International Women’s Day 2026 calls us to action with two powerful themes: “Give to Gain” (International Women’s Day), a mindset rooted in collaboration and shared progress, and “Leading the Change: Women Shaping a Sustainable Future.” (National Women’s History Alliance, 2026)
As a workforce development programme supporting diverse NHS professionals to improve patient care and health system delivery, the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme (CEP) has always understood that meaningful innovation ecosystem is about collective transformation. At its heart, the CEP is built on four core values: community, collaboration, empowerment and inclusivity.
Community: Belonging in Innovation
Health technology is reshaping medicine at unprecedented speed. Yet innovation can feel isolating, particularly for women clinicians balancing clinical work, caring responsibilities, portfolio careers, or facing structural barriers such as limited access to networks and funding.
When the CEP programme began in 2016, just 8% of participants identified as female. Today, women comprise nearly 50% of the cohort. That growth reflects intentional work to build a community where women feel credible, supported and visible.
Through our partnership with the Medical Women’s Federation (MWF), we are strengthening pathways into innovation for women doctors and allied healthcare professionals at every career stage. As the CEP celebrates its 10th year alongside MWF’s 110th anniversary, this alliance symbolises something powerful: sustainable change happens when communities align their purpose. “Give to Gain” is visible in mentoring calls, peer feedback sessions, and collaborations that continue long after cohorts formally end.
Collaboration and Gaining Progress
Innovation in healthcare rarely happens alone. It thrives where clinical insight meets design, data science, policy, education and lived experience. Across the CEP community, women are actively shaping sustainable transformation:
- Dr Deb Gompertz introduced a simple but transformative approach to medicines optimisation, asking care workers and postal workers to “show me your meds please”, improving prescribing, reducing waste and enhancing frailty care.
- Dr Okojie is reshaping obstetrics and gynaecology innovation and solving vaginal prolapse care through EV3 Technologies.
- Dr Julie Hammond is transforming maternity care and speaking openly about her own experiences through MamAR.
- Professor Kathy Beardsall has pioneered wireless neonatal monitoring, enabling babies to spend more time with their parents.
- Professor Nazima Pathan made My PICU Story for parents, siblings and wider family members to navigate and recover from the trauma of a child who has been admitted to intensive care.
- Ophthalmic surgeon, Louise Allen, has demonstrated extraordinary perseverance, bringing DigiVis, Eyedot and Neocam to fruition after years of research and iteration.
- Consultant Radiologist Dr Natasha Davendralingam, CEO of Anubix, specialising in post‑mortem imaging and the reform of death care.
- GP Partner & Menopause Specialist, Dr Clare Spencer who created My Menopause Centre, co-founded with Patient Entrepreneur Helen Normoyle, supporting women through all stages of their menopause.
There are many more case studies of innovators which can be accessed on the CEP website. These women exemplify “Leading the Change.” They are not simply launching products, but redesigning systems to be safer, more equitable and more humane.
Some women do not initially describe themselves as “entrepreneurs”, a point that needs addressing with leaders, mentors and innovators who look and sound like them. The CEP recognises that countless women across the NHS are already innovating, redesigning pathways, reducing inefficiencies, improving patient communication, addressing inequalities, often without formal recognition. The CEP role is to create a space for that creativity, nurture it and help it scale.
Empowerment: Idea to Impact
Women doctors and healthcare professionals remain under-represented among health-tech founders. Known barriers include funding inequities, limited visibility of female role models, and confidence gaps shaped by gendered expectations. The CEP addresses these barriers deliberately, to provide knowledge transfer of digital health, leadership and commercial literacy, structured mentorship, access to networks across industry, academia and policy. All events are hybrid and flexibility is deliberately built into the programme. One of the features highlighted by many clinical entrepreneurs is the psychological permission to pursue innovation alongside clinical work.
Importantly, success is not a narrow definition. Not every woman in health tech needs to found a start-up. Some will become intrapreneurs, transforming services within their Trusts. Others will shape policy, education or implementation. All are celebrated and highlighted. This reflects the WHO’s global call to support inclusive health innovation and the NHS Long Term Plan’s commitment to workforce transformation. Empowering women to innovate strengthens not only individual careers, but system resilience. Giving expertise and belief to emerging innovators creates exponential return, in improved patient outcomes, safer systems and more inclusive care.
Inclusivity and Innovation That Reflects The Workforce
Women make up the majority of the NHS workforce. Leadership and innovation must reflect that reality. In health technology, absence of women’s voices creates blind spots, particularly in women’s health, paediatrics, mental health, long-term conditions, and community-based care. Research shows that when women are present in design, solutions become more holistic and equitable, as well as more profitable. Inclusivity also means geographical and specialty diversity. Some innovations remain local, transforming a single pathway. Others scale nationally or globally. Both are valuable.
The CEP supports women across all roles (nurses, allied health professionals, pharmacists, GPs, hospital doctors, managers, trainees, etc) to step into innovation. You do not need a business background or a polished pitch. You need insight into a problem that affects patients or staff and the willingness to explore how it could be better.
Funding remains one of the most significant structural barriers facing women innovators. The 76% of the NHS workforce identifies as female(1), yet access to capital does not reflect this majority. Globally, female founders continue to receive a disproportionately small share of venture capital. In 2025, the Founders Forum Group reported that just 2.3% of global venture capital ($6.7 billion) went to female-only founding teams, compared with 83.6% to all-male teams ($241.9 billion) and 14.1% to mixed-gender teams ($40.7 billion). It is encouraging to see innovation forums and funding streams beginning to address this imbalance, alongside increased prioritisation of women’s health, maternal health and children’s health. This makes economic sense, from example, evidence consistently shows that investing early in a child’s health yields one of the highest long-term returns of any healthcare intervention. Closing the funding gap is about unlocking solutions that strengthen the entire health system.
Give to Gain Culture
Within the CEP, mentors give time and gain fresh insight, alumni give advice and gain new collaborators, participants give ideas and gain confidence, the system supports innovation opportunities and gains sustainable transformation.
International Women’s Day is a great way to celebrate clinical entrepreneurs and also encourage participation. If you are redesigning a clinic pathway, solving a problem that frustrates patients or staff, improving education or communication in your department, exploring digital tools that could enhance access, or thinking “there must be a better way”, then you are already innovating. The NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme is free to NHS workers who get through the application process, to support NHS staff wherever you work, whatever your specialty, whatever stage of career you are in. As the World Health Organisation reported in 2021 “women’s leadership in health care is vital”, everyone benefits.
This International Women’s Day, we reaffirm our commitment to community, collaboration, empowerment and inclusivity. We celebrate the women already shaping transformation. And we extend a clear invitation to join us. Bring your idea. Give and gain.
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