Out Of Programme
Podcast Description
The Out Of Programme (OOP) podcast shines a spotlight on clinicians who have ventured beyond the traditional path of clinical training to forge unique and unconventional careers. Hosted by Drs Jing and Muhammad, this series delves into the diverse backgrounds, driving motivations and transformative moments that shaped their journeys outside the realm of medicine. Whether you’re a clinician curious about life beyond the white coat or simply fascinated by stories of bold career reinvention, this podcast offers inspiring conversations and thought-provoking insights that go beyond the ordinary.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
This podcast explores themes around career reinvention within the healthcare sector, highlighting episodes such as Dr. Jing's transition from medicine to entrepreneurship with Patchwork and Liz Ashall-Payne's journey from speech and language therapist to CEO of ORCHA. Specific focus areas include digital health, mentorship, identity transitions, and the challenges faced by medical professionals moving into new roles.
The Out Of Programme (OOP) podcast shines a spotlight on clinicians who have ventured beyond the traditional path of clinical training to forge unique and unconventional careers.
Hosted by Dr Jing Ouyang, this series delves into the diverse backgrounds, driving motivations and transformative moments that shaped their journeys outside the realm of medicine. Whether you’re a clinician curious about life beyond the white coat or simply fascinated by stories of bold career reinvention, this podcast offers inspiring conversations and thought-provoking insights that go beyond the ordinary.
What happens when one of 15,000 applicants wins a scholarship from Kenya to UCL Medicine — then rebuilds her idea of “scale” from the GP surgery to agentic AI?
In this episode, we speak with Dr Sheliza Darvesh, GP, former Babylon clinical ops lead, and co-founder & COO of Conversico, building an agentic AI operating layer for healthcare (starting with a voice receptionist) as an Antler entrepreneur in residence.
- 🏝️ Growing up on a Kenyan island in a single-parent home — school fees from a community “pot,” then learning who had quietly paid all along
- 🎓 Beating 15,000 applicants for the African Educational Trust Scholarship to study medicine at UCL — and arriving with one suitcase, chickenpox scars, and a ruinous Heathrow black cab
- 📚 Staying in the top 10% every year to keep the scholarship, walking Camden to UCL to save bus fares, and finding family in friends’ kitchens
- 🏥 Choosing GP for patient volume, then realising true scale meant helping more than one person every ten minutes — into Babylon, Manual/Voi, and clinical ops
- 🤖 Co-founding Conversico with her husband to free clinicians from fragmented admin — and why Antler cared more about founder–market fit than the pitch deck
Sheliza’s story is a masterclass in adversity, kindness, and redesigning a medical career so impact — and the freedom to give back — can finally scale.
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