Digital Ecology Podcast by Digital Ecology

In this episode of Digital Ecology, I speak with Aahuti Rai, a remarkable voice and advocate for women's health and a proponent for sustainable innovation in digital health. Aahuti shares with us her extensive experience in digital transformation across different sectors before focusing her expertise exclusively on health tech. 

With Aahuti's background in large multinational corporations, she brings a wealth of knowledge in leveraging technology to enable large-scale innovation. We navigate through a range of topics, including the pivotal role of women in healthcare innovation, the need for more female investors, and addressing the gender and sex-based disparities that pervade medical research.

Delving into the goals and formation of the Mental Health Innovation Network, which strives to foster transformative solutions in mental health by connecting a multifaceted community of innovators, researchers, and investors. This network champions diversity, uniting stakeholders from startups, the NHS, investment realms, academia, and charitable organisations to grapple with common challenges faced within healthcare innovation.

Aahuti gets to the heart of the matter by stressing the importance of first principles in women's health and recognising conditions that uniquely affect or disproportionately impact women. Shedding light on the uphill battle many women-led startups face, especially those founded by those from underrepresented backgrounds. Underscoring the need to keep women's health at the forefront of public discourse, she calls for ongoing advocacy and improvement in both national and international health strategies.

Finally, Aahuti weighs in on the sustainability of business models in digital health, suggesting systemic changes and government intervention as potential accelerators of progress. Despite the optimism for consolidation and sustainable capital flows, we touch on the risks of hype-driven innovation and the importance of maintaining foundational quality in digital health solutions.

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The Digital Ecology Podcast is part of the Talking HealthTech Podcast Network, your go-to audio destination for the latest in healthcare delivery, innovation, digital health, healthcare ICT, and commercialisation. Discover more at Talking HealthTech.