Change Maker: Bryn Davies on tackling global health inequalities

The Lancet Commission has calculated that five billion people in the world do not have access to safe surgery.

And it's report reveals, 18.6 million people die per year as a result - more than malaria, tuberculosis and HIV combined.

This is not only a problem that exists in the global south either, as MBA graduate Bryn Davies has witnessed. Variation in care is a problem in every corner of the globe and remains one of the most fundamental challenges in healthcare.

Although digital health technology is evolving at speed, operating rooms still tend to function in a siloed way, explains Bryn. Crucial data that could improve outcomes is not always shared across hospitals, health systems or even in the operating room.

By understanding that technology is only an enabler, means that the way in which it’s presented, implemented and accelerated by those who are on the frontline of care is key to its adoption and impact.

Healthtech company Proximie aims to address this challenge by becoming the ‘operating system for operating theatres’ - a software platform that transforms the once analogue operating room into a digitally connected and data-driven ecosystem, making surgeries and healthcare teams more efficient and safer for patients.

Bryn has held various roles at Proximie as it has grown from a handful of people to more than 100, scaling up to a point where it is now used in over 50 countries, across more than 40 of the world’s leading medical device organisations, and impacting tens of thousands of patients globally. 

“I am passionate about addressing access to safe and affordable surgery and collaborating with local teams on the ground to ensure accessible technology is carefully integrated with the end-users firmly in mind,” he says. “There are significant disparities in access to surgical care around the world, but there is also a technological divide between developed and developing countries that is increasing. Intentional and inclusive implementation of frontier technologies, like Proximie, are absolutely critical and can help contribute to increasing technology equity and health equality globally.”

Although Proximie has enjoyed commercial success, Bryn has remained true to this purpose and is accountable for Proximie’s health equity function. Building on the work of Proximie’s founding principal, CEO Nadine Hachach-Haram, Bryn sponsors the company's efforts in East Africa. Led here by the “incredible” Shannon Shibata Germanos, Proximie works in partnership with local teams to create digital communities of practices so they can become experts in their own right.

Bryn believes his Global Online MBA at Warwick Business School imbued him with the “competence and confidence” to pursue a career that would see him innovating in such an established field. His cohort in 2012 was highly international, drawing on diverse experiences from sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East as well as the UK, Europe and the US.

“The fact my cohort was more business savvy and mature with real-world business experience was really important,” adds Bryn, who won the Community Empowerment Award at the School’s MBA Alumni Awards.

His dissertation considered the hypothesis that the health industry could harness the power of data by connecting all its players across the entire ecosystem through innovative software, and this is precisely what Proximie strives to achieve.

Before joining the MBA programme, Bryn had reached a senior leadership position at medical manufacturing company Smith & Nephew. It was at this point he began to consider the real impact that he wanted to make and the career he wanted to forge for himself, so he enrolled on the MBA following a recommendation by his then manager.

After his MBA Bryn took up a corporate entrepreneurship role, where he was freed up from the constraints of the core business and for four years was able to explore new business models, investigate different supply chain systems, new channels to market and even new ways to market products via social media.

Bryn shares a saying from a mentor: “As a pioneer, you tend to get more arrows in your back when you’re at the front”. He explains: “You have to be resilient, creative and get used to the ups and downs of driving a start-up right through to scale-up territory, but I was very fortunate to get to work with some incredible team-mates who were inspiring and supportive in equal measure.” 

Outside his work with Proximie, Bryn co-founded a charity Bright Young Dreams, whose mission is to help address the urgent crisis around children’s mental health. 

Sheffield Children’s Hospital, local to Bryn and his family, is one of only three dedicated paediatric trusts in the UK.

“They do incredible work, with inbound patient referrals from all over the UK and the world,” says Bryn. “We really wanted to help. As we knew Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, who is a patron of the Children’s Charity at the hospital, we discussed how we could work together to solve this ongoing and growing challenge.”

With the help of many others, Bright Young Dreams was born and Ennis-Hill is now a patron alongside comedians Jon Richardson and broadcaster Dan Walker.

Although the charity is based in Sheffield, it supports children worldwide, scaling through digital technologies. Globally, one in seven 10 to 19-year-olds experience a mental disorder, with depression, anxiety and behavioural disorders among the leading causes.

“The strapline for the charity is ‘started in Sheffield, shared with the world’ and that ethos really embodies everything we are doing,” says Bryn. “How can we collectively change the narrative of children’s mental health and leave a legacy where mental health care, research, education and understanding is better off than when we started?

“We can make an impact locally, specifically in mental health provision and then through innovative processes and technology, we can look to share and scale this knowledge and expertise across the country and beyond.”

The charity has just funded its first project that will accelerate access to mental health support and triage for children, young adults and carers, meaning they can access the right care at the right time. This can be accessed remotely which means experts can reach more patients with fewer constraints such as location or time to travel.

Looking to the future, Bryn is keen to continue to democratise access to healthcare, but also develop personally.

“Having committed seven years to Proximie, and seeing it grow from a seed stage start-up to a global company with offices in the UK, US and the Middle East, and raising $125 million in the process, it is time for me to scale myself and think about how to help the entire ecosystem,” he says.

Having secured a major grant for health equity work at Proximie, Bryn remains in the business as an advisor. He also advises on business growth for an AI platform in clinical coding called Phare Health as well as others on commercialising a business to scale. There are a number of other projects he is working on that relate to AI and digital surgery, but he confesses that these are in “stealth mode”.

Professionally, Bryn is most proud of how he has challenged himself to leave the comforts of a traditional career path “in the pursuit of my purpose” and work with people who share his passions.

Bryn adds: “It’s about having the courage to know when to say ‘that chapter is closed, let’s start a new one’. I enjoy the journey and I enjoy finding ways to try and disrupt the status quo of established businesses in the pursuit of sustainable impact and improvements.”

Find out about more of our Change Makers at Warwick Business School.