Written Evidence Submitted by One HealthTech

(DIV0060)

Introduction

One HealthTech[1] (OHT) is a grassroots, volunteer-led, global community that exists to drive better equality, diversity, inclusion, and accessibility (EDIA) in health innovation. The OHT vision is to empower local, grassroots communities of health innovators to thrive by inspiring, celebrating, enabling and championing diversity in healthtech, making global innovation in health, care and life sciences representative, effective, accessible and vibrant. With support from NHS Digital, Roche and other STEM organisations, OHT has grown to over 14,000 people worldwide, giving a voice and support to all minority groups. Our communities tend to support specific groups, particularly: women, ethnic minorities, those from the LGBTQ+ community, those with disabilities or those from unconventional educational, professional or economic backgrounds. We primarily exist for our community members, but employers, policymakers and wider ecosystems in healthtech benefit from the activities, insights and strength of the OHT community. OHT believes in the power of human networks and communities to drive change, and that every voice should be heard.

Representation across all industries is important. We know it increases productivity, allows more idea generation, and increases the range of skills and experience within a company, which in turn shapes better strategies, products and teams. In STEM healthtech roles however, representation is not just important, it is imperative. We must have representation in healthtech to ensure we build products and design solutions that cater for the population they aim to serve. We need representation in healthtech to provide different perspectives so that we build services and products that are accessible and inclusive, and ultimately support everyone to lead a healthier quality of life and improve health outcomes.

We recognise and agree with the importance of initiatives that encourage young people to take up STEM subjects, as outlined in the 2021 UK innovation strategy[2].

However, we believe crucial areas that need addressing, and are not covered in the strategy, are the barriers to career progression regularly faced by under-represented groups in STEM and healthtech careers. We recommend investment in the areas outlined in this report, and consideration of new policies that incentivise organisations/employers to commit to increasing diversity throughout all levels of their organisations.

Background

There is plenty of evidence showing that diverse teams are more innovative, and reports that demonstrate the lack of diversity in STEM careers - some of which are outlined in the UK Innovation Strategy, published in July 2021. Based on our collective experiences among the One HealthTech community, we are aware of the lack of diversity specifically in the healthtech sector, and particularly in senior leadership (key decision-making) roles. However, we previously lacked data on the reasons for the underrepresentation. We therefore sought to increase our understanding of the barriers to career progression in healthtech, faced particularly by people from underrepresented groups. Through our survey, conducted in 2021, we gained useful insights which we would like to contribute as evidence to the committee.

There were 148 respondents from within health tech, health sector aligned roles, and those not currently in health tech (but who wish to enter into this field e.g. students). Although this survey demonstrated that this is a complex space with many contributing factors, it did highlight that self-promotion and networking skills, access and awareness of training opportunities, and employers’ EDIA awareness and commitment to improving diversity are particular barriers. We provide more detail on these three areas below.

The survey formed the initial phase of our HealthTech Toolkit campaign - led by a group of OHT volunteers. The campaign aims to improve diversity in the sector through expanding the pool of those equipped to enter and progress through it. We hypothesise that by increasing people's skills, we can increase the level of representation within healthtech at all levels. We recognise that types of skills and importance of developing them varies based on an individual’s stage of career and specific area within healthtech. Interestingly we also found that people’s background/protected characteristics influences which skills they perceive to be valuable.

Importantly, to increase representation in healthtech by supporting career progression, we must recognise the variation in skills gaps and the prefered methods for developing such skills, amongst people from underrepresented groups. Our ongoing HealthTech Toolkit campaign aims to provide accessible resources that support people's professional development in ways that they want to engage.

Our ask is that the Science and Technology Committee actively supports initiatives that are designed to increase diversity in healthtech, by raising awareness, enabling partnerships, and/or providing funding.

On behalf of One HealthTech, the following sections describe three key areas which we believe need to be addressed in order to increase diversity in STEM and healthtech, and we provide recommendations for practical solutions.

#1 Self promotion and networking

Networking effectively enables cultivation of ideas, supports learning and knowledge, and opens up opportunities. In a rapidly evolving field such as healthtech, effective networking is hugely advantageous and rewarding, particularly for career progression. Networking is a skill that requires people to have confidence to self promote, and which can be developed by having a mentor.

Across various underrepresented backgrounds (gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socio-economic background), our survey found that the barriers faced in career progression were rooted in a lack of confidence to self promote or to network effectively. 55-64% of respondents from an underrepresented background told us that being more confident in self promotion, improving their networking skills, and having a mentor would significantly help them to overcome barriers to their career progression.

