Nkem Egekeze is chief innovation officer and Managing Director of Stealth Startup.  He previously worked as an orthopedic surgery resident and as a research scholar at the University of Georgia, and a strategy advisor at Harvard Innovation Labs. He obtained his medical degree from University of Michigan medical school. He focuses on providing value-based health research and innovation insights for investment executives and medical professionals focusing in particular on cost savings and customized insights. 

Amy Lehman is Founder and CEO at Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic, an international organization, whose mission is to address the problem of healthcare access for millions of people who live in the isolated, but strategically critical lake, Tanganyika, great lakes region of central Africa. She received both an MD and MBA from the University of Chicago, and trained in general surgery at the University of Chicago Medical Center. Additionally, she was a senior fellow with McLean center for Clinical Medical Ethics. She received the 2014 distinguished young alumni award from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. She has been mentioned by Newsweek as one of “150 Women who Shake the World” and by a number of other publications. 

In Series 2 of our Inspiring People in Medicine and Science we continue to source inspiring voices and to ventilate topics relevant to us, our loved ones and the societies we live in.  With topics as wide ranging as development aid, mental health, Femhealth and value – we dig deep into what these areas mean, why the conventional wisdom is not always “wise” and hear about exciting new frontiers.  We are releasing all four of these episodes this week so that you can compare and contrast the experiences of these doctors and medical professionals and that have broken the mould and are pushing for change.  

In this part three we look around the world to compare the nature of the problem  – hearing from Yele Aluko about his experience in Africa, while Noa Hirsch, an experienced health care director, nurse and business based in Israel shares not only her insights from the ground and from other kinds of disparities on the ground in a much more densely populated country as well as from technology solutions that are in development to chip away at persistent problems in this domain. 

In part two we explore solutions to the problem, returning to our discussion with Yele Aluko to discuss some of the investments in alleviating inequity in the US medical landscape, and where disparities persist. Adonica Shaw then details the importance of community, shared experience, resources and education – all of which she is amplifying through My Wing Women.

In this part 1 of the series we will explore the problem, through storytelling, on the ground insights and lived experience. We hear from Maneesha Ghiya, the founder of FemHealth Ventures about her own birth experience that prompted a career-long devotion to women’s health issues, as well as Yele Aluko, EY Americas Chief Medical Officer, director of the EY Center for Health Equity, Adonica Shaw, CEO and Founder of My Wing Women, an online community and resource center for women relating to reproductive and other health issues. Maura Rosenfeld, founder of digital health innovator – MindUp, provides her insights on the innovations and technology that can move the needle in alleviating this problem. 

Maneesha Ghiya is Managing Partner and Founder of FemHealth Ventures, a firm focused on providing investment capital to entrepreneurs focused on women’s health. Investing in healthcare since 2000, Maneesha has invested via public equities, private equities and as a hedge fund specialist.  She is a Senior Advisor to ExSight Ventures, an ophthalmology-focused venture capital fund and serves on multiple boards.

Veronica O’Keane has recently retired from her position which was as a professor of psychiatry and consultant psychiatrist at Trinity College Dublin.  She has over 30 years of experience in the field and has published numerous research papers, especially on mood disorders and on perinatal depression. She is the author of the book A Sense of Self: Memory, the Brain, and Who We Are and  The Rag & Bone Shop, How We Make Memories and Memories Make Us.  She lives by the sea in north Dublin and is a passionate open sea swimmer.