6 minute read
Making healthy living easy
Digital technology can aid prevention in healthcare but uptake is key, Mona Hayat, CEO and Founder of Nexus Digital Technology tells Sarah Cartledge
As digital healthcare solutions multiply as a result of the pandemic, it’s no surprise that many innovators have a background in the UK National Health Service or NHS. As the oldest free-at-thepoint-of-delivery state healthcare it has grown into a huge siloed organisation in its 80 plus years, and many clinicians have become frustrated at its lack of technology.
“I saw so much ine iciency in my 25 years in the NHS,” says Nexus founder Mona Hayat. “Patients would have to give the same details over and over again, and there was no way to link information across systems. Like everyone who has worked in the NHS I am a huge fan, but it needs to take up digital solutions rapidly to reduce clinical risk.”
It’s for this reason that many clinicians are branching out on their own to produce solutions that make life easier for both patients and healthcare sta . Mona’s background is as a mental clinician, but she decided to pivot and go into commissioning. It was while she was working in West London as director of programmes that she was asked to commission the physical and mental health programmes following the shocking fire at Grenfell Tower in Kensington, when 72 people died in the 24 storey blaze and 70 others were injured.
As she spent time with this underprivileged community in one of London’s wealthiest boroughs, she began to pull together the concept of Nexus. “People are now in a position where they can realistically manage their own health and I wanted to give them a tool to do so,” she says. “At Nexus, we are one of the frontrunners that can demonstrate how, by giving citizens the opportunity, information, knowledge and understanding of how they can support their own health and well¬being, they are less likely to wait until such time that they get sick and subsequently go into the healthcare system. They are more likely to be able to fix an issue and start to look a er their health in a meaningful way and one they can manage at their own pace.”
Healthcare as an integrated whole
Nexus has been designed as a platform where people can find the resources they need to keep them healthy. By partnering
with nutrition, exercise, language and medical companies, to name a few, users are encouraged to monitor both their physical and emotional wellbeing with structured goals that are tailored to each person.
“I firmly believe that the current position in global healthcare is not sustainable unless there is a significant rise in uptake in digital innovation, so I brought together a group of reputable experts in the field of healthcare, behavioural science and technology who understand about health and wellbeing connectivity and have the same shared vision. With an ageing population there are many and varied comorbidities. The healthcare spend before COVID for 2020 was estimated at 8.1 trillion dollars, and it will be much more now,” Mona says.
“What sets us apart from other health and wellbeing devices platforms is that this is not about people needing to walk 10000 steps a day,” she continues. “We work in a non-prescriptive and meaningful way because we’re trying to target people who have or are much more likely to develop long term conditions. Many wouldn’t consider downloading a health and well-being app, so we’re seeking out patients who have ended up in a perpetual cycle in the health care system as a result of sedentary lifestyles, diabetes, cardiovascular, respiratory or other issues. We’re targeting people who are not going to naturally gravitate towards health and well¬being and who will benefit from it.”
Nexus has identified eight areas of wellbeing – emotional, physical, social,sexual, intellectual, environmental, financial and spiritual. “Nexus is designed to put you in control of your health and wellbeing,” says Mona. “We do not tell you what ‘good looks like’ and there are no scores or assessments. Instead, you decide what you would like to achieve and we help you do it.”
The platform is aimed at organisations and healthcare providers to educate and empower their patients and employees to live active, long and healthy lifestyles. “We don’t want people to be going perpetually round the healthcare system – we want them to enjoy looking a er their own health,” she adds.
To date, Nexus has secured a 5-year contract with Guys and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, a leading London hospital for digital innovation. The contract includes the rollout of the platform to as many prostate cancer patients as possible within the UK. The platform was also selected to be a part of the Microso for Startups Programme in 2021 and was named one of the “Top 100 Startups” by the World Business Angels Forum in 2020.
Expanding in the UAE
Mona spends much of her time at the moment in the Middle East where her advisory board includes H.E Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Duaij bin Khalifa al Khalifa of Bahrain. “We are aiming to create a sustainable lifestyle behaviour change in the region,” she says. “We are committed to building healthy lifestyles and a greater awareness of the importance of wellbeing.
In 2019 she won the Top 100 Healthcare Leaders Award from the International Forum on Advancements in Healthcare in Dubai. As she said when she collected her award; “A er 25 years in the NHS, I wanted to build a company that transforms the quality and e iciency of local healthcare systems by shi ing the balance from medical interventions to digitalised wellbeing, prevention, and early intervention.”
Nexus’s solution allows real time transparency and tracking of user health and wellbeing choices.
“We’ve created an integrated platform where service users can purchase any of the services available on our platform,” she elaborates. “We have so many wonderful services, from book clubs to gym classes to language lessons, and users can choose any of these. The platform is also tailored to each individual’s specific health needs, and at the end of each month, it provides a dashboard informing them of their wellbeing progress, how many people they have connected with that month and loads of other data which motivates people to keep going.”
By partnering with the University of Health & Research in Dubai and the University of London, Nexus is developing a research programme backed up by their data. It has also developed a revenue-generating health and wellbeing coaching programme that provides coaching via the Nexus app.
“So, in summary, what we do is we create the tools to give everyone the best chance at optimising their personal health and well¬being,” concludes Mona. “Our ambition is to educate the global healthcare sector into understanding that we need a paradigm shi from undertaking traditional ways of making savings to one where we focus on patient behaviour and empowerment to achieve long-term sustainability.”
Mona Hayat CEO Nexus Digital Technology
