Big Picture Medicine

What is VC and how do I raise it? Dr Benedict Evans was set on becoming an orthopaedic surgeon, before he fell out of love with Medicine and saw a system in which he could make a positive change, at scale. So he left his surgical training programme and joined McKinsey as a healthcare expert. He then worked as Associate Director of transformation at St Georges Hospital Trust in London before joining InHealth Ventures, which is a $50M early stage fund looking to invest in companies who can transform health outcomes across Europe and the US. We talk about venture capital funding for doctorepreneurs, the mythos of McKinsey and Ben gives his most high yield advice for medics trying to get investment — which is gold. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

What's the difference between UK and US medical training? Dr Ikram Haq trained at Imperial College Medical School, interning at McKinsey before starting training at the Mayo Clinic in the US — considered one of the best hospitals in the world. We talk about the difference between US and UK medical training, how Ikram got to where he is — covering both the high level philosophies and granular details — as well as how he deals with failure. I hope you enjoy. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

Can you automate therapy? Ross Harper studied both Neuroscience (Cambridge) and Mathematical Modelling (UCL) — combining the two into his lovechild: Limbic — an AI therapy assistant. We talk about the challenges of working in mental health, different business models in the area and how Ross sold his face to pay off his uni debt. I hope you enjoy. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

How do you make good decisions in health leadership? Professor Sam Shah is founder of the Faculty of Digital Health, Chief Medical Strategy Officer at Numan and former Director of Digital Development at NHS X. He has extensive experience in consulting, health policy and healthtech. We talk about good decision making in health leadership roles, how to make clinicians digitally proficient, and some of his failures along the way. I hope you enjoy. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

How can you extend life? Professor Tom Kirkwood is Emeritus Professor at Newcastle University where he headed the Institute for Ageing and Health. He delivered the famous Reith Lectures and was awarded a CBE in 2009. Perhaps most famously he put forward the ‘Disposable Soma Hypothesis’ — which postulates that the body has a limited budget of resources and energy. It must therefore make a compromise between living longer (longevity) and activities which will help it reproduce. Interestingly, he also invented the INR in the 80s, which is a blood test used everyday by doctors to measure the clotting of a patient’s blood. We talk about the disposable soma theory, how calorie restriction may extend lifespan, anti-ageing interventions which Prof Kirkwood finds interesting and how you would design a trial to show the efficacy of an anti ageing drug. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

What are the pros and cons of VC funding as a doctorpreneur? Dr Fiona Pathiraja was a Consultant Radiologist at UCLH and is now Founder and Managing Director of Crista Galli Ventures — a pan-European healthtech fund. She also holds an MBA and an MPH. We dive into her story, Venture Capital and she gives loads of valuable advice for doctorpreneurs.  I hope you enjoy. Crista Galli Ventures: https://www.cristagalli.com You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

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. Richard has also recently founded a global healthcare policy research centre: Future Health. The Centre is researching health and economic opportunities in building more resilient and preventative healthcare systems enabled by new technologies: https://www.futurehealth-research.com 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. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

How can we use models to diagnose patients with rare diseases earlier? Rudy Benfredj is Co-founder and CEO of Mendelian; who are helping doctors find and diagnose rare disease patients earlier. Rare diseases are individually rare, but collectively quite common — they affect 1 in 17 people. With 8000+ rare diseases and some only affecting a handful of people across the globe — rare diseases take an average of 7 years to diagnose — which is dubbed the diagnostic odyssey. Rudy is super interesting and I pick his brain about how artificial intelligence can be used help reduce the diagnostic odyssey in rare diseases. I hope you enjoy. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

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. I recommend listening to Lex Fridman’s interview of Professor Friston. Lex asks much more intelligent questions: https://lexfridman.com/karl-friston/ Secondly there’s a wonderful Wired article written by Shaun Raviv which you won’t be able to put down: https://www.wired.com/story/karl-friston-free-energy-principle-artificial-intelligence/ You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io

What can you learn from studying the brains of London cabbies? 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. You can find me on Twitter @MustafaSultan and subscribe to my newsletter on www.musty.io