Medical Misfits

Matthew "Matt" Fenech is a doctor and now co-founder of a startup called Una Health which develops an app for diabetics to improve their nutrition and blood sugar management. Before co-founding Una Health in 2021, Matt worked at a think tank called Future Advocacy and as Medical Safety Lead at Ada Health. I think Matt is a really interesting person to talk to because his career path is by no means "linear", what he might have called it - I don't know of any doctor who would have considered working at a think tank, simply because no doctor seems to be aware of these sort of job opportunities. And that's not all - after that, Matt worked at Ada Health, a well-known healthcare startup developing a symptom checker app. And now Matt co-founded his own startup. Looking back at Matt's past activities, he says (and I think it's a quite smart observation) that there's been somewhat of a progression in his jobs: First, at the think tank, he worked on what sort of Healthcare policy might make sense. Then, at Ada Health, he worked in a company where he could actually be closer to real-world changes; and finally, now, in his own startup, he has even more degrees of freedom in building things and implementing the changes he envisions for the Healthcare system. I ask Matt about how he got his first job. Also, as he worked in diabetes research before completely leaving the hospital behind, I asked him whether he thought that his research experience was beneficial for his later jobs - or was it all for nothing? After touching upon what the hell employees of think tanks actually do I ask him what his new company, Una Health, is about and how he plans to improve diabetes care through it.