‘Collective energy’ needed to tackle discrimination in digital health

The keynote speaker at an event to discuss the creation of an ‘Equity Charter’ for people working in digital health has called for “collective energy” to overcome discrimination in the sector.

Addressing attendees at the online event on 2 July 2024, Monique Carayol, leadership coach and co-founder of Bravery in the Boardroom, spoke about the importance of collective energy when tackling social injustice.

“When we see people trying to tackle discrimination, people get tired, people get targeted as individuals, people get burnt out, people become traumatised and that’s why I believe we need the momentum of collective action and energy to come together,” she said.

Carayol added that the power of a collective movement was needed “to topple down long, standing, deep rooted, systemic barriers”.

The event hosted by Dillan Yogendra, account director at Silver Buck, also featured the creators of the Equity Charter: Ayesha Rahim, a ‘portfolio physiatrist’, Victoria Betton, founder of digital health consultancy Peopledotcom  and Hassan Chaudhury, non-executive director at Opto Health and commercial director at DATA-CAN.

An open letter calling for an Equity Charter, condemning racism and discrimination in digital health, has had more than 1,000 signatories since it was announced at Digital Health’s Rewired conference in Birmingham on 13 March 2024.

The proposal for a charter was a reaction to racist and misogynistic comments made by Frank Hester, chief executive of health software company TPP, about Labour MP Diane Abbott in March 2024.

Speaking at the online event, Chaudhury said: “There wasn’t enough of a backlash and the reaction wasn’t strong enough, wasn’t public enough” to Hester’s comments, adding that the reaction “didn’t close down the behaviour with any real leverage”.

“If someone is doing something wrong, your ability to challenge them may only be your voice.

“It may only be that you can say this is unacceptable and to say ‘this is wrong’, but you may also be able to withdraw the procurement.

“You may also say to them I’m not going to work with you on public policy projects,” Chaudhury added.

On 23 July 2024, an Equity Charter Summit is taking place in London, to invite key stakeholders to build a set of actions to accompany the charter.

You can find out more about the Equity Charter and sign here.

This story was amended at 10.48am on 4 July 2024, to change Ayesha Rahim’s job title.