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Kaleidoscope has given me the opportunity to act on a problem within health and care that has directly affected me. Stereotypes and assumptions about who has the right to be sick have a significant impact on the wellbeing of people who do not fit into neat boxes.

Anna Howells introduces 2100: A Health Odyssey, the science-fiction writing competition breathing life into the discussion about healthcare, past, present and future.

Two and a half years ago I joined Kaleidoscope. An unheard-of venture to most at that point (and to me). I was busy scootering around Myanmar finishing off an NHS Global Health Fellowship when I received an email from Rich Taunt saying he’d set up this organisation, and would I like to be a part of it?

Three speakers, nine stories, and a room full of people curious about how storytelling ties into health and care were the ingredients for the thought-provoking Unheard in Healthcare evening. 

As a medical student, you get used to “first day nerves” happening every few weeks. New rotation. New location. New teams, new tensions. This time round, I started a three-week internship at Kaleidoscope under the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management.

Don't you just love going to an event in the basement of an identikit hotel? The beauty of the unrelenting artificial light. The delight of a day's worth of slides ("don't know why I kept this slide in here, you probably can't see it") in store. The gorgeous feeling that even if you haven't been here physically before, mentally you have many, many times. No, thought not. Does it have to be this way?

What springs to mind when you hear the word 'webinar'?  "I can't wait"?…probably not. Perhaps it's because we humans are innately sociable creatures that we don't enjoy staring at a screen for an hour watching a set of moving slides, but I have friends who will willingly spend time staring at a screen to watch Final Score, so I find that hard to believe.

One of the things that really excited me about joining Kaleidoscope was the chance to be in at the beginning of a new organisation. Well, almost. I was a second-wave recruit. I missed the intoxicating early days and the heroic attempts to capture the essence of the emerging company on a huge sheet of brown wrapping paper known as the Fish.

What’s the best event you’ve ever been to? That’s the question we asked folks at the wonderful WonkComms breakfast club. It was a great conversation, with topics ranging from diversity to the role keynote speakers play (for better and for worse). It also gave me the chance to reflect on our approach to running events at Kaleidoscope

Is there such thing as a job for life anymore? When is the right time to move on from a job? Anna explores these issues, reflecting on her first few weeks at Kaleidoscope.