Figure 1 (left): Perceived skills needed to overcome barriers for career progression by people from underrepresented backgrounds.                                            Figure 2 (right): Perceived skills needed to overcome barriers for career progression by people not from underrepresented backgrounds.

We also know that representation and inclusion are important for people’s career progression. Our survey results showed that the majority (>90%) of people from underrepresented groups felt that their self-reported protected characteristic has meant that they have not seen role models they can identify with in senior positions, excluded them from social activities and resulted in them not being promoted or hired to a new role. When we looked more closely at particular protected characteristics, we saw notable variation between different ethnicities and different genders.

Of people from ethnic minority backgrounds, 77% felt they would benefit significantly from learning to network effectively, learning leadership skills or being mentored to progress their career in healthtech. This is compared to approximately 50% of those from an ethnic majority group (defined as white/caucasion). This gives a clear indication of support that can be delivered to close the ethnicity gap.

Figures 3 (left): Skills needed for career progression perceived by people who identify with belonging to an ethnic minority group. 

Figure 4 (right). Skills needed for career progression perceived by people who identify with belonging to an ethnic majority group (defined as White / caucasian for this survey).

We found that 65% of women felt that improving their leadership skills would significantly help them to overcome barriers in career progression, compared to only 51% of men. On the other hand, we found that 67% of men, compared to 52% of women, felt mentoring would significantly help them to overcome barriers to their career progression.

Figure 5 (left): Skills needed for career progression, perceived by females.                                                                      Figure 6 (right): Skills needed for career progression, perceived by males

These results show that, in order to improve representation in STEM and healthtech roles, we need to improve access to, and support development of, networking skills and confidence to self promote. Moreover, our results show that people from underrepresented groups want to participate in these activities.

#1 Recommendations:

We recommend the government supports and/or partners with mentoring and self promotion initiatives within the STEM healthtech sector which aim to increase diversity.

A good example is the Shuri Network’s shadowing programme[3]. OHT have previously run a mentoring programme and intend to re-establish it in response to the needs of our OHT community.

We recognise one-to-one mentoring is a big commitment for both the mentor and mentee, therefore, as an additional, less-involved solution OHT will be launching a new campaign called People Like Me. The aim is to showcase people from diverse backgrounds who are working in healthtech roles by conducting and publishing interviews. We will explore their career paths, experience of career progression within the sector, and their insights into improving EDIA. We recommend that the government provides support for campaigns like this one, to help maximise engagement with, and impact of, the initiative(s).

OHT also runs networking events such as book clubs and social events. These events are successfully supporting people from underrepresented backgrounds to thrive in their career. OHT aspires to widen the reach we achieve with these programmes. To do this, we recommend that support (financial and time) is provided to grassroots organisations, such as OHT, to continue to deliver these programmes that are already proving successful.

#2 Access to training

Our survey also indicated that people from underrepresented groups struggle to get equitable access to training opportunities. Both formal training and on the job training and development is necessary in healthtech roles for continuing professional development in this advancing field. The majority of respondents cited that a lack of time to dedicate to completing training was a barrier to their career progression. Lack of self-confidence and financial support were also found to be common reasons why people have not accessed training opportunities.

We explored which training topics different underrepresented groups felt they needed.  People from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to want training in industry knowledge (healthcare/programming/commercial) than their peers (shown in figures 3 & 4 above). Furthermore, our survey helped understand the preferred learning tools and training delivery styles. Respondents to our survey preferred single session online courses, written resources such as blogs and journals, and small group sessions. Interestingly, they were also not as interested in internships, shadowing, and podcasts.

#2 Recommendations:

Our survey results demonstrate that improving access to training opportunities will help increase representation in STEM and healthtech roles. By focussing on affordability, delivery style and topic, skills gaps can be reduced. We recommend the government supports initiatives that provide accessible skills training.

To improve representation of ethnic minority groups we should generate and advertise smaller training activities and written resources. This requires sponsorship from large organisations to increase awareness and outreach. OHT has partnered with Health Data Research UK (HDR UK) to create a series of bite-sized training videos aimed at people in, or wanting to be in, STEM and healthtech roles. HDR UK has launched a fantastic training portfolio that covers formal training for academia (Masters / PhDs) to more ad-hoc videos and workshops for people entering into and working in health data. OHT recommends that the government supports these collaborations and facilitates additional partnerships to build on these activities.

