Meet Blythe!
Here she is enjoying the glorious British pastime of having a nice cuppa! When she's not sipping a brew in the garden, she works as Nye's Clinical Safety and Data Protection Officer.
If you think the work Blythe does sounds interesting, perhaps you might like to work with her?
We're currently hiring, check out our open roles here!
Blythe, what made you want to come and work with us here at Nye?
I was looking to reinvent myself outside of clinical medicine, but still do something that would benefit patients and my clinical colleagues. I’d worked with Alexander (our CEO) previously, knew he was a good guy, and believed in his aspiration to solve problems in the healthcare system in an innovative and ethical way. I was up for a challenge and to learn new things, and it was a great decision.
Before your reinvention as Nye's very own Queen of Compliance 👸, what were you doing?
I was a GP Partner for 18 years in a busy, innovative, urban practice in Oxford. My particular interests were Clinical Governance, CQC accreditation, risk management and the development of new, more efficient patient pathways.
We were very early adopters of extended nursing and pharmacist roles, and “telephone first” and were one of the first GP partnerships in the country to become a Ltd Co.
I also co-founded a company with 3 colleagues to remotely manage practices in areas struggling to recruit GPs. We started two new practices from scratch, and turned around a third from having serious problems, to being financially viable and then achieving Training Status.
Nye's pretty different then! What do you enjoy about your role here?
I think the team are amazing: really lovely people. They’ve been drawn to Nye’s ethos, so are naturally committed and caring. We work pretty closely as a team so, even with a lot of recent home working, I’ve not felt isolated. The Directors are really supportive and, even before Covid, allowed me flexibility to work in such a way that enabled me to be most productive.
I'm finding it exciting to be at the forefront of what’s happening in health technology currently. It feels fast-paced and super-interesting, but we’re staying focused on the overall aim of making the world a healthier place.
I like the fact that I’m not quite sure what my work will look like in 6 months time, and that we’re solving problems all the time.
How have you developed professionally during your time at Nye?
My learning curve has been really steep! I stepped into a whole different world and had to learn a lot about how tech companies work very quickly.
The great thing about working in a small team has been that I’ve had the chance to experience many different aspects of the company’s work. On top of what you’d expect of a CSO/DPO, I’ve done discovery work with industry experts and users, contributing to business strategy; developed ISMS documentation; learned a lot about compliance and accreditation in the industry; and contributed to the design of safe user pathways.
So, I’ve been well outside my comfort zone for half the time, but have felt fully supported to learn. I’m now a sort of expert advisor in some areas and still a complete novice in others, and my skillset is building all the time.
Can you tell us what you're most excited for in your future at Nye?
I hope that we can ultimately solve some significant problems for citizens, clinicians and/or researchers, and that we’ll do it with beautiful, intuitive products. Information is so valuable when used well that, if we can make that flow in patients' best interests and with them in the driving seat, I’ll be really happy.
I’m also excited about what unknown skills I might pick up as I go along: I’ve no idea what my final skillset will look like, and it’s been really refreshing to have a career change at my age (clue- I’m no spring chicken!).
And finally, if a potential applicant was reading this interview what one other message would you want to leave them with?
If you want to rapidly develop professionally, in an exciting environment with great people, then go for it!
Thank you Blythe 💕
Blythe has also written about how clinicians can most effectively get set up to work remotely - you can read it here