79: HealthTech Hour with Steve Roest - Episode 7979: HealthTech Hour with Steve Roest - Episode 79
UK Health Radio Podcast
Steve Roost talks with Asterix Health co-founder Julian Titz about tackling GP shortages through remote UK-qualified doctors and smarter handling of clinical admin. The conversation also touches on his personal heart condition, preventative care access, and the realities of building a health tech start-up in the UK.
50:51•30 Jun 2026
Fixing the GP Shortage: Julian Titz on Smarter Clinical Workforces
Episode Overview
- Asterix Health connects UK-trained GPs living abroad into NHS practices to handle complex clinical admin like test results, referrals and prescriptions.
- The service focuses on freeing up local GPs’ time by managing tasks end-to-end, including where needed phoning patients about abnormal results.
- Julian’s own undiagnosed bicuspid aortic valve and access to paid preventative care sparked questions about fairness and system design.
- A major challenge in health tech is aligning with real incentives in the NHS, where most spend goes to workforce rather than software.
- Julian’s personal mantra is to keep moving forward by doing the next small thing, even after setbacks.
“Realistically the only thing that's going to kind of keep you moving is just like doing a thing, doing the next thing, figuring out your next move.”
What drives someone to seek a life without constant pressure on an overstretched health system? This conversation on HealthTech Hour with Steve Roost looks straight at one of healthcare’s biggest headaches: the shortage of qualified clinical staff, and what can realistically be done about it. Guest Julian Titz, co-founder and CEO of Asterix Health, talks through how his own heart valve condition pushed him to think differently about access to preventative care.
He explains, “I was only able to access that early because I was able to pay for preventative care,” and questions why the same opportunity isn’t widely available in public systems like the NHS. From there, you’ll get taken into the very practical problem Asterix Health is working on: the mountain of test results and clinical admin that lands on GPs’ desks every day.
Asterix links UK-qualified GPs, now living abroad, directly into primary care practices so they can handle complex test results, referrals, prescriptions and follow-up calls as embedded members of the team. As Julian puts it, 70% of healthcare spend goes to the workforce, but that workforce “has not really seen innovation” in any meaningful way. The chat isn’t all technical, though it happily gets “really niche” at times on things like patient records and incentives.
There’s plenty about the realities of building a health tech business in the UK, how schemes like SEIS helped, and why Julian still thinks London beats Berlin hands down for starting a company. For anyone interested in how smarter use of clinical workforce could free up GPs, improve patient safety and perhaps make room for better preventative care, this is a candid, grounded look at what might actually work.
Julian closes with a simple mindset that applies as much to recovery and resilience as to start-ups: keep going, keep in motion, and always find the next small step. What “next thing” could you focus on today?
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