Problems Worth Solving

Last year, GP teams in England delivered over 380 million appointments — and the pressure is on to deliver even more. But maybe the bigger opportunity isn't making each consultation faster? What if it's rethinking the relationship between a person and their GP?
Dr Shanker Vijayadeva is a practising GP and lead for digital transformation in London at NHS England. He lives on both sides of the system - in clinic seeing patients and leading change across the capital.
In this episode, we explore what he calls "the wider consultation" - the idea that care should start before a patient walks in and continue long after they leave. We talk honestly about what AI is and isn't doing in general practice, why COVID proved the NHS can move fast when it has to, and what happens when you get Age UK to train GP practices on their own technology.
Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.

In this episode, Helen Thomas, Chief Executive of Digital Health and Care Wales, shares a rare and honest perspective on the human side of transformation.
Drawing on more than 36 years in the NHS, including leading Wales’ digital response during covid, Helen reflects on what leadership really feels like at the sharp end of health and care – making difficult decisions, carrying responsibility, navigating uncertainty and still showing up for others.
We explore why digital transformation is fundamentally a care model challenge, not a technology one, and how getting this wrong quietly undermines adoption, trust and outcomes. Helen also reflects on what the pandemic revealed about the system’s ability to move at pace, why so little of that has stuck, and what leaders can learn from it.
This is a conversation about judgement, compassion and inclusion as leadership disciplines – and what it takes to lead change in complex systems today.
Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.

Imagine starting every day with a calculation: what you eat, how you move, whether an unexpected walk or a stressful meeting will tip your blood sugars out of range. That daily mental load sets the stage for our conversation with Dr David Cheney of Diabetes UK, where we unpack the hidden frictions in diabetes care and the bright spots that are changing outcomes.

One in five people in the UK are living with diabetes, prediabetes, or undiagnosed type 2, yet only around sixty percent receive their annual care processes. Stigma pushes people away from appointments, and access to treatments still depends too much on geography. 

David explains why the first year after diagnosis matters so much, and how a single empathic consultation can build confidence that lasts—while careless words can do the opposite. 

David shares how Diabetes UK backs professionals through Clinical Champions, bite-sized CPD, and paired learning that equips both sides of the consultation. 

Co-design has created Cornwall’s clinics where out-of-hours, one-stop checks boosted attendance and cut waits. We also address AI’s promise and pitfalls: helpful algorithms and reminders on one side, misinformation and disintermediation on the other.

We close with Diagnosis Connect, a simple but powerful idea: automatic signposts from GP systems to trusted charities at the moment of diagnosis. 

That timely link can open doors to remission, prevention, mental health support, and practical tools—right when people feel most overwhelmed. If you care about better diabetes outcomes, less stigma, and services built around real lives, this conversation offers a grounded blueprint and a dose of hope.
Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.

Professor Jim McManus: Zooming out on prevention
In this episode, we explore prevention in its widest sense — across systems, communities and everyday life.
Professor Jim McManus, National Director of Health and Wellbeing at Public Health Wales, explains why prevention remains one of the toughest challenges in health and care. He shares how poverty, place and inequality still shape life expectancy in Wales, and why we must shift prevention from a “side programme” to the organising principle of the whole system.
Jim argues that prevention isn’t just about saving lives — it’s about economic productivity, community resilience and human connection. As he puts it: “You can’t compete with China if you can’t get off the sofa.” He highlights what needs to change — from the way we educate children and design services, to how we empower voluntary organisations and digital tools to make healthy choices easier.
This conversation builds on our recent episode with Rachel Hope from NHS England, zooming out from digital prevention to the broader human and economic cycle that keeps people well. Prevention, Jim reminds us, is possible — but only if we design systems around people, not programmes.
Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.

The way we design health apps is shaping who stays healthy and who gets left behind.
In this conversation, Amber Vodegel, founder of the world’s largest pregnancy app, Pregnancy Plus, and now CEO of 28x, challenges how women’s health technology is built, funded, and trusted.
Amber argues that health knowledge shouldn’t sit behind a paywall or be traded for personal data. With around 800 million people menstruating every day, access and trust matter.
She’s designing a different path: on-device AI that keeps data on your phone, content at multiple reading levels so information is understandable without dumbing it down, and interfaces women feel comfortable opening anywhere—ditching traffic-light cues that confuse and stigmatise.
We explore how 28x aims to sit between the NHS and TikTok—combining clinically validated content with formats people actually use. Amber opens up her playbook: a year of research-before-build, user research with teenagers and low-literacy groups, and a product strategy where cycle tracking earns attention for evidence-based education. 
She also explains a circular business model: free at the point of use, ethical sponsorships and pay-it-forward contributions, and reinvesting profits into period products, education, and female founders globally.
If you are interested in designing for trust, who should own health data, or how tiny on-device AI could reshape digital health, this episode offers a practical, provocative blueprint. It’s a story about turning design from surface polish into system change—and building technology that serves people first.
Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for transformation in health, care and public services.

Find out more about our work at healthia.services.