Blog
How I became a Clinical User Experience Designer
UPDATED: I first wrote this article on January 19th 2016. Over 3 years later, life has changed as a designer, so I thought I would update this post to thank all the people who have helped me along with my career, including, but not limited to Dr Ritch Macefield,...
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Designing Digital Health & Tech the Human Centred Way
Digital health & tech is big business. In 2017, the global digital health and tech market is valued at $135.9 billion USD1, of which $24 billion USD is for the mobile health market alone1. Secretary of Health, Jeremy Hunt announced in early 2016 that £4.2 billion...
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Top Tips-Linkedin for Doctors
Linkedin is one of the most powerful tools for professional development that is rarely used by doctors. By having a profile on Linkedin, you strengthen your online presence, and grow your personal and professional networks. Here’s some tips for how to maximise...
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Leaving Medicine In 3 Easy Steps
Leaving medicine shouldn't be daunting. I successfully left medicine on Tuesday August 5th, 2014. I had worked as a doctor for three years. A lot of people think I’m brave, courageous and super cool. Others think I’m barmy and have wasted years of my life. The truth...
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5 Reasons Personal Branding is Important for Doctors
This article was first written for Network Locum on August 30th 2016 Doctors often neglect personal branding. Since they are always employable by the NHS, most simply don't’ know about it. But personal branding is important for anyone who really cares about having a...
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10 Transferable Skills of Doctors
More and more doctors these days recognise they have transferable skills, allowing them to excel in a promoted position or a different industry. But what these transferable skills actually are can often escape a doctor. This is significant, because if you do not know...
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Maxwell Flitton – Inspiring Clinicians Interview
Maxwell Flitton interviewed me for his podcast Inspiring Clinicians, where he interviews clinicians who work in non-traditional clinical roles. Here, Maxwell and I talk about my experience as a Clinical UX Designer and my vision for the future. Maxwell himself is very...
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Jeremy Hunt Isn’t The Reason I Left Medicine
Doctors leave medicine for many different reasons: They don’t feel valued at work. The work isn’t interesting. They don’t feel good enough. They don’t like the work environment and working conditions. They can’t be themselves. Nowhere on that list will you find the...
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The UX-Blog: The Wonderful World of Clinical UX
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Nicholas Tenhue from the UX Blog. We talk about my role as a Clinical UX Designer as well as some of my other exploits. Head over the blog post here to find out more where you can download the blog. You can also listen by...
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It’s ok to leave medicine
Many doctors I speak to, either as clients for my coaching services, attendees at conferences I speak at, or even close friends, feel that leaving medicine is a terrible thing. Often, they feel guilty for even thinking about hanging up their stethoscope. I used to...
read moreMedic Footprints- A Career in UX as a Medic
Dr Abeyna Jones, Co-Founder and Medical Director of Medic Footprints, which is the only organisation in the world that focuses purely on Alternative Careers and Wellbeing for Doctors. Dr Jones is also a Occupational Medicine Registrar and a Clinical Entrepreneur...
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Eurekadoc Interview
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Dr Lafina Diamandis. She the Founder of Eurekadoc Publishing, which provide niche career guides for doctors. Eurekadoc also runs events for doctors and medical students who want to explore opportunities within medicine and a...
read moreDr-Hyphen’s UX Design Method
In medicine, we follow a very specific process to collect, document and share all the information we can from patients. This information is then used to come to a diagnosis and formulate a plan to treat or manage the patient. We call this process clerking (pronounced...
read moreI just watched… It’s not you. Bad doors are everywhere.
Norman Doors! They are everywhere. Everywhere I say, and they are messing with my head! But what are Norman Doors? Norman door (n.): 1. A door where the design tells you to do the opposite of what you're actually supposed to do. 2. A door that gives the wrong signal...
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Money Alone Won’t Improve NHS’s Digital Infrastructure
The UK Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, has announced that the NHS will be getting over £4Billion to improve IT with the hopes that clinical staff will gain valuable time to spend with patients instead of with paperwork. This sounds really positive doesn’t it?...
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Top 5 Books for UX Designers
Becoming a Clinical UX Designer after working as a doctor is no easy feat. I'm obviously not afraid of learning loads until the wee hours of the morning and sitting exams, but that was whilst I was a teenager. Then it became life long learning as I wanted to have...
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I just cooked… Sea Green Soup
This recipe came from the necessity to eat more healthily, which is easier said than done! But one step towards having a better diet is having more greens! It's dairy free which is useful if dairy doesn't agree with you. The white cream is in fact reduced...
read moreWhy We Need More Doctors Doing Healthcare UX
Even before I was a teenager I’ve loved working with computers. I had no qualms opening up a machine and replacing parts. I say machines because it wasn’t just desktop computers; I’ve even opened up a PlayStation 2 and 3 a few times. I wanted to know how they worked,...
read moreI just went to… Medicine: Stay or Go?
I was told about this event back in early November by a member of the Doctors Advancing Patient Safety team. He said he would be going and it seemed like a great event. So after a quick google search, I came to the Eventbrite page and was impressed by the lineup....
read moreMerry UXmas!
Apparently, ‘tis the season to be jolly. With contactless card readers all over the place, 'tis easy to spend loads of money without realizing too. I must say I really do love my contactless card. I still have a chip and pin visa card, but the contactless credit card...
read moreI just went to…The Future of the NHS – Part 1
I attend part one of a three part series looking at the future of the NHS. The event was arranged by Lead-In, a medical school society with the aim of teaching medical students and recent graduates about areas of healthcare delivery not conventionally covered within...
read moreI went to… Designing Products for Health
Finally I’ve had the opportunity to head over to Google Campus for an event! Definitely didn’t look like campus showing in Interns, but it was able to accommodate about 150 eager listeners to the events speakers. The topic for the evening, as the title would...
