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Our Strategy
Building communities that change health innovation.
Our strategy is about making One HealthTech clearer, stronger and more sustainable as a volunteer-led community of communities.
By 2030, we want OHT to be where people across health innovation come to find their people, feel less alone and build communities that shift careers, organisations and systems.
Communities people want to come back to.
Places where things start.
Spaces that turn generosity, energy and connection into meaningful change.
In short: more community, better supported, with more influence. Lovely.
Why this strategy, and why now?
Over the last ten years, we have shown that a volunteer-led, grassroots community can bring people together across health innovation, create genuine belonging, open doors, amplify voices that are too often overlooked and keep going even through hard moments.
And now we need to be even clearer about the next chapter.
This strategy is about focus. It is about being honest about what One HealthTech is here to do, what we are uniquely good at and what we will prioritise over the next few years.
It is also about staying power. Healthtech funding is tighter. Organisational budgets are under pressure. Responsibility for equity, diversity and inclusion is being reduced or reshaped in some places, even as the need for better, fairer innovation remains urgent.
That makes communities like ours more important, not less.
But it also means we need an operating model that is viable, resilient and built to last.
No burnout-powered heroics, please. We are building something that can keep going.
What we believe
We believe health innovation is better when more perspectives get to shape it.
We believe community matters because change rarely happens alone. It happens when people feel seen, connected and supported enough to act.
We believe some of the most important people in health innovation are not always the most visible.
They are the ones building trust, bringing people together, noticing what is missing, opening doors, asking harder questions and creating spaces where new ideas can grow.
And we believe OHT has a distinctive role to play in backing the people and communities helping build a more inclusive future for health innovation, often without the recognition or support they deserve.
The good eggs. The bridge-builders. The “I’ll just make the introduction” people. The quietly powerful ones.
Why this strategy, and why now?
Over the last ten years, we have shown that a volunteer-led, grassroots community can bring people together across health innovation, create genuine belonging, open doors, amplify voices that are too often overlooked and keep going even through hard moments.
And now we need to be even clearer about the next chapter.
This strategy is about focus. It is about being honest about what One HealthTech is here to do, what we are uniquely good at and what we will prioritise over the next few years.
It is also about staying power. Healthtech funding is tighter. Organisational budgets are under pressure. Responsibility for equity, diversity and inclusion is being reduced or reshaped in some places, even as the need for better, fairer innovation remains urgent.
That makes communities like ours more important, not less.
But it also means we need an operating model that is viable, resilient and built to last.
No burnout-powered heroics, please. We are building something that can keep going.
What we believe
We believe health innovation is better when more perspectives get to shape it.
We believe community matters because change rarely happens alone. It happens when people feel seen, connected and supported enough to act.
We believe some of the most important people in health innovation are not always the most visible.
They are the ones building trust, bringing people together, noticing what is missing, opening doors, asking harder questions and creating spaces where new ideas can grow.
And we believe OHT has a distinctive role to play in backing the people and communities helping build a more inclusive future for health innovation, often without the recognition or support they deserve.
The good eggs. The bridge-builders. The “I’ll just make the introduction” people. The quietly powerful ones.
People. Products. Practice.
The 3 Ps help us focus on who is heard, what gets built and how health innovation happens.
People.
Backing voices too often unheard.
We want more people to find connection, confidence, opportunity and routes into leadership. Especially those doing important work without always being the most visible people in the room.
Products.
Pushing for tools that work fairly for everyone.
We want health innovation to be shaped by more perspectives, better questions and real-world experience, so products and services are more useful, inclusive and grounded.
Practice.
Showing what good looks like through ethics, co-design, collaboration and better ways of working.
We want OHT communities to help shift not only what gets built, but how people work together.
Our three priorities
1. Grow community and participation
We will strengthen OHT as a place people genuinely want to be part of: welcoming, useful, well-run and worth returning to.
We will make it easier for people to find their way in, make an early contribution and feel part of something bigger than a one-off event.
By 2030, more people will see OHT as the place where they first found their people, found a way to take part and felt able to stay involved.
2. Back the people who help communities grow
We will identify, support and champion Fellows, volunteers, organisers, hosts, connectors, mentors and others helping create energy, trust and momentum across OHT.
By 2030, more people will feel confident stepping forward to convene, contribute, build and lead in ways that feel grounded, practical and possible.
The people doing this work are brilliant. They should not have to reinvent everything in a cupboard with a cold cup of tea.
3. Turn community into influence
OHT is not one central group trying to do everything.
Our communities grow around places, topics, practices, identities, career stages and shared questions. Each one has its own purpose, energy and rhythm, while being part of the wider OHT network.
Think local roots, global imagination and a healthy amount of “oh, you should definitely meet this person.”
How the priorities connect
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Community creates belonging.
Belonging leads to participation.
Participation strengthens people and communities.
Stronger communities create wider influence.
How the priorities connect
The change we want to see
Community creates belonging.
Belonging leads to participation.
Participation strengthens people and communities.
Stronger communities create wider influence.
For people
People feel less alone.
They find peers, mentors, collaborators and opportunities. They build confidence, credibility and momentum. They become more visible in spaces that have not always made room for them.
They feel more able to shape the work, products and systems around them.
For communities
Communities become stronger, more connected and more effective.
They are easier to join, easier to contribute to and easier to sustain.
They are places people want to return to, not just pass through. Leadership is shared, good practice travels further and people do not have to reinvent everything from scratch.
Less lonely graft. More shared momentum.
For the system
The ideas, evidence and relationships coming out of these communities start to shape the wider field: what gets designed, what gets funded, who gets hired, who gets heard and what good health innovation looks like in practice.
We think about impact as moving from individual opportunity to community strength to systems influence, without losing sight of the fact that community is valuable in itself.
Our model
Join → belong → contribute → build → lead → influence → mentor
This is not a rigid ladder. Not everyone moves through OHT in the same way or at the same pace.
Some people come for connection.
Some come to contribute.
Some build communities.
Some mentor others.
Some move in and out across different seasons of life and work.
All of those forms of participation are welcome. You can be a lurker, a helper, a host, a builder, a mentor, a cheerleader or a returning-after-a-long-time person. Still OHT.
How we will know it is working
We will track progress in four areas.
Community health
Are OHT communities active, welcoming and resilient?
Do they have shared leadership, better continuity and stronger support?
Are people coming back because the experience feels meaningful, useful and human?
Participation and opportunity
Is it easy to join, contribute and find your way in?
Are more people making an early first contribution?
Are people finding peers, mentors, collaborators, introductions and opportunities through OHT?
Community-building and leadership
Are more people stepping forward to host, organise, convene, mentor and build?
Are there clearer routes into Fellow and Mentor Fellow roles?
Do people feel more confident, visible and supported through OHT?
Influence
Are OHT communities shaping wider practice?
Are we producing practical outputs, stronger partnerships and clearer examples of change?
Are we helping shift products, practice, research, policy, funding and culture in visible ways?
What we will not do
Over the next few years, One HealthTech will not:
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become a generic healthtech networking club
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centralise everything into an HQ-run model that crowds out local purpose
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chase growth, funding or partnerships that pull us away from our values
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confuse activity with impact
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build a strategy that depends on burnout, over-functioning or constant firefighting
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become a transactional space built around self-promotion, sales or extraction
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create cultures of gatekeeping, polish or exclusivity
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try to do everything, everywhere, all at once
Because absolutely not. We have learned things.
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