Mark O’Brien in conversation with Annie Flamsteed
In this episode of Transformational Healthcare Leadership, Dr Mark O’Brien talks to Annie Flamsteed, the Australian Founder and Executive Chair of iNSPiRETEK.
Annie started her career as an elite competitive gymnast but chose to exit the sport in her late teens due, in part, to the incredible pressure placed on high-performance athletes. Her lived experience of athletes' mental health challenges makes her passionate about preventative healthcare; it inspired her to ‘hack the system’ so that data analytics could be used to predict when, or if, someone was potentially going to struggle with mental illness in order to accelerate their access to clinical healthcare.
Personal data collection is intrinsic to iNSPiRETEK’s services and Mark talks to Annie about the challenges around data security and confidentiality, particularly as much of their work revolves around young athletes. She says for her organisation it is really important that they only do business with ethical partners. They ask themselves ‘are their intentions aligned to ours, and are they going to be utilising this data for the purpose of iNSPiRETEK, which is to drive positive human behaviour change using research and data analytics?’
If you have an idea, go for it. Start it earlier, even if you don't necessarily know exactly how.
And as this is a healthcare leadership podcast Annie and Mark had a fascinating discussion about the personal and professional drivers that have shaped her leadership journey so far. Sheer grit and determination, and a passionate commitment to the cause have absolutely been key; but also key to springboarding iNSPiRETEK forward has been the ‘humility to ask for help’ and when it came to raising capital she looked for ‘smart capital’ and found people who provide help along with funding.
In our Transformational Healthcare Leadership podcast we are talking to leaders from across the globe about the massive disruption in ‘business as usual’ healthcare caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, the depth of the workforce exhaustion, and the wave of technological and therapeutic innovations impacting the industry. Throughout this series we will be exploring the five key themes of our Oxford Healthcare Leadership Programme:
- the personal leadership journey
- understanding the evolving environment
- effective strategy formation
- driving innovation
- improving performance
Mark is the programme director and has worked in healthcare since the mid-1980s. He has a lifelong passion for improving the culture and quality of healthcare, and is confident the programme will bring together great minds to help foster lasting change and innovation.
