Shona has been working in the health technology sector for over 15 years. An electronic engineer with a Ph.D. in speech recognition, she founded Kids Speech Labs in 2018, aiming to tackle the escalating issue of waiting lists for children’s speech and language therapy within national health services. One of her other standout projects was leading the design and execution of the world’s largest multisite trial for a neuromodulation device aimed at tinnitus treatment, a pioneering digital-first clinical trial based in St. James Hospital.
With a research background in speech recognition technology and medical devices, Shona has worked at all stages of innovation from ideation and prototyping to clinical validation. As a founder in the health tech space Shona understands the challenges of introducing innovation to health systems.
As Entrepreneurship Lead for EIT Health Ireland-UK, Shona’s role is to bridge the gap between start-ups delivering innovation and health care systems. Shona supports early-stage start-ups to grow, and help showcase Irish and UK companies on the European stage.