So it's your first day as health secretary — what do you do!?

Richard Sloggett was former Special Advisor to the Health Secretary (Matt Hancock) during which he worked across public health, the NHS and social care. He’s also Senior Fellow at the think tank Policy Exchange and has been named one of the 100 most influential people in healthcare policy by the Health Service Journal.

We talk about whether healthcare is as unique as medics like to think, Richard’s learnings from his time as special advisor and his specific recommendations for getting clued up on health policy.

I hope you enjoy.

How can we use models to diagnose patients with rare diseases earlier?

Professor Karl Friston is the most frequently cited neuroscientist in the world. Some of his most fascinating ideas centre around brain imaging, and of course, his infamous free energy principle — a grand unifying principle for cognitive science and biology.

Professor Friston is incredibly insightful and patient with my questions — which at times feel like a 5 year old playing with a grand chess master. We speak about consciousness, brain computer interfaces as well as Professor Friston’s story and advice for young academics. I try to deconstruct some of what his enabled him to put forward so many novel, impactful ideas.

I hope you enjoy.

What can you learn from studying the brains of London cabbies?

Professor Hugo Spiers is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at UCL. He studies how we remember, navigate and imagine space.

Some of his most interesting work has examined the brains of London cabbies who are required to learn the roads of London in painstaking detail. Now he leads the SeaHeroQuest project, in which his team are studying dementia using a mobile game.

We talk about his research — which in my opinion is fascinating but I delve a bit deeper — asking how ordinary people can themselves do fascinating research and not get stuck on mind numbingly boring projects. We speak about how he manages his time, how he sees work, mentorship and how he communicates and publicises his research so effectively.

I hope you enjoy.

Professor Spier's fiction book recommendation: Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe.

Do you need to be a d**k to be a good leader? Here's what Dr Nadine said...

Dr Nadine Hachach-Haram BEM is a plastic surgeon and CEO of Proximie — an augmented reality platform for virtual surgical collaboration. Rather than telemedicine it’s about telepresence. It means that a surgeon in the UK could open up their web browser, and see what another surgeon across the world is doing in real time and collaborate.

Proximie has had incredible impact: it’s helped people in need across the world access surgical care, it’s been used by NHS surgeons who are self-isolating due to coronavirus and it’s also being used by the RAF.

Dr Nadine received the British Empire Medal in the 2018 Queen’s Birthday Honours for her innovation in surgery.

Do you need to be a d**k to be a good leader? Here's what Dr Eric Topol said...

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Look around and you’ll be surrounded by let’s face it... d**ks. Not just in politics and business — but also in Medicine.

We’re taught lots about the multidisciplinary team and how important each member is — but that’s not always the experience in the real world. What I really want to know is: Do you need to be a d**k to be a good leader?

And not just the knee jerk response of: "of course not". I want to know the ins and outs, and maybe — if sometimes it’s useful to be a bit brash or abrasive — and not always be everyone’s best friend

So I’m on a mission to ask this question to all the people I admire in Medicine. Whether that’s clinicians, academics, policymakers or people in business. People of all backgrounds, races, genders etc. It should be really interesting.

I hope you enjoy the series — and as always reviews on iTunes are worth their weight in gold.

Look around and you’ll be surrounded by let’s face it... d**ks. Not just in politics and business — but also in Medicine.

We’re taught lots about the multidisciplinary team and how important each member is — but that’s not always the experience in the real world. What I really want to know is: Do you need to be a d**k to be a good leader?

And not just the knee jerk response of: "of course not". I want to know the ins and outs, and maybe — if sometimes it’s useful to be a bit brash or abrasive — and not always be everyone’s best friend

So I’m on a mission to ask this question to all the people I admire in Medicine. Whether that’s clinicians, academics, policymakers or people in business. People of all backgrounds, races, genders etc. It should be really interesting.

I hope you enjoy the series — and as always reviews on iTunes are worth their weight in gold.

Why switch from Investment Banking to Medicine?

Dr Yusef Smith is a doctor, competitive gymnast and powerlifter. In a previous life, he was an investment banker before packing it in and training in Medicine. Whilst at Medical School he started Propane Fitness — the passive income from which has now overtaken his salary as a doctor.

Yusef is a friend and one of the most contemplative people I know. We talk about passive income, physical and mental health, tools for productivity and why Yusef went on a 10 day silent meditation retreat.

Stephen Bourke is the co-founder of Echo; the online pharmacy. If you haven’t heard of Echo, it’s a bit like Deliveroo for your medication. It delivers repeat prescriptions to your door, free of charge and hassle-free. It was acquired by McKesson, the group who own Lloyds Pharmacy in 2019.

This is a really valuable conversation and Stephen is hilarious, honest and gives a tasty inside scoop into the world of online pharmacy. We talk about how to improve patient adherence, how Echo rose to the top despite not being the first company of its kind by a long shot, Stephen’s experience of making something cool but also accessible and how sometimes — you need to listen to all your friend’s advice, nod your head — and then ignore it all to take a big leap.

Sir Bruce Keogh was National Medical Director for over a decade — leading clinical policy and strategy as well as being responsible for clinical leadership, quality and innovation. Sir Bruce was a celebrated cardiac surgeon prior to this, and during his tenure as Medical Director — he was most notably responsible for making clinical outcomes the currency of the NHS.

He has been declared the most influential clinician in the NHS by the Health Service Journal for three years and was appointed Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003.

Honestly, I was nervous about speaking to someone of Sir Bruce’s stature. Fortunately, he is one of the kindest people I’ve interviewed — and I’m really happy to have captured his leadership philosophy, how he made decisions and decided what was important as Medical Director, and his life advice for medics with similar aspirations.