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The Wonderful World of Healthcare UX
I often get asked "what is UX". Even more often I get asked "why did you leave medicine? Don't you miss the patients?" Funnily enough, the answers to both questions are linked. So keep reading to find out more! UX, short for User Experience is a term which is general...
read moreI went to… DAPS Global Summit 2015
The Doctors Advancing Patient Safety (DAPS) Global Summit 2015 was a great opportunity for me to talk about the wonderful world of Healthcare UX to a room full of doctors. I was invited to present by Dr Samah Alimam, a Haematology Registrar and Board member of DAPS...
read moreThe New Junior Doctors’ Contract – Absolute Nonsense!
Junior doctors will be paid for every hour they are scheduled to work. Now I’m pretty certain this has always been the case. But the reality is that doctors work more than their scheduled hours routinely. How many times whilst on a surgical post, or working on...
read moreAlternative Careers & Wellbeing for Doctors 2015
Saturday October 31st and not a ghost, zombie or vampire in sight. No one cares its Halloween, me included, and why? Because today is Alternative Careers and Wellbeing for Doctors day! A dodgy curry the night before was trying to keep me trapped in the house, but by...
read moreI went to…BHM Debating Society Public Debate
As a means to gain a more culturally diverse membership and to have an interesting topic up for debate, the UCLU Debating Society ran an event in association with the UCLU BME with the following title
This house believes the different portrayals of ‘race’ in the media is the main cause of institutional racism
read moreI just watched…The Martian
Matt Damon. You're awesome. The Martian is probably the best film I've seen this year. After enjoying a gorgeous seafood feast courtesy of Smith's, I had the pleasure of seeing the incredibly well told story of survival on a desolate planet. But it wasn't a survival...
read moreI just watched…The Last Witch Hunter
So thanks to my Cineworld Unlimited Black Card Membership, I had the pleasure of pre-booking an advanced preview of Vin Diesel's latest movie, The Last Witch Hunter. Lets just get this out of the way. Most critics slate the film. Metacritic gives it a 34/100 from 19...
read moreI just read…Is the healthcare industry catching up with digital innovation?
This is an article by Jack Simpson @ Econsultancy about the progress in the digital world the heathcare industry is making. As many others would agree, including all those mentioned in this article, the heatlhcare sector is way behind. We have ambition and desire, but...
read moreHEALTHTech 2015
I attended an amazing evening with some truly inspirational and passionate innovators who together are making Healthcare of the future today. A collaboration of KPMGs High Growth Technology Group and the healthcare tech innovators Meetup.com group Health 2.0 London,...
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Health Innovators TV Video Interview
Health Innovators TV interviewed me at the TELHack Showcase @ the National Science Museum on Tuesday November 10th 2015. I was there with the other members of Team ECHO which came second at TELHack 2015 as well as winner of Best Presentation for our solution, ECHO;...
read moreI just read…Giving UX Advice: Getting Buy-In
So I found this article whilst Googling. Like many people who work on design projects in general, and not just UX practitioners, its so important to articulate concerns and simple advice so that people actually listen and act upon your recommendations. The challenge,...
read moreHETT Expo 2015
This year’s Healthcare Efficiency Through Technology (HETT) expo, and my first ever HETT expo, was a great opportunity to learn about the current and future digital and technology projects, products and services happening on a global level. The vast majority of my...
read moreStarting my new job
It’s a Monday morning, the sun is shining, and the fan on my temporary desktop computer is not growling any more. I’m sitting at my desk in our London Bridge offices where I’ve been employed on a 12 month contract as the Enterprise and Technology Fellow for the Health...
read moreI’m a student again!!!
Skinny jeans, hoodies, over-sized glasses. Backpacks, folders haemorrhaging loose sheets of paper, dangly ID badges. I’m surrounded by hundreds, nay thousands of students. And I’m loving it. I’m a student again!!! My first week here at UCL has been an exciting one....
read moreI did it!
So it's official, I am now a newly appointed Non-Clinical Governor for Guy's & St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust (GSTT). I found out a few days ago, but it took a while before the computers at work had my name on their desktop wallpaper advertising my new position....
read moreUsability Is Accessibilty
I went to an interesting talk run by Red Badger, a UX Consultancy based in hip and happening Shoreditch. The title of the event was Web Accessibility: Are you Excluding a Fifth of the UK Population?. It was nice being around so many people who generally cared about...
read moreI just read… Web Form Design
So I've been doing some "light reading" lately, and one of the books that has taught me a lot is Web Form Design by Luke Wroblewsk. It's about 7yrs old, which in IT means near enough a lifetime. But nothing in this book is dated. It's still so relevant to design...
read moreI just read…What specifically do generalists do?
Just found this blog post by Steve Hardy about what it means to be a creative generalists. Never heard about the role before, but it sounds very interesting. The direct link is here http://creativegeneralist.com/2008/02/what-specifically-do-generalists-do/ It is...
read moreGuy’s & St Thomas’ Council of Governors Election 2015
It's election time at Guy's & St Thomas' and I've taken the plunge by running for Non-Clinical Governor. I never thought that I could apply, but after a very insightful conversation with Bryn Williams and Dr David Treacher (current Staff Governors) back in late...
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