Welcome to #OurEntrepreneurs, a series where we meet our innovators and uncover what inspired them to create change. Today, we’re delighted to introduce Momina Arifeen Khan, joining us from the University of Birmingham.

Tell us a bit about yourself 

I’m a fifth-year medical student, and in many ways the exact person Clinect was built
for. I’m Momina – someone who turned a problem I experienced first-hand on the
wards, into an innovative concept now supported by the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur
Programme.

I don’t come from a technical background or a family of founders, but I’ve always had
the drive to turn ideas into meaningful, change-making projects.

Tell us about your innovation  

Far too often, I’ve seen medical students hovering at the back of wards waiting to be
noticed, or hearing “sorry, I’m too busy” from the doctor they’ve spent half an hour
trying to approach. This is how we are preparing the next generation of doctors.

Clinect is a two-sided platform connecting medical students with clinicians for
real-time, ward-based learning. Teaching moments that would otherwise pass
unnoticed are captured, structured, and made accessible, without extra burden.

Clinicians post opportunities in seconds. Students arrive matched, prepared, and
ready to contribute. Everyone walks away with something tangible: students with
structured clinical experience, clinicians with automatic recognition for the work
they’re already doing, and institutions with the evidence they need to demonstrate
that their placement investment is working.

What is the problem or challenge you are addressing in the NHS and why is it important?

Medical students, on average, receive fewer than three hours of formal teaching out
of a total thirty hours per week while on placement. Beyond that, they rely almost
entirely on the goodwill of an overstretched clinical workforce, and that goodwill,
however genuine, is not enough.

Clinicians across all grades are uniquely placed to teach – the research is clear that
students learn most from those closest to the frontline. But without protected time,
recognition, or a simple way to make it happen, teaching becomes invisible. It
doesn’t get logged, it doesn’t get rewarded, and gradually it stops happening as
consistently as it should.

The consequences are measurable. Simulation studies show that final-year students
still feel underprepared for clinical practice at graduation, particularly around
decision-making, teamwork, and the administrative reality of being an F1. When
graduates enter practice underprepared, the NHS carries the cost of increased
supervision burden, more errors, and higher attrition.

NHS England allocates £34,355 per student each year for placement delivery, and
the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan commits to doubling student numbers by 2031.
But unless we address who actually receives the teaching that makes graduates
safe, we risk doubling the investment without doubling the outcome. Clinect is the
infrastructure that closes that gap.

Why did you join the programme and how do you hope it will support you?

I discovered the NHS Clinical Entrepreneur Programme through a LinkedIn post about the CEP Foundation Series. After signing up and attending every session, my enthusiasm for creating was reignited, giving me a means to solve the problem I had been trying to articulate for months.

At this stage, three things matter most: visibility among the institutions and clinical
communities where Clinect needs to take root, guidance on the funding and
investment landscape from people who have navigated it, and the right technical
partnership to take the product from where it is now to where it needs to be.

The mentor resource was a defining factor for me. Personalised support from
someone experienced in NHS innovation is exactly the kind of guidance I need at
this point.

I’m most looking forward to the network, not in an abstract sense, but in the form of
people who remember my name when I’m not in the room, who share opportunities,
and who connect me to the right trust lead or investor at the moment it matters.
That’s what moves an innovation from a good idea to something real.

What are your ambitions for the next year?

Over the next year, my goal is to complete a structured multi-site NHS pilot that
delivers measurable improvements in teaching frequency, clinical preparedness, and
user satisfaction. Alongside scaling product development, I want to secure at least
one institutional commitment for adoption.

Why do you think innovation is healthcare is important?

For too long, healthcare operated on the assumption that the people delivering it
couldn’t also reimagine it. The same systems, routines, and hierarchies persisted,
not because they always worked, but because questioning them was discouraged.

That is changing. Clinicians are founders now, patients are designers now, and with
the NHS underfunded, overstretched, and facing a workforce crisis it cannot solve
through recruitment alone, a shift is urgently needed. Healthcare innovation isn’t
about technology for its own sake; it’s about recognising that the people closest to
the problem are the ones best placed to fix it.

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