Episode 23 · International

USAID cuts, women's health and leading the right way

Dr Patricia (Patty) Mechael · Co-founder and CEO, health.enabled

Jan 2026

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USAID cuts, women's health and leading the right way

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About this episode

Recorded live at the Global Digital Health Forum in Nairobi in December 2025, Patty Mechael brings nearly three decades of mHealth and digital health experience into a wide-ranging conversation on the state of global health after a year of upheaval. We cover the USAID funding crisis, repeating patterns from the 1990s, women as both decision-makers and consumers of health technology, how to evaluate digital health tools in ways that actually matter, and what compassionate leadership looks like when the incentives don't reward doing the right thing.

Global Health Funding Women's Health Leadership Digital Health AI

“Women are not just a target population. They are decision-makers and consumers representing the biggest unmet market opportunity in health.”
Dr Patricia (Patty) Mechael

What we cover

01The state of 2025: USAID cuts and their ripple effects on healthcare and digital health in underserved communities
02Lessons from the 1990s to now: what patterns keep repeating, and what fundamental mistakes we're still making
03Women as decision-makers AND consumers: why this is not just the right thing to do, but represents massive unmet market opportunity
04Value and context in evaluation: how to actually assess digital health and AI tools in ways that matter
05Building trust in digital health solutions - and the tension between scalability and trust
06Leadership with values: Patty's honest reflections on what she's learned and gotten wrong
07Compassionate leadership and ethical practices when the incentives don't reward it
08Bootstrapping and sustaining innovations in digital health
09The theory of change in digital health: connecting tools to outcomes

About the guest

Dr Patricia (Patty) Mechael

Co-founder and CEO, health.enabled

Dr Patricia (Patty) Mechael is a global digital health leader, speaker, and award-winning author with nearly 30 years of experience shaping equity-centred health and technology initiatives across more than 45 countries. She is Co-Founder and CEO of health.enabled, where she leads the Global Digital Health Monitor and Digital Health and AI Strategy work with Gavi, WHO, UNICEF, and others. She is also a Senior Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Co-Principal Investigator for the Gates Foundation's Digital Health Exemplars, and teaches a course on Gender-Intentional Digital Health.

Chapters

00:00Introduction

01:24Reflections on the Global Digital Health Forum

04:03Patty's journey and background

08:20Aha moments in public health

11:46The importance of data in health interventions

16:01Learning from low-resource settings

21:55Building trust in digital health solutions

24:50Balancing scalability and trust

30:22The role of compassion in healthcare

40:53The theory of change in digital health

46:13Bootstrapping innovations in digital health

52:49Compassionate leadership and ethical practices

57:08The role of women in health and technology

Transcript

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Shubs consults on clinical leadership, evidence strategy, and digital health market access. If this conversation sparked something, it is worth a conversation.

Shubs takes on consulting work with startups, investors, and global organisations across digital health.

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