Top Global Health Innovators
Over the years, WERKIN has grown to support many healthcare clients, as experts that provide mentorship and leadership development programmes throughout the healthcare sector. We wanted to therefore shine a light on some other innovations that are being developed to support the medical industry and highlight the groundbreaking achievements that these entrepreneurs and their companies are delivering at scale.
These innovators are using their unique perspectives, life experiences and cutting-edge technologies to solve some of the most pressing challenges in healthcare. They are developing new ways to diagnose and cure diseases such as cancer, pioneering new therapies and treatments, and making healthcare more accessible and affordable to everyone.
Some are using artificial intelligence to support flexible, sustainable and data-led staffing, or provide patient access to affordable, holistic health services. Others are transforming the way the world thinks about healthcare, gender, and equity, or disrupting processes - giving the industry the shake up it needs from the inside out.
These exceptional minds serve as a timely reminder of the importance of fostering visionary leadership and out-of-the-box thinking to address the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. As the healthcare sector embarks on a transformative journey, both within the NHS and globally, it is crucial to celebrate these innovators who remind us that change is not only possible but imperative, breathing life into a brighter, healthier future for all.
Let's celebrate and support their groundbreaking work.
Listed in alphabetical order.
Ali is a serial healthcare entrepreneur and engineer, and the founder and CEO of Babylon, the revolutionary artificial intelligence and digital health company. Babylon’s mission is to put an accessible and affordable health service in the hands of every person on Earth through cutting-edge AI technology and the best available medical expertise, giving people 24/7 access to affordable, holistic health services.
Anas Nader - CEO and Co-Founder of Patchwork Health Jing Ouyang - COO and Co-Founder of Patchwork Health
Since 2016, Patchwork Health has been on a mission to make truly flexible and sustainable working a reality for all healthcare staff. Co-created with the NHS, their technology and services are being used by over 100 healthcare sites. Their fully integrated workforce management solution helps optimise outcomes for organisations, managers, staff and patients alike by supporting more flexible, sustainable and data-led staffing.
Andrea Barrica - Founder and CEO of O.school
Andrea is a serial founder, investor, author and professional public speaker. Andrea founded O.school, a judgment-free, science-based sexual wellness education platform and technology company, with a mission to help people unlearn shame, heal from sexual trauma, develop communication skills, and discover new sexual desires in a LGBTQ-friendly space.
Thirty Madison is a family of specialised healthcare brands devoted to creating exceptional outcomes for all. Each of its brands is focused on a specific ongoing condition, thoughtfully designed to support the unique needs of its community. With empathy at the heart of its innovation, its proprietary care model empowers hundreds of thousands of people with ongoing conditions with accessible, effective treatments across a lifetime of care.
Hadiyah-Nicole Green - Founder and President of
Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation
As one of the first African American women to earn a PhD in physics, Hadiyah-Nicole developed groundbreaking technology to kill cancer. Her revolutionary approach uses satellite technology to treat cancer at the site of the tumour without impacting the whole person. After one treatment the Laser-Activated Nano-Therapy (LANT) was found to successfully eliminate tumours in laboratory mice in just 15 days without any observable side effects. Dr. Green founded a nonprofit, Ora Lee Smith Cancer Research Foundation, to raise the money to fund human clinical trials and ensure this treatment will be affordable for all.
Hamish Grierson - CEO & Co-Founder of Thriva Health
Hamish is co-founder of Thriva Health, an at-home blood testing company aiming to increase the length of time people live healthy lives and put better health into the hands of the patient. Hamish founded Thriva in 2016 alongside Eliot Brooks and Tom Livesey, and it is currently the UK's fastest growing digital health company.
Hannah Olson - Co-Founder and CEO of Chronically Capable and DISCLO
Hannah’s experience navigating her career while undergoing intensive treatment for Lyme disease sparked the idea for her first venture, Chronically Capable, which is now one of the largest and most-used disability recruiting platforms in the country. She is also the Co-Founder and CEO of Disclo, the first software helping employees to safely ask for accommodation requests at work. Hannah is known globally for her disability advocacy.
Iman Abuzeid - Co-Founder & CEO of Incredible Health
Iman is passionate about healthcare technology that improves lives. With a background in product management and healthcare management consulting, Iman co-founded Incredible Health to put nurses in the driver’s seat. Incredible Health is the first-and-only platform to focus on permanent employees rather than contractors, with hospitals applying directly to nurses rather than the other way around. It is already used by 700 hospitals and 1 in 4 nurses across the US.
Jason Mellad - CEO and Co-Founder of Start Codon
Jason is an investor, CEO and Founder skilled in Innovation, Oncology, Molecular Biology, Patent Law, and Biotechnology. With a passion for equity, diversity and inclusion as a gay black man in the biotech industry, he co-founder Start Codon, a world-class venture builder and accelerator programme to help academics and young companies secure financing and facilities. As CEO of Cambridge Epigenetix, he worked closely with Co-Founder Professor Sir Shankar Balasubramanian, renowned as the co-inventor of Solexa sequencing, a technology that is now driving a revolution in the medical field.
Jennifer Buell - President and CEO of MiNK Therapeutics
Jennifer has more than 25 years of biopharmaceutical experience and is currently the President and CEO of MiNK Therapeutics, which aims to change lives through living medicines, developing cell therapies that target the immune system. MiNK is pioneering the discovery, development, and commercialisation of allogeneic, off-the-shelf, invariant natural killer T (iNKT) cell therapies to treat cancer and other immune-mediated diseases.
Jen Nwankwo - Founder and CEO of 1910 Genetics
Jen founded 1910 Genetics, a biotechnology company which integrates AI, computation and biological automation to accelerate the design of small molecule and protein therapeutics. With a mission to decrease the timeline and cost of drug development, while improving the success rate of bringing innovative medicines to patients in need, the technology is already being applied to drug discovery programs in several areas including neuroscience, infectious disease, immunology and oncology.
Jerrica Kirkley - Co-Founder and CMO of Plume
Jerrica is a board-certified family physician, trans woman, and Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer of Plume, a virtual medical provider for the transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming community. Jerrica is passionate about transforming the way the world thinks about healthcare, gender, and equity. Plume aims to provide the highest quality care to trans folks through radicalised healthcare delivery leveraged by amazing technology.
Julia Hu - CEO and Co-Founder of Lark Health
Having managed her own chronic disease her whole life with her loving family and her paediatrician, Julia felt the incredible benefits of 24/7 compassionate care. Together with health experts and coaches from Stanford, Harvard and artificial intelligence technologists, they developed Lark to make healthcare more personal and compassionate through AI. Lark is a 24/7 personal AI health coach that texts people to help them manage and prevent chronic disease – anytime, anywhere.
Kate Ryder - Founder & CEO of Maven Clinic
Kate Ryder founded Maven in 2014 to provide compassionate care from fertility and family building to maternity, parenting, and menopause. Maven is the largest virtual clinic for women's and family health and has been recognised as Fast Company's #1 Most Innovative Health Company, with its digital programs trusted by leading employers and health plans to reduce costs and drive better maternal health outcomes.
Liana Douillet Guzmán is a results-oriented leader with diverse experience creating growth in fast-paced, high-growth environments. Lianna is the CEO of FOLX Health, the first digital healthcare service provider designed by and for the medical needs of the LGBTQIA+ community. In this role, she manages day-to-day operations of the company as it works to bring its affirming and equitable healthcare for the LGBTQIA+ community across the USA.
Melissa Morris - CEO of Lantum and Fellow at NHS Innovation Accelerator
Melissa is passionate about improving healthcare systems, having worked as a management consultant for McKinsey & Co. and in the Strategy Directorate in the NHS. She is a Fellow at NHS Innovation Accelerator and CEO and Founder of Lantum - a powerful workforce scheduling platform. Lantum saves healthcare organisations millions - in both the NHS and globally, by efficiently automating processes end to end connecting the right clinicians with the right shifts.
Tom Whicher - Founder of DrDoctor
Tom Whicher is an entrepreneur, start-up mentor and NHS Innovation Fellow. He believes in gentle disruption - working with existing processes and teams to create change from the inside out, and founded DrDoctor with a mission to put patients first, using technology to create transformational change in healthcare. The DrDoctor platform aims to revolutionise the patient experience by improving communication and agency, delivering efficiency and efficacy.