Songbirds and Sirens - Sounds of Recovery from a Pandemic

In this final episode, Mark and I talk about the significant effects that lockdown has had on both the practical organisation and financial impact on an international small non-profit organisation such as Steps-2-Walk.

He shares his insight on the differences around the world for orthopaedic surgeons and the services that they provide to the populations they serve.

The prolonged lockdown has created significant challenges for surgeons, particularly those in training, and how they maintain and develop their skills.

If you would like to donate to the Steps2Walk Charity please go to https://steps2walk.org/

In this episode, Mark and I discuss what comes next for Foot and Ankle Surgery, and Orthopaedics in general.

He shares his views on how innovation should drive change rather than the latest available technology.

Mark is inspired by the younger generation of Orthopaedics Surgeons who embrace values that include a focus on the importance of lifestyle.

He also explains the importance of correction of  crippling foot and ankle deformities for patients, particularly children, and the impact that these deformities have, not just on their lives, but the lives of the wider community.

To find out more about Steps2Walk go to  https://steps2walk.org/

Dr Mark Myerson has spent a lifetime helping people to walk.  In a career that spans decades, he has developed teaching programmes to train surgeons across the globe to learn and develop surgical techniques to correct foot deformities.

Mark launched the Charity Steps2Walk to facilitate the opportunity for experienced Foot and Ankle Surgeons to help train other orthopaedics surgeons around the world, particularly in areas where access to specialist foot and ankle surgery is extremely limited.

I caught up with Mark a few months after the Pandemic had hit the world and we were just coming out of the first lock-down, to find out the impact that this was having on this extraordinary surgical programme.

To find out more about Steps2Walk, visit https://steps2walk.org/

In this final episode with our Alberto Gregori, we look to the future and towards next for him and World Orthopedic Concern.

In this episode, Alberto Gregori, and I explore how the use of drones and AI technology could impact positively and shaping health care in underdeveloped countries.

Alberto Gregori was an early adopter of computer navigation and total knee replacement. 

In this episode, we explore the challenges that the NHS faces in restarting elective services.

We chat about how the healthcare sector needs to evolve to cope with the backlog and the role that the private sector has in that recovery.

10 years ago Alberto Gregori invited me to join NHS Lanarkshire. What prompted me to see yes, was a shared appreciation of the fact that by surrounding yourself with great people who have a can-do attitude, the impossible becomes possible. 

Alberto and his wife Tricia Connor were instrumental in transforming the A & E and orthopaedic departments in Hairmyres, a hospital famed for treating George Orwell for tuberculosis, as he penned part of 1984. Alberto was instrumental in introducing physician assistants to the UK. And he has been a trainer and educator of numerous PAs, doctors and orthopaedic surgeons. 

He and Trish left Hairmyres to pursue an even greater goal of healthcare in Africa, as chairman-elect a World Orthopedic concern, and also Flyspeck, or charities that are taking orthopaedic healthcare to parts of Africa,  Alberto discusses the impact COVID-19 and the lockdown has had on providing health care to some of the world's most needy.

Donna McCloskey chats about what it means to her to be an ethical investor and the challenges that a fluctuating economy is going to have for the housing market.

Donna explains how her love of helping people enables her to bring together people with a social conscience to build an additional income stream, whilst providing fantastic quality homes and stability to people who want to build a better future for their family and themselves.

A back injury ended Donna McCloskey's life as a 'Peggy Mitchell' landlady.  Donna shares her experience of being a patient and how this helped shape her mindset for moving forward as a new type of landlord in property.

Donna McCloskey is an ethical property investor, developer.  
Her real passion is helping people; whether that is a landlord providing fantastic homes to her tenants, or as a business coach, helping other property investors project plan their dreams of alternative income streams.