Capability Building for healthcare and life sciences
Capability Building for healthcare and life sciences
Prova Health’s Capability Building work is central to our mission of improving health for all by supporting innovation. We sat down with Dr Des Conroy, our recently-appointed Head of Capability Building, to learn more about his and Prova’s journey to this point, and what’s to come.
It has been an exciting and busy period for our team at Prova Health. We’ve opened our first international office in the US, expanded our team and continued serving innovative companies with an ever growing range of interesting and challenging projects in health innovation.
However, some of our most impactful work has been that which we’ve spoken comparatively little about. Alongside our evidence generation work, we have delivered a large number of Capability Building projects that we’re very proud of.
Among other projects, we have launched the global healthcare systems academy for a top 10 pharmaceutical company, developed an online programme on cancer care for the employees at a top global diagnostics company, and delivered targeted programmes supporting pharma teams in commercial and medical functions across Europe, Asia, and North America.
In recognition of the centrality of our Capability Building work to our mission of improving health for all by supporting innovation, Dr Des Conroy was recently appointed to the newly created position of Head of Capability Building at Prova Health. Des will be continuing and building upon our track record in the capability building space.
We sat down with Des to learn more about his and Prova’s journey to this point, what we’ve learned about how capability building can help life sciences and health tech organisations to thrive, and what we as a company are most excited about delivering in 2025 and beyond.
Tell us about your career journey so far
“As a medical doctor, my career began in clinical practice, working in hospitals across Ireland and the UK. My interest in innovation in healthcare started at medical school. I immersed myself in digital health and was excited by the idea of leveraging technology to democratise healthcare and deliver health benefits on a large scale.
“After moving to the UK, I had the opportunity to join Babylon Health’s clinical AI team to develop and validate patient triage solutions. I became more interested in the opportunities and challenges of real-world implementation for innovative solutions.”
You joined Prova Health in 2022. What have you been up to since then?
“I've worked on a range of really interesting projects, including those focusing on evidence generation and market access for digital health solutions.
“However, over time, I’ve been increasingly involved in our capability-building work, which I’m now leading.”
What drew you to capability building specifically?
“I’m particularly interested in helping innovative organisations navigate the complex systems they are working in, and the challenges this presents.
“In practice, this means understanding the interplay of stakeholders, incentives, barriers, and bottlenecks that limit or accelerate the impact of solutions in healthcare.
“Those are the problems I find most interesting, particularly having worked in different health systems as a doctor.
“Beyond solving these problems, you need to translate the insights into actionable strategies to empower individuals, teams, and organisations with the insights, skills, and frameworks needed to meet the challenges they face.
“Done well, this can be transformative, helping deliver better solutions and improved outcomes for patients.”
The Prova Health team delivering an in-person Capability Building programme in Lisbon.
What excites you most about this newly created position as Head of Capability Building at Prova Health?
“I'm incredibly excited. I’m looking to really expand the work we’re doing in this space.
“Prova Health has a strong foundation and deep expertise in life sciences and healthcare — I tend to think about this as the “engine” that drives everything we do. By leveraging this to expand and develop our Capability Building function, we can more effectively address the needs of our clients and deliver even more interesting, impactful projects.
“We’re fortunate to serve some of the most innovative companies in this sector — any opportunity to do more and different types of work supporting them, particularly to improve patient care, is something I’ll always be excited about.”
What skills and capabilities do you believe life sciences and digital health companies need to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving landscape?
“Organisations need diverse capabilities to thrive in healthcare.
“To name just a few, they include really understanding healthcare systems and routes to market, and how to deliver value to various stakeholder groups simultaneously. That is, how to effectively solve problems for different actors or gatekeepers in the system and build trust.
“We’ve learned this firsthand working with various organisations doing really innovative work across different disease areas and problems in healthcare.
“At Prova Health, we’re uniquely positioned to support companies to develop these capabilities. We have a deep understanding of health systems, the life sciences industry, market access, evidence, and effective stakeholder engagement.
“Combined with our team’s clinical and strategic expertise and our experience delivering complex capability-building programmes, we (hopefully!) have a big role to play in helping teams to develop and embed these skills, whatever the problem they are trying to solve.”
If you’d like to discover how we can help your organisation embed the skills it needs to succeed in today’s rapidly evolving healthcare landscape, get in touch with Des at des.conroy@provahealth.com.
