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 health, care and public services. Find out more about our work at healthia.services.
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Rachel Hope: Designing for the NHS shift to digital and prevention
What if the word "solution" is generating more problems than it solves? In this revealing conversation, Rachel Hope, Director of Digital Prevention Services for the NHS, challenges our fundamental thinking about technology and transformation in healthcare.Rachel is building the architecture for a new kind of health service - one that's digital-first and prevention-focused. With stark statistics showing a 19-year gap in healthy life expectancy between the most and least deprived areas, and 40% of the NHS budget spent treating preventable conditions, the need for radical change is clear.The conversation digs into the role of human-centred design in creating effective services. Rachel explains how research has transformed their understanding of user needs, revealing unexpected insights like the importance of enabling couples to book vaccination appointments together. By embedding digital specialists alongside policy and operational teams, they're breaking down traditional silos and creating more responsive, intuitive services.Rachel envisions a future where digital services are so intuitive that "you don't even notice how great they are, unless you remember how bad it was before" - making healthcare as accessible as online banking while freeing up clinicians to focus on care rather than administration.Whether you're working in healthcare, interested in digital transformation, or simply care about creating more effective public services, this conversation offers fresh insights into how we can rethink our approach to complex problems. Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for health, care and public services. Find out more about our work at healthia.services.
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Dr Malte Gerhold: What does it really take to deliver transformation?
Transformation is pervasive but we rarely discuss implementation - the secret sauce of successful change.In this episode, we explore one of the most persistent challenges: how to turn promising ideas into real, lasting impact.Malte Gerhold, Director of Innovation and Improvement at the Health Foundation — and trustee of the Alzheimer’s Society — has spent his career at the intersection of policy and delivery. From No.10 and the Department of Health to the Care Quality Commission and now the frontlines of innovation, he’s seen why transformation efforts often stall, and what it really takes to make them stick.He shares insights from national research and system experience, including evidence that only 15% of funding goes toward adoption — while most investment still flows to new solutions that may never be implemented effectively.We talk about what makes implementation succeed, how to design services people can and want to use, and why transformation depends on culture, capability and relationships — not just technology.From community-led innovation to AI and ambient scribing, this episode offers thoughtful, practical insights for anyone working to deliver change in complex systems.Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for health, care and public services. Find out more about our work at healthia.services.
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Charlotte Newman: Lean tech transforming respite for 35k carers
At some point in your life, the chances are that you'll either become a carer or be cared for. For Charlotte Newman, this reality became the foundation for groundbreaking social innovation.With 5.7 million unpaid carers in Britain saving the public purse £183 billion annually—more than the entire NHS budget—Charlotte saw an overlooked crisis. Her charity Carefree found an unexpected solution in an unlikely place: empty hotel rooms.Running more like a tech startup than a traditional charity, Charlotte's team of just ten people has already transformed thousands of lives. But how do you scale compassion? How do you use AI without losing humanity? And why did they turn down £150k in funding to protect their model?Join us to discover how lean teams can create sustainable solutions to society's most complex challenges, why Charlotte believes the future of care lies in partnerships not policy, and what every health and care organisation can learn from startup thinking.If you're wrestling with how to do more with less, this conversation will change how you think about transformation.Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for health, care and public services. Find out more about our work at healthia.services.
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Prof. Rachel Dunscombe: Your data could save lives
Imagine passing your health data down like a family heirloom.Not just a list of conditions, but a rich personal history — something that could help your children and grandchildren live longer, healthier lives.But that future depends on what we do now. Right now, governments are pouring billions into electronic health records. But if the data inside them is siloed, inaccessible, or locked in outdated formats — what are we really building?It’s a bit like building a library, but locking all the books away.In this episode of Problems Worth Solving, we speak with Professor Rachel Dunscombe, one of the UK’s most influential digital health leaders, about how we can make health data work — for patients, for clinicians, and for the future.Rachel is CEO at OpenEHR and formerly served as CEO of the NHS Digital Academy and Director of Digital/CIO for Salford/NCA Group. She’s advised the Secretary of State for Health, sat on the UK AI Council, and holds a visiting professorship at Imperial College London — bringing together frontline insight, academic rigour, and strategic vision.Problems Worth Solving is brought to you by Healthia, the collaborative service design consultancy for health, care and public services. Find out more about our work at healthia.services.
Technology doesn’t transform services. People do.Problems Worth Solving brings you conversations with the leaders, practitioners, and radical thinkers reshaping health, care and support services. It's hosted by Sam Menter, co-founder of Healthia (www.healthia.services). From transformation and AI to prevention and human-centred design, each episode uncovers the ideas and experiences behind lasting change.Guests include NHS directors, policy shapers, entrepreneurs, clinicians, and designers — all united by a drive to solve complex problems. Listen if you would like to understand how health systems can evolve to meet today’s pressures and tomorrow’s possibilities.
Listen to Problems Worth Solving, The AI Daily Brief (Formerly The AI Breakdown): Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis and many other podcasts from around the world with the radio.net app
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