has […]
Pritpal S Tamber: We don’t know what the NHS is for
Last week the people of Leeds successfully halted the NHS’ plans to reform children’s heart services, which included moving surgery to a neighbouring city. It was a great victory for the citizenry. According to the High Court, the campaign group, Save Our Surgery (SOS), raised legitimate concerns about the decision making process by which the […]
Pritpal S Tamber: How digital health will humanise care
I have always been troubled by the “disconnect” between clinical practice and real life. Clinical evidence recommends a standard intervention, according to research, but it often flounders in the messy heterogeneity of the real world. This week I found myself worried about replicating this “disconnect” in the online world, especially with the addition of gamification, […]