“Patients are finally taking charge of their own healthcare.”
As a founder, Olivia Burns poured her energy into making hospital gowns more sustainable and dignified. But along the way she saw a bigger truth: the real key to healthcare innovation isn't fixing a single product, it's helping innovators, providers, and investors work as one system. That insight led her to earn a future leaders scholarship, study at UCL for a healthcare MBA, and launch a new kind of healthcare consultancy.
The patient is becoming the customer
People want tools that let them manage their own health before problems get serious. But integrating that technology into the system isn't simple. Funding and managing it adds complexity the system is struggling to cope with.
Zoom in: Take NHS procurement. Yearly budgets make it hard to back long-term innovations, especially those that need patient collaboration before the benefits show.
"We have all this innovation but everybody is trying to save money within a year. Nobody is considering the opportunity loss."
— Olivia Burns
Why it matters: Healthcare systems need to assess long-term value while empowering patients. Most don't have that capability yet.
Going to market in healthcare
Healthcare isn't like other sectors. Licensing, procurement rules, and evidence generation cost momentum and money before you even get to market. The NHS offers many access routes, but the obvious one is rarely the best choice. Sometimes it makes sense to look abroad when the barriers at home are too high.
"The startup culture and innovation infrastructure in the Middle East shows how ecosystems can accelerate health tech differently than the UK."
— Olivia Burns
The intrigue: In parts of the Middle East, funding, regulatory strategy, adoption, and procurement are aligned. For UK startups, that means a chance to build real-world evidence sooner and then use it to navigate NHS procurement from a position of strength.
Earning patient trust
For all she's learned about navigating systems, Olivia's priority is the relationship between patients and innovators. It's personal. As a child, she experienced profound healthcare challenges.
"First of all is engagement. People don't know how to engage patients or hold patients or keep them engaged."
— Olivia Burns
Zoom in: Marketing tactics borrowed from other industries don't build trust in healthcare. They might sell shoes or apps, but they don't make someone want to join a clinical trial or give up hours to share feedback on an early product design. Olivia believes healthcare marketing works best when it brings customers into product development so they can see first-hand how it fits into their lives.
What's next: If Olivia's story resonated, she's happy to connect over LinkedIn.