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‘We must all understand the long-term value inclusion and diversity brings’

‘We must all understand the long-term value inclusion and diversity brings’

Nadine Frisk, Head of Bucks HSC Ventures, a virtual health and social care innovation programme hosted by Bucks New University, argues for the benefits for equal input from men and women in innovations in the area – but says lack of women in the process could hamper the development of vital healthcare.


Writing ahead of International Women’s Day, Nadine says a lack of diversity in healthcare innovation is ‘vast’ and needs to be addressed. She believes this has led to misdiagnosis and mistreatment over centuries.

Nadine writes: "The importance of diversity to help drive organisational and system-wide innovation seems both logical and sensical.

'Diversity is often seen as an HR problem to be solved, despite several reports having shown that it should be everyone’s responsibility as it leads to better long term innovation and eventually greater profit. *1

“Neurodiversity expert Dr Nancy Doyle described it well in a Forbes article *2 when she wrote: "When we’re working with people just like us, we all think that we know what each other are talking about, and we really don’t.

“But when we work with people who are different to us, we have to slow things down, and we have to check, and have to ask questions, and we have to devote a little bit more time to generating shared meaning and shared outcomes.”

'In short, it is quicker and easier to work with ‘people just like me’ but in doing so the long term result of a product or service may not meet the need of a system-wide user base. Working through issues of gender, culture, race and ethnicity, profession, and silo differences requires more time to resolve but will produce much further reaching solutions for everyone.

Healthcare innovation 

“This is particularly true when it comes to healthcare innovation.

“Despite the fact that women and men are different on a cellular level, meaning that diseases, treatment and chemicals might affect sexes differently, women are still underrepresented in clinical trials. Historically women and minorities have been widely excluded from toxicology and biomedical research up until 1993 when the NIH Revitalization Act established guidelines to include both.*3

“The impact of a lack of diversity in healthcare innovation is vast and includes amongst other things, misdiagnosis and mistreatment, which has been happening for centuries.“Whilst a lot of work is being done to rectify the diversity issue in healthcare innovation, new technologies such as machine learning and AI bring new challenges.

“Recent research shows that only 12% of leading AI researchers are female and only 22% of AI jobs are held by women.*4

A head shot of Nadine Frisk wearing a light blue top stood face onto the camera

'Panacea of future healthcare solutions'

“AI is often seen as the panacea of future healthcare solutions, helping to improve and automate many of its functions. But there’s a great danger that without balanced and diverse inputs these solutions will cause greater bias and potentially exacerbate current issues such as health inequalities.

“It is paramount that we include a diverse workforce, test, and stakeholder base in the development of these solutions to ensure we do not reverse progress that has been made in gender and minority inclusion in this field.

To develop a future where diversity is seen as lever of sustainable innovation we must all:

  • Understand the challenge that presents itself to us
  • Create greater empathy towards our differences
  • Create space and time to develop greater solutions
  • Understand the long-term value that inclusion and diversity brings

Together we can develop innovations that will benefit all of society.

*1 Forbes article “More evidence that company diversity leads to better profits”
*2 Forbes article “Is diversity a lever for innovation
*3 Guardian article “Clinical Trials gender gap”
*4 Forbes article “Bridging the gender gap in AI”

Nadine has previously held innovation roles at YouTube in San Francisco, M&C Saatchi in Sydney, and at various London agencies. 

International Women's Day at Bucks 

This week, Bucks is celebrating the achievements and sharing the views of our female leaders, students, and staff for International Women's Day (IWD).

IWD is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. This year’s theme is Each for Equal, with the aim that an equal world is an enabled world.

Follow our website and social media this week to see our activity for IWD 2020.

Please also share news and information about your events by linking to the University's Twitter feed at @bucksnewuni and Bucks Students' Union's at @buckssu using #IWD2020 and #EachforEqual.