77: HealthTech Hour with Steve Roest with guest Sam Fay

77: HealthTech Hour with Steve Roest with guest Sam Fay

How do people find hope in the darkest times? For Sisu Health CEO Sam Fay, it began with the sudden loss of her mum to a heart attack, an event she says made prevention "a very personal topic" and pushed her out of a long corporate career into health tech.

Hosted by Steve Roest on UK Health Radio’s HealthTech Hour, this conversation centres on preventative healthcare, workplace wellbeing and what it really takes to build medical technology that reaches people where they live and work. Sam explains how Sisu’s self-service health stations grew out of an early online-only platform, after they realised that, as she puts it, "self-reported data can be inherently weak" and most people had no idea about key measures like blood pressure.

You’ll hear how Sisu’s kiosks and digital tools aim to make health checks quick, convenient and accessible in offices, libraries, pharmacies and leisure centres, with around half of their 1.5 million checks happening in workplaces. Sam and Steve compare notes on building physical medical devices, wrestling with regulation, and trying to scale responsibly while still behaving like agile start-ups. The episode will appeal to anyone curious about prevention: from health-tech founders and clinicians to HR leaders worrying about staff wellbeing.

Sam talks candidly about funding, Nhs neighbourhood hubs, and why prevention has to be framed as economic growth, not just looming catastrophe. She also shares how data from Sisu’s platform reveals many people discover risks like hypertension years before traditional pathways might catch them.

Her closing line sums up the attitude that’s carried her through both personal loss and start-up chaos: "If you never try, you'll never know." If you’re interested in how everyday check-ups, smart tech and a sense of purpose might change health at scale, this conversation could be the nudge you need to press play.