Bela Prasad

Bela began her career as a management consultant in the US, working with health insurers and pharmaceutical companies on strategy. She went on to lead NHS payment reform across services worth over £30bn, shifting the focus from activity to outcomes, and later headed healthcare finance for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, directing funding towards value-based care and digital innovation. Seeing how hard it is for people to access psychological support, she co-founded a digital health start-up built around a whole-person approach. The venture has received two Innovate UK awards and recognition by the Mayor of London. Bela completed her PhD at MIT, followed by a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard. At Cambridge, she is exploring how digital habitats, such as messaging platforms, online communities, and conversations with AI assistants, are becoming spaces where people make decisions about their health. Could healthcare shift from a model centred around official apps and websites to one woven into the digital spaces we already use daily? If so, what would that mean for access to care, clinical decision-making, and health outcomes?