The inspiring figures behind our meeting rooms

Since moving into our office on Curtain Road earlier this year, our team has been enjoying having such a lovely space to call home. The hard work our amazing Space and Events team put into kitting out our new office has made it a great communal hub for all things Accurx, particularly as we now grow to almost 200 Accufolk!

One of the many decisions the team needed to make during the office move was what to call our 18 new meeting rooms. Instead of simply numbering these, we decided to name them after some of the incredible people and historical figures whose social impact and influence on public health, medicine, data science and technology have inspired us.

Here, some of our team share their thoughts on a few of the remarkable figures who our meeting rooms are named after.

Horton

Horton is our biggest meeting room at Accurx HQ.

‘Our meeting room names raise awareness of historical figures in the medical and tech industries. I thought it was important to have a diverse representation of the significant contributions historical figures of colour made as this is something so rarely talked about! One of those figures is Africanus Horton.
Horton was one of the first medical surgeons in the British Army. During his career as a medical officer, he was moved to various posts throughout West Africa and served in two Ashanti wars (1863 and 1873). His experiences led him to correlate topography and human health, developing theories that eventually would earn him a reputation in the medical world.

I feel it is important to recognise and raise awareness of historical contributions by Black and other people of colour and it’s so great to work at a company like Accurx who share the same values!’ Judy Balaratnam, Product Manager, GP Messaging Team

Barry

‘Intelligent, skillful and fiery — James Barry (1789–1865) was a remarkable surgeon and crusador. James is most often remembered for changing his sexual identity to pursue a career in medicine, but his life was full of passion, reform (and flamboyant clothes) that must not be forgotten.

‘Barry lived in a time when women were prevented from pursuing many opportunities in education and employment. James was not defeated by this. He dedicated his life to surgery and social reform, advocating to improve sanitation and medical care in all the communities he served. James was a revolutionary, a humanitarian, and he never gave up — I hope he is always remembered this way.’ Hana Shaw, Product Marketing Manager

Caldicott

‘Dame Fiona Caldicott was the UK’s first National Data Guardian for Health and Social Care and the leading figure in setting information governance standards across UK healthcare.

Following a career in mental health, Caldicott devoted 25 years to ensuring the highest standards in storing and sharing patient information.

To answer growing concern about how patient data was used in the NHS, the Caldicott Committee was established in 1997 to review all patient-identifiable data passing between NHS organisations and external parties.

Caldicott developed a list of key principles to guide and set clear standards for the security and protection of patient data. She also led the decision for every NHS trust and social service provider to appoint specific parties, later known as ‘Caldicott Guardians’, to monitor how such data is used and shared.’ Max Fox, Writer

Garrett

‘Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1836–1917) was the first woman to qualify as a physician and surgeon in Britain, who helped pioneer women’s medical education and practice.

Refused admission to medical schools, Anderson studied privately and became a licensed physician in 1865 at a time when women were not admitted into the profession.

Anderson later founded the first medical school for women, breaking social boundaries and making many personal sacrifices in the process. In the years following, Anderson lived a life replete with firsts, becoming the first female dean of a medical school, the first woman to be elected to a school board, and the first female mayor in Britain.’ Katie Halfhead, Head of Communications

Our other rooms are named after…

• ‘Father of the NHS’, Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan (1897–1960), a former Minister of Health and Welsh Labour party politician who led the 1948 foundation of the UK National Health Service.
• Elizabeth Blackwell (1821–1910), a British physician and public health activist who was the first woman to receive a medical degree in the United States and be included on the British Medical Register.
• Rebecca Lee Crumpler (1831–1895), an American physician, nurse and medical writer who was the first African American woman to become a doctor in the United States.
• Atul Gawande (1965-), a renowned American surgeon, researcher and writer whose work has been instrumental in rethinking public health around patient wellbeing.
• Grace Hopper (1906–1992), an American computer scientist and naval officer who made trailblazing contributions to the development of computer languages.
• Sophia Jex-Blake (1840–1912), the first practising female doctor in Scotland and a leading campaigner for medical education for women.
• René Laennec (1781–1826), a French physician whose hobby of carving wooden flutes helped inspire the invention of one of today’s most widely used medical instruments: the stethoscope.
• Ada Lovelace (1815–1852), an English mathematician and writer, often called ‘the world’s first computer programmer’ for her work on a general-purpose computer called The Analytical Engine.
• Sir Michael Marmot (1945-), an English health researcher, government advisor and writer who has overseen vital studies into health inequalities and their causes.
• Florence Nightingale (1820–1910), a British nurse, social reformer and statistician who came to prominence caring for wounded soldiers during the Crimean War (1853–1856).
• Inventor of the ‘Pap smear’, Georgios Papanikolaou (1883–1962), a Greek physician who masterminded work in cytopathology and early cancer detection.
• Gisella Perl (1907–1988),a Hungarian Jewish gynaecologist who, in 1944, was deported to Auschwitz Concentration Camp, where she helped her fellow inmates in the face of Nazi atrocities.
• Mary Seacole (1805–1881), a British-Jamaican nurse who established ‘the British Hotel’ behind the lines of the Crimean War (1853–1856) to provide medical care and sustenance to wounded soldiers.
• ‘The father of epidemiology,’ John Snow (1813–1858), an English physician known for leading the development of anaesthesia and medical hygiene, and for his seminal studies into cholera.

In each of our meeting rooms, we have plaques dedicated to the remarkable people they’re named after. This means that, whether we’re in one-to-ones, team meetings or whiteboard sessions, we’re always reminded of the figures whose legacies continue to inspire our teams and work culture.

Interested in being a part of our mission and enjoying this space? Check out our careers page for the latest opportunities!