Dr Owain Rhys Hughes is the CEO and founder of Cinapsis, a clinical communications platform for primary and secondary care clinicians.
Hughes – an ear, nose and throat surgeon – founded Cinapsis in 2015 after experiencing first-hand delays in clinical care in the NHS. Clinicians can use the Cinapsis platform to request advice, securely share medical images and discuss treatment advice for patients.
The company operates with a remote workforce of 15 staff and counts nine NHS organisations among its customers, spanning 11 million patients.
In this week’s Founder in Five Q&A, Hughes talks about the initial difficulty of convincing clinicians to use the platform, the “headache” of non-interoperable technology and how rugby injuries sparked a career as a doctor.
1. What one thing do you wish you’d done differently when launching your company?
Owain Rhys Hughes: One of the biggest hurdles at the beginning was addressing some clinicians’ hesitancy when presented with ‘yet another’ digital solution. Unfortunately, many of the tech solutions that enter the NHS are difficult to implement, require hours of onboarding, and aren’t properly integrated with existing systems....