Why Diversity Really Matters in the Health Service. With Sam Shah
Sam Shah is our guest in this week’s episode. He’s on the panel at the conference in October. Dr Shah is a Global Clinical and Digital Adviser, NHS Clinician, former Director of Digital Development for NHSX, and the Financial Times 4th most influential UK BAME tech leader 2019.Sam talks about one of the public health projects he worked on that’s still very close to his heart, Healthy Places, Heavy Lives, which aimed to reduce health inequalities. He discusses the fact that health issues are complex, and why we don't always need more clinicians, instead we need a better way of tackling the wider social determinants.Sam shares his belief that people should always be at the heart of digital development, and discusses the balancing act in healthcare around the clinical, emotional, and practical needs of patients.We move on to discuss telehealth, its fast adoption during the pandemic, and the risk of omitting people who can’t access these services and driving a new inequality.Sam also talks about the lack of diversity in leadership roles within the health service, why inclusivity means better outcomes for everyone, and shares his ideas on how the public health sector can be made more diverse and representative of our wider society. We loved talking to Sam and we hope you enjoy the episode. To get in touch with Sam, go to his LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sam-shah-nhs/To catch his contribution on the panel at the Anthropology + Technology Conference on 9th October, get your ticket at anthtechconf.co.uk.And check out Sam’s conversation with Dr James Somauroo on the Health-Tech podcast.