Making Healthcare Human Again
10 Things Newsletter #5
Who am I? I’m Inês Santos Silva. I'm a Co-Founder and COO of TejoMed and Core Team Member at AthenaDAO. I’m a passionate and accomplished advocate for diversity and inclusion in entrepreneurship, technology, health, and policy. Now and then, I send a newsletter about life, work, and random things.
Let’s Make Healthcare Human Again. Having spent most of my career in tech, I’m still incredibly excited about what technology can do and will do for healthcare. But here’s the thing, every day, I talk to potential TejoMed members, and I hear the same frustration: healthcare today feels impersonal, transactional, like just another number in a system. That’s why I believe the future of healthcare must be:
Human, because empathy matters.
Human, because people are more than data points.
Human, for great health outcomes, you need a trusting and long-term relationship with your (human) doctor.
AI will make healthcare smarter, but our job is to make sure it also makes healthcare better. More personal. More caring. More… human. That’s what I’m building. If this resonates with you, let’s talk.
Next month marks International Women’s Day, but if I’m being honest, I’ve never felt more pessimistic about the future of gender equality. There’s this comforting myth that time alone will fix things, that progress is inevitable. But the reality? Progress isn’t automatic. It takes collective action, and right now, we’re seeing hard-earned rights questioned and DEI policies used as scapegoats for everything under the sun.
My pessimism comes from conversations like the one between Marc Andreessen and Lex Fridman. I’ve never heard so much history being rewritten in real-time, and the way Marc Andreessen discredits gender equality policies is genuinely alarming. It makes me fear what the next few years could look like if these narratives continue to gain traction.
Talking about podcast interviews, some, like Marc Andreessen's, make me pretty pessimistic about the future of gender equality. But let’s move to something brighter. Looking at the most shared podcasts of 2024, two of the top 10 episodes - The Mel Robbins Podcast and Huberman Lab - focused on women’s reproductive health, specifically menopause. And that’s huge. It proves what so many of us already know: women are desperate for better healthcare solutions, more research, and honest conversations about their health. The demand is there. But weirdly, investors are still sleeping on it. At AthenaDAO and TejoMed, we see it every single day: women’s health isn’t just important, it’s the biggest untapped opportunity in healthcare. And if people aren’t paying attention yet, they will be soon.
I've been thinking about how social media gives us these totally different versions of reality. On X, the world is basically ending. On Instagram, everyone’s somehow working out harder than Elite athletes (maybe only on my feed). And on LinkedIn? People are celebrating every tiny achievement like they just won a Nobel Prize (okay, maybe I’m being a little harsh…). It’s like stepping into three alternate realities, each telling a completely different story.
Influenced by all those Instagram athletes, I finally gave running a go, and honestly? I’m having a great time. What’s made it even better is Runna. It’s hands down the best running app I’ve come across in a while. The structured plans and the easy-to-follow guidance make it seem like having a personal coach in my pocket. It makes the whole process feel way less intimidating and way more fun.
Talking about coaching: the coaching era is well and truly here. Rich people have been doing this for ages, getting coaches for tennis, paddle, video games, productivity… literally everything. But now, it’s starting to trickle down, and I feel like we’re only at the beginning of this shift. Recently, I came across Done Daily, and I’m super curious about where it’s headed. Haven’t tried it yet, but if you have, let me know what you think!
On the topic of money, at Portuguese Women in Tech, we’re gearing up for the 3rd edition of the 💸 Women & Wealth Conference💸! It’s a full day of talks and workshops all about managing money, and honestly, I’m still shocked by how little most people actually know about personal finance. Email me if you want to join us, and I’ll send you a free ticket!
The trick to reading loads of books? Only read books you actually enjoy. Right now, though, I’m completely ignoring my own advice. I’m forcing myself to read Thinking in Systems: A Primer (bought in 2017 😱) by Donella Meadows. Systems thinking is fascinating, and this book is basically the go-to on the topic, but… it’s kind of boring. So here’s my hack: I read a few pages each night just to keep making progress and then switch to something more engaging as a reward. Slow and steady, but at least it’s working!
Finally, I highly recommend this interview with Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, on the future of tech work, building apps, and creating AI agents using Replit. Honestly—wow.
If you enjoyed reading this issue, you can also “like” this newsletter by clicking the ❤️ below, which helps me get visibility on Substack. Or, forward this along to a friend.
Until the next one.
Inês
Great suggestions!
I follow a lot of health-related podcast episodes, and Dr Stacy Sims shines a light that many many studies focus on men, while we need data based on women. It is so refreshing to hear Dr Stacy Sims because she can talk for women, and I can never go back (I haven't finished her episode, but already implemented some of the practices!)
I also would like to suggest the BMS podcast based more on fitness -> it's a Portuguese one, as I believe it is very important to consume more content with experts from your country.