OHT are also curating a collection of resources exclusively chosen to meet the needs of people that identify with a particular underrepresented group. This is another opportunity for other organisations to both contribute or curate their own collections of carefully selected training materials. It is imperative that any further training opportunities are designed in collaboration with a person from an underrepresented group to ensure the opportunity is accessible for and caters to the needs of people from the underrepresented group. We recommend the government facilitate such collaborations.

Finally, well-recognised organisations with a strong reputation, are in a position to offer a stamp of approval upon completion of training activities. This would give people from underrepresented groups an opportunity to showcase this on their CV, helping remove barriers they face in recruitment. We recommend the government invests in a programme, similar to the STEM Ambassador Programme[4], which provides training opportunities for career progression in STEM and healthtech.

#3 EDIA awareness training for employers and employees, including inclusive recruitment

Over 60% of our survey respondents felt that stereotyping and bias, both in recruitment and the workplace, prevent people from underrepresented backgrounds progressing professionally in healthtech. Additionally, 51% perceive that a significant perpetuator of the diversity problem in healthtech, is a lack of top management commitment to improving diversity and inclusion.

We also note that senior level ‘sponsorship’ (championing and actively advocating for) of diverse candidates is key to progression.  Related to the the absence of role models, we note that it is critical for Board/Executive members of organisations to be prepared to actively support diverse candidates, as noted by the Chartered Institute of Personal and Development[5].

To address this issue we can also target people in management positions and/or involved in the recruitment process, who can influence company culture and set better benchmarks for inclusive recruitment in healthtech. Through appropriate education and guidance on reducing biases, we can pave the way for people from underrepresented backgrounds to have equal opportunities.

We also note the increased challenges entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds have in raising capital.  This is particularly relevant to healthtech where bringing products and services to market, in a highly regulated sector, requires significant expenditure.  Most entrepreneurs are unable to fund product development through their own means so access to capital is essential.  However, access is not equitable as noted in a range of sources including a recent report from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Palladium Capital, “Barriers to Capital Flow for Black Female Entrepreneurs: A study by Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of UK Government (FCDO), Department for International Trade (DIT) and Palladium Impact Capital Limited”.

#3 Recommendations:

We asked people in positions of influence which skills they felt they needed to develop in order to help them break down these barriers and biases. They indicated they are willing to mentor, provided they can access relevant skills training or support for finding a mentee. Talent programmes can be one way to facilitate this sponsorship. We recommend that the government incentivises and supports organisations to develop talent and sponsorship programmes that create a diverse leadership pipeline.

Respondents also said they need support with setting up initiatives and ways to increase representation in their organisation and through their recruitment pipelines. There is a clear willingness from people to evoke change, which in turn suggests people have a good understanding of why it is important to change. OHT have partnered with Health Foundry on a campaign called Diversity in the Workplace which aims to engage with the healthtech community in the UK and produce a set of practical steps (manifesto) as a guide for organisations to improve diversity. We recommend that the government supports this campaign by showcasing the participating organisations who pledge to adopt the manifesto.

We suggest the development of an easily accessible resource pack - similar to the OHT toolkit - which will contain materials and guidance for how people can start initiatives within their own organisation to increase representation of frequently underrepresented groups. We recommend that the UK government supports organisations like OHT to develop and engage organisations with these materials. Alongside this, holding organisations to account, whilst supporting them to improve EDIA in their organisations could be a critical role that the UK government plays.

Finally, while some steps have been taken to improve access to investment for entrepreneurs from diverse backgrounds, we recommend the government provides and facilitates access to ring-fenced funds for under-represented founders.

Conclusion

In summary, when healthtech isn’t inclusive, solutions do not cater to, and are not representative of the very populations they aim to serve. Consequently, users, patients and citizens’ health suffers.

Our findings show three main areas which the One HealthTech community believe need to be addressed, and should be supported by the government:

1. Support self promotion and networking initiatives to enable people from underrepresented backgrounds to access other subject matter experts and potential new roles in industry
2. Tailor access to training for people from underrepresented backgrounds. Restrictions in time or awareness of available training should be taken into account.
3. Support organisations to provide training on EDIA awareness and inclusive recruitment. 

OHT have thrived in creating a community to enable people to drive better EDIA in health innovation. We are open to and seek collaborations with, and support from the UK government to enable and empower the OHT community. With this we could generate further offerings, serve a larger population and, fundamentally, increase diversity in STEM healthtech roles.  

(January 2022)