Dr Alka Patel is a lifestyle medicine physician and health coach. 

She has been a medical doctor for over 20 years and she began her professional career on a high, driven to build her career and find success. But this drive in her professional life meant Alka put her health on the backburner. The result,  a collision course with burnout. 

Despite working hard as a doctor to help people become healthy, Alka realised that medicine was headed in the wrong direction, she wasn’t being the doctor she wanted to be.  An over-reliance on medication as a cure for every illness and a dependence on doctors to wipe away symptoms was detracting from what really mattered.   

Alka firmly believes that many illnesses can be prevented and reversed with a shift in lifestyle habits. She talks with Trevor about her Lifestyle First Method ®, coping with stress and grief and how you can live your longest, healthiest and happiest life by putting your lifestyle first especially now at this difficult time.

Dr Ken Catchpole is a cognitive scientist and human factors practitioner who seeks to understand and improve human performance in complex systems. Ken currently works at the Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina. 

His research has been primarily conducted in the UK and USA, exploring trauma, cardiac, orthopaedic, vascular, gastro-intestinal, spinal, and urological surgery. He has also contributed to accident analysis and quality improvement across the world. 

Through popular media, over 70 peer-reviewed publications, and at least 150 invited lectures, Ken has engaged thousands of people in the improvement of healthcare from a human-centered perspective.

In this episode of Atrainability Radio, Ken and Trevor reminisce and challenge each other on how human factors in healthcare have moved on in the UK and in the US.

Roy Lilley has been in and around the NHS since 1974. He is an independent health policy analyst, writer, broadcaster and commentator on the National Health Service and social issues. 

An excoriating critic of the NHS and its institutions but with his last breath, a fan of the patient facing front-line of healthcare and the anonymous people who manage the services. 

He has been a policy advisor, a visiting fellow at Imperial College London, helped start the Health services Management school at Nottingham University and was a founder of the Federation of NHS Trusts… that became the Confed. And is the author of over twenty books on health and health service management. Roy is the Founder of the Academy of Fabulous NHS Stuff, and runs the nhsManagers.network. 

Roy talks candidly to Trevor Dale on Atrainability Radio about trying to change attitudes to human error and fallibility across healthcare.

In 2017 Jen Gilroy-Cheetham’s life changed forever. Just six months after having her second child, she was diagnosed with a rare neuroendocrine tumour and was advised that she would need to undergo keyhole surgery to have half of her stomach removed. Complications led to one of the darkest and scariest times of Jen’s life, as she was put into a hospital ward feeling unwell, vulnerable and extremely unsafe.

Jen, previously a programme manager at the Innovation Agency, shares her experience with Trevor Dale on Atrainability Radio. She talks from experience as a patient and as a healthcare professional and relives her journey to recovery. Jen highlights what’s needed within a healthcare setting to make patients feel safe and explains what needs to change and hopes that by talking about her experience may help others in the future.

Here’s my conversation with Jen Gilroy-Cheetham, in episode 09 of Atrainability Radio.

Jacob Bayliss currently manages Pride in Practice for the LGBT Foundation - a quality assurance and social prescribing award focusing on the health needs of the LGBT community.

He has a long history of training, consulting and developing community-led initiatives to tackle health inequalities and to create meaningful change.

In this episode of Atrainability Radio, Jacob talks openly to Trevor about how society is changing and his commitment to supporting healthcare professionals to embrace the discomfort, to talk openly and feel confident when working with LGBT communities. His vision is to create services where LGBT people can be seen.

Here’s my conversation with Jacob Bayliss, in episode 08 of Atrainability Radio.

Dr Andy Knox is a General Practitioner based in North West England. Andy trained as a doctor in Manchester, England and worked in various hospitals across the city before training as a GP. He is now an executive GP for Lancashire North Clinical Commissioning Group and works with the Better Care Together Team for Morecambe Bay. 

Andy talks to Trevor Dale on Atrainability Radio about the impact of massive health inequalities across the UK and developing a culture together, in order to create real wellness within our communities. Re-imagining cities and regions as healthy places, challenging the status quo and re-imaging the future. 

Alexandra Adams a 4th year medical student, registered blind and hearing impaired, making her the first deafblind person in the UK to be trained towards becoming a doctor. Having faced discrimination and inequality in the workplace, she advocates for better diversity, inclusivity and representation for those with disabilities.

Alexandra shares with Trevor in this episode of Atrainability Radio, her very own personal stories and frustrations as a patient and also a doctor in palliative medicine and how empathy is vital.

Here’s my conversation with Alexandra Adams, in episode 06 of Atrainability Radio.

Rachel Pilling, a consultant ophthalmologist, co-founded 15s30m, a quality improvement tool, to enable all NHS staff and patients to reduce frustration and increase joy.

Rachel talks to Trevor in this episode of Atrainability Radio about how she empowers her team to have equal standing and an equal voice.

Here’s my conversation with Rachel Pilling, in episode 05 of Atrainability Radio.

Sarah Hillman, clinician and academic researcher, and self confessed medical feminist, talks candidly to discuss her main research interests in women's health and genetics in primary care.

Sarah highlights to Trevor in this episode of Atrainability Radio how key life changes for women such as becoming a mother or hitting the menopause, are today, still causing barriers when working in a predominantly male dominated environment.

Here’s my conversation with Sarah Hillman, in episode 04 of Atrainability Radio.

Sports presenter and campaigner Charlie Webster shares the story of the moment she was told she was going to die. She still suffers flashbacks and PTSD three years after contracting Malaria in Rio de Janeiro at the Olympic games.

Charlie talks so openly in this episode of Atrainability Radio about how we can learn from her physical and mental aftercare and how it is important to recognise in others when they are not okay but it is even more important to recognise in ourselves when we are not okay.

Here’s my conversation with Charlie Webster, in episode 03 of Atrainability Radio.