Eating the Elephant: From Babylon Beginnings to AI-Powered Hospitals

A Consultant, a Rare Disease, and a Mum with Gemini

In part two of our series with Umang Patel, CCIO at Microsoft, Tom and Umang explore what the NHS's digital future really looks like once you get past the infrastructure excuses - and who's actually driving change. Drawing on real clinical encounters, startup lessons, and a candid conversation about purpose vs profit, this episode argues that the bottleneck was never the technology. It was always the context locked inside people's heads - and whether we're brave enough to let go of it.

The Safest Word in Healthcare is No - and For the NHS, That's the Problem

In episode 2 of our series with Professor Ian Abbs (former CEO of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust), we discuss what it actually takes to lead one of England's largest healthcare organisations - and why the NHS systemically underestimates the risk of doing nothing. Ian traces his CMO-to-CEO transition, his "inverted triangle" leadership philosophy, and the cultural and structural barriers that slow NHS innovation adoption - highlighting DrDoctor's own deployment at GSTT and how, even though DrDoctor was made available to NHS organisations for free via the zero-tariff innovation programme, almost none could execute on it.

The One Where Imperial Went From 16,000 Overdue Patients to a 59% Drop in Cancellations

In the second episode of DrDoctor Will See You Now with Imperial College Healthcare, we look at the numbers. Since going live in August of last year, the results have been striking: hospital cancellations down 59%, patient-initiated cancellations down 45%, and the DNA rate dropping to an all-time trust low of 9.4% - with a target of 7% firmly in sight. Mel and Tom also dig into how the backlog is defined and misunderstood, why chronic patients need a different approach, how linked diagnostic appointments are being managed through pre-validation, and the cultural resistance that proved harder to navigate than the operational change itself.

Eating the Elephant: From Babylon Beginnings to AI-Powered Hospitals

Microsoft Chief Clinical Information Officer and paediatric doctor, Umang Patel joins the podcast to reflect on his journey from Babylon and early digital health experiments to today’s AI revolution. Having first met in 2012, Tom and Umang discuss lessons from the 2010s, the NHS’s unique strengths, and the growing role of clinicians in leading transformation. The episode explores practical changes now arriving in hospitals - from AI scribes and ambient notes to smarter MDTs and clinician-led innovation - and why this moment feels like a real opportunity to scale better, more equitable care.

There and Back Again: Ian Abbs on the Life of an NHS Chief Executive

In this episode, Tom talks with Professor Ian Abbs, former CMO and CEO of Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, about his journey from medical school and renal transplantation to hospital leadership and digital health advocacy. They discuss the NHS's organisational changes, the Guy's and St Thomas' merger, the foundation trust era, and the cultural lessons from early clinical computing. Ian reflects on personal experiences with technology, the convergence of biology and AI, and how we can move forward in the digital health ecosystem.