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We, at One HealthTech, ran a survey at the end of 2018 to understand the wants, needs and challenges of its community, and more broadly the women and individuals from underrepresented groups working across the healthtech sector.
This report summarises the survey responses and aims to expose the substantial, unmet needs a diverse community experiences at the intersection of health, care, life sciences and tech. More broadly, however, the survey responses highlight the skills, culture and leadership needs the whole healthtech sector requires, in order to flourish. Now, this is not some great piece of academic research, so do not interpret the findings as such, but a helpful barometer, it certainly is!
Here are some of the main takeaways:
Skills
The most sought-after skills were overwhelmingly, and consistently across health technology sectors, in technical and non-technical areas of dataSkill acquisition was motivated by the desire to complement an existing job rather than change jobs
Challenges
“Impostor Syndrome” was the most common challenge experiencedAcademia was the worst-performing of all sectors when it came to cultural and structural organisational issuesLack of an inclusive culture was mostly felt by CEOs and directors, particularly in government and those now working as independent consultantsLeadership and hierarchy, lack of technical knowledge and poor networks and few mentors were identified as major barriers
Solutions
Mentorship was the most highly ranked solution to common challenges felt by health technologistsSupport focusing on confidence, leadership and role models
This survey highlighted, validated and more precisely defined a range of skills requirements, challenges and solutions felt by a broad community of current or budding healthtechnologists.
Utilising the experiences and ideas of grassroots communities, alongside more formal investigations, recommendations and programmes such as the Building A Digital Ready Workforce programme, will ensure a representative and diverse voice for defining the future needs, skills and culture of the health, care and life sciences sector.
“So What Are We Gonna Do About This?”
On the back of years of listening to the wants and challenges of the One HealthTech community, and harnessing the insights from Health Education England’s Topol Review, as well the insights from wider public, corporate and academic spheres, we propose: Unleashing 20,000 HealthTechies.
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