Miriam Mutebi, Breast Surgical Oncologist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery at the Aga Khan University Hospital, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“I thought i knew what Silicon Valley meant.
The place where billion-dollar ideas are born in garages, and venture capital flows like water. I expected cutting-edge, disruption, algorithms, AI, and maybe a little bit of ego.
What I didn’t expect was humanity.
Yes, the innovation is real. The commitment to pushing boundaries is palpable. You feel it in every conversation, every seminar, every hallway discussion. But what surprised me most is the fact that innovation at Stanford University is deeply and profoundly human.
The questions driving research and design aren’t just ‘Can we build this?’ but ‘Should we? For whom? At what cost? Who does it serve? Who might it harm?’
It’s:
- Innovation With equity
- Technology With empathy
- Solutions With patient-centered design
- Progress With humanity at the core
This wasn’t Silicon Valley as I’d imagined it, cold, tech-driven, profit-focused. This was Silicon Valley asking:
‘How can we think differently to serve people better?’
This resonated With everything I try to do in my clinical practice, because in cancer care, in health systems, in global health, the technology is meaningless if it doesn’t improve the lived experience of the patient.
That perfect algorithm is worthless if it increases disparities; innovation is hollow if it ignores cultural context. Stanford’s DNA reminded me that the best innovations solve both tech and human problems.
They ask:
- What does this patient need?
- How does this community function?
- What barriers exist beyond the clinical?
- How do we design With dignity?
That’s the Silicon Valley ethos I carried away With me. Not just ‘move fast and break things,’ but ‘move thoughtfully and heal things.’
What’s one place that completely shifted your assumptions once you experienced it?”
More posts featuring Miriam Mutebi.