A radiology startup co-founder has sent a message to her younger self: get comfortable with discomfort.
Dr Amy Davis, co-founder of radiology platform Hexarad, says that learning to be uncomfortable throughout her career prepared her to become a startup founder.
Hexarad is a technology-driven radiology platform that delivers fast, accurate radiology reporting to address the key causes of diagnostic delays.
Founded in 2016 by a group of NHS consultant radiologists, it is now one of the UK’s fastest growing MedTech companies.
Davis said being a founder was never part of her life plan.
“From the age of about 7, I wanted to be a doctor – which is unusual because there are no medical people in my family,” she tells BusinessCloud for Founder Friday.
“But lots of things throughout my life seemed to work against me achieving that dream.
“The career advice I received from my modest state secondary school was that I should be a librarian because I enjoyed reading.”
When she said she wanted to be a doctor, she was told to make sure she did biology A-level, so she did.
So she started sixth form in a new city with almost nobody she knew from her secondary school – and only after starting realised a term too late that she needed to add chemistry.
Davis said that “against all odds” she managed to scrape into medical school, where she was one of only a handful of pupils not privately educated and with no doctors in the family.
“That was just the start. There were more exams and more choices to be made,” she continues. “Eventually, I muddled my way through to a radiology registrar training post.”
This was following the “MTAS debacle”, in which junior doctor training moved on to a new system.
Davis says she then spent a year out at the British Medical Journal as an editor.
“Not quite a librarian – but at least related to reading and using my English language A-level skills,” she says.
On returning to the NHS to train in radiology, she had already had her first child and requested less than full-time training, which she described as pretty unusual at the time.
She said she eventually got through her training and made it to consultant radiologist.
“This was pretty unusual at the time and, again, tricky to navigate. I eventually got through my training and made it to consultant radiologist.
“I’d achieved the dream I set for myself when I was still in primary school. When I look back at my life, I don’t think my story is unique. Everybody has their difficulties to overcome.”
Her advice to her younger self is that all the things she thought were difficult at the time prepared her for what was to come.
“Getting used to being uncomfortable helped shape the person you are today, because when you’re uncomfortable, that’s when you’re learning and growing and pushing yourself,” she advises.
She said that without getting used to that feeling, she probably would never have made it as a startup founder, “where life gets extremely uncomfortable”.
Hexarad’s technology automatically assigns scans to the most appropriate radiologist. The auto-allocation tool assigns scans 90% more quickly than manual allocation, as well as being more accurate and more efficient.
In 2024 the London firm completed an £11 million growth round of funding, on top of raises of £2.3m in 2021 and £2.2m in 2002.
Davis, who serves as the firm’s chief commercial officer, says it has now supported more than two million patient diagnoses.
“I’m still leaning into the uncomfortable, to keep continuously improving,” she adds.
Last year Hexarad took part in Tech Nation’s Future Fifty programme.