WoW Woman in Healthcare and Communications I Caitlin Dalton, Innovation Director at Thrive
Caitlin Dalton is the Innovation Director at Thrive: Words That Change Lives and a content specialist working with health tech companies to create and adapt content to their platforms.
Before Thrive, Caitlin was an editor for RELX, one of the world’s largest STEM publishing companies with journals such as The Lancet and Cell and online resource Science Direct.
At Thrive she has helped develop health tech solutions in hypertension and cardiovascular health, mental health and wellbeing, and women's health. She is a consultant in AI-powered communications where she specializes in how content works in new technology areas.
Thrive is a health and behaviour change communications agency that specializes in taking complex health messages and converting them into content that’s captivating, convincing, and clear. You may not have heard of their small team, but they have created content for major digital health campaigns including the Global Alliance for Maternal Action, Facebook’s Free Basics, and MomConnect in South Africa. Their maternal and child health projects cover 40 countries in 27 languages on topics including pediatric malnutrition, HIV transmission, early childhood development, and family planning. The content Thrive creates reaches more than 50 million people around the globe.
Caitlin, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I began my career as an editor working in STEM publishing, managing websites and digital assets. It was the 2000s, I was pretty much the youngest person in the room, I had experience in Html and JavaScript so any form of the new digital project came to me to manage. In the early days, it was mostly working out how to do Web 2.0. Nowadays my projects are more likely to be creating a content strategy for chatbots and working out how to adapt content using progressive personalization. Since joining Thrive I've worked on projects for the NHS, in hypertension and cardiovascular health and, of course, women's health.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
I came to the industry sideways, and with a specific skillset, so I think my journey isn't a typical one. I took a traditional career – journalism – and grew as technology evolved. My biggest challenge has been staying current, but I tend to be excited about new technologies whereas I think some of my peers look at them with suspicion. Thrive has spent 20 years working in women's health in the digital space, with projects covering 40 different countries and 27 languages. It's a company that evolves with technology and I'm proud to be part of it.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
I'm about 15 years into my career so have experience and a whole lot of lessons learned to lean on. In terms of obstacles, there is something to be said about being a woman in digital. At the beginning of my career, it took me calling developers out on their code before I was taken seriously. I think the hardest thing professionally I've done is manage to be a mum, working and doing my master's degree. Last summer I had Covid and was in isolation with my three-year-old, my thesis was due the following week and I was signing off content in three languages for a health tech client. There is so much additional burden placed on women and the last few years have only exacerbated that.
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
Evolution. It's very easy to stay within a niche and do the thing you know really well. But it won't help with tomorrow's work.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Oh, big question! I could throw some figures out; in one project I doubled a product's revenue from £1.2m to £2m in a year. In terms of growth, I've taken traffic figures from 40k annual uniques to 150k for one product all through content strategy rather than new services. I'm incredibly pleased to be part of the women-only senior leadership team at Thrive. I'm very proud of my master's thesis which looks at how we communicate with AI, or more specifically how humans expect chatbots to behave linguistically.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
At the moment we are doing a lot of work in preventative health and wellbeing, both client-side and our own projects. This is perhaps a little UK-centric, but I feel society has reached a tipping point where we can't rely on frontline healthcare services to provide preventative healthcare. The NHS is an amazing behemoth that saves and changes millions of lives, but we can, and should, take responsibility for some aspects of our health too.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
I think I've lucked into working in an area of technology where bright and capable women are creating change, and the #womenintech movement is part of sharing the message and empowering others. I think we are in the first generation of women as everyday senior leaders, rather than a few outliers of the previous generations. I also think the change we can bring now will hopefully prepare the way for the next generation of women leaders. There are brilliant Gen Zers who are forming their own future, we only have to look to Greta Thunberg and Amanda Gorman to see the world they envision.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
I think over the next few years we are going to have to work out a new set of ethics for the new digital world. How does a woman in India who has a very low literacy level understand that by accessing health information online she gives consent to a company in California to track her menstrual cycle? Opting in is only good if people understand the consequences and I don't think the burden of understanding can be fairly placed on that woman in Mumbai. The internet was a big bright hope, it was the democratization of knowledge. I think we have to try and meet those initial principles.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
On the grander scale, don't hesitate, try not to doubt yourself. Take your first step and the rest will follow. It's a generalization but I think as women we have a tendency to doubt our abilities, but we shouldn't! In the minutiae, I think we have to be open to learning, there is always something new, and embracing that thing could lead to your next step in the industry.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
Gabby Edlin, founder of Bloody Good Period. If we're talking about women who have questioned the status quo and created the change that's needed, Gabby Edlin and Bloody Good Period embody it. The charity provides period products to people who can't afford them but also tackles the idea of menstrual equity and how feminism, race, and migration intersect around period poverty.
Helene Guillaume, founder of Wild AI. I heard Helene speak last year and found myself angrily nodding along. The ignorance around women's health and women's bodies from the big health tech players is staggering. Companies like wild.ai that create products to optimize how we manage our bodies are a huge step forwards, but shouldn't it be embraced by the likes of Apple Fit, etc?
Kate Crawford, a leading scholar in the development of artificial intelligence and machine learning. Kate looks at the social and political implications of AI, and how the technology can lead to systemic discrimination in gender and race. She was the co-founder of New York University's AI Now Institute and is the Senior