Dr Sarvi Eastell

Dr Sarvi Eastell was a cancer surgeon who has worked extensively within the British NHS system.

From first-hand experience she saw that all too often patients feel alone and dis-empowered when it comes to making informed choices about their health. Determined to make a difference, Sarvi founded Holding Your Hand with the vision of supporting patients no matter where they are in the world, being there to take away the loneliness and uncertainty of the health journey. Our philosophy of transparency, empathy, empowerment and openness is at the core of our belief system, which we know leads to a successful patient health journey.

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The Team

Tara Shah

(Operations)

Tara joined Holding Your Hand in June 2015,with responsibility for operations

and growth strategy.After graduating from Pace University (New York) with an MBA, Tara joined The Fourwents Engineering Group as an Associate in its U.S. group strategy function. Subsequently, Tara was recruited by investment bank Morgan Stanley as an internal risk and infrastructure consultant and more recently, she worked as a Strategy Executive at a London-based consulting firm. In addition to her professional activities, Tara currently serves as the Chief Marketing Officer and Board Member of The Cruse Foundation (the UK’s largest bereavement services charity).

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Dr Stuart Baker

(Training)

Stuart is a medical education consultant with over 15 years’ experience developing and

implementing communications programs for clients in the healthcare industry. During his time working in the healthcare communications industry Stuart’s client work has crossed numerous disease areas, including haematology, oncology, neurology, contraception, endocrinology and cardiovascular health. Most recently Stuart started Doc B, Ltd, a start-up company offering health-and-wellness-focused consulting services with a particular interest in patient-centricity. Stuart is a graduate of The University of Edinburg h, obtaining his BSc (Hons) in Physiology in 1995 and later his PhD in reproduc-tive biology in 1999.

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Lisa Gollobit

(Senior Navigator)

Lisa is a healthcare professional with over fifteen years’ international experience of nursing and midwifery.

She graduated as a nurse in her home state of Iowa in the United States in 2001 and spent seven years as a travelling nurse in a variety of hospital organisations across several states, including California, Arizona, Hawai’i and Texas. After moving to the UK and working in the NHS she became interested in labour and maternity and studied for a degree in midwifery, graduating in 2011. She has four years’ experience as a fully qualified midwife working in both a busy London maternity unit and the surrounding community.

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Emily Brennan

(Medical Navigator)

Emily joined us in June 2015; she works closely with Sarvi at HYH HQ.

Her background is within private healthcare and administration. Working at some of London’s top hospitals has given her a deeper knowledge of the patient journey, through the hospital system, both as an inpatient and out-patient. She is passionate about great patient care.

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Alexandra Kilpatrick

(Digital Strategist)

Alex is a creative solutions manager with expertise in delivering audiences across digital & broadcast media.

Alex has been instrumental in the creation of the Holding Your Hand phone application. She is currently completing an MSc in Digital Anthropology at UCL.

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Natasha Stoller

(Medical Navigator)

Natasha joined us in December 2014 and is currently on maternity leave.

Her background in the charity sector and the foundation course that she completed at Regents College, in Psychotherapy and Counselling, have given her great experience to help navigate our clients through challenging times.

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Our Advisers

Roger Taylor

(Founder Dr Foster)

Roger was a correspondent with the Financial Times and the Consumers Association in the UK; he was co-founder of Dr Foster where he edited the Dr Foster Hospital Guide and helped to establish NHS Choices.

He is a non-executive member of Ofqual, the qualifications regulator in the UK and is Chair of the Open Public Services Network at the Royal Society for Arts. He is also a non-executive director of SafeLives, the charity combating domestic abuse. He has been a strong advocate for the role of greater transparency as a mechanism for consumer protection as well as a driver for quality improvement in public services. He has written widely and is a frequent public speaker on these topics. His book God Bless the NHS was published by Faber and Faber in 2013.

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Craig Manson

(Vernier Partners)

Founding his first company at the age of 20 (later sold to Diageo) and named as a “trailblazer” by Revolution magazine, Craig is a deeply driven and successful entrepreneurial leader with a wide range of public, private and third sector experience

and exceptional track record of innovative delivery. Educated at both Glasgow University and London Business School, he combines a passion for all forms of digital media with a degree in law and a pragmatic commercial approach to business challenges. He is comfortable and adept at engaging at all organisational levels and has a network of relationships at the highest level worldwide. As an independent consultant he has been retained by a variety of blue chip clients from Mitsui Corp to the UK Government.

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Mr Omar Faiz

(CON Surgeon)

Omar has worked within the NHS for over twenty years. He is a recognised expert within surgery at both the national and international level.

He works in North West London at a hospital known worldwide for the specialist management of intestinal disease. At the institution he is Director of Research and has to date published over one-hundred and thirty scientific articles in the academic press as well as three medical textbooks. He is also a surgical journal editor. In the past he has acted as an advisor to NICE and currently he chairs various specialist surgical professional committees at a national level. Throughout his medical career he has maintained research and practical interests in quality measurement and improvement. In this capacity he currently leads an international benchmarking surgical group comprising fifty hospitals in three continents that are using data for quality improvement amongst contributing organisations.

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Nathan Swift

(Swift Strategiest)

Nathan has been delivering major IT, digital and software programmes

internationally for the last 15 years.His early focus was in digital, designing and delivering internet content moderation tools for BBC, Channel 4, ITV and NHS Choices amongst others. Since he has been working in senior management and delivery roles for Capita-NHS Choices, DR Foster and most recently as independent management consultant. Most Recently, he was responsible for delivering an entirely new IT infra-structure for the Cabinet Office, the Department of Culture Media and Sport and Crown Commercial services for the UK Government and Government Digital Service (GDS), demonstrating a 40% saving over the incumbent supplier. Nathan also support several start-ups as a consultant CTO, providing guidance on digital, technology and delivery best practices.

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Tom Sackville

(CEO – IFHP)

Tom Sackville was elected to the UK parliament in 1983. He served as a Minister in various UK government departments, including the Department of Health and in the Home Office.

He is Chief Executive of the International Federation of Health Plans (iFHP) a leading global network of health insurances CEO’s with member companies in 25 countries. He has been retained as advisor to various healthcare enterprise, including System C Healthcare (acquired by McKesson) a leading provider of hospital IT Solutions. He served as Chairman of The Family Survival Trust (formerly Family Action Information Resource, FAIR), an anti-cult organisation. Which seeks to support parents who lost children to abusive cults.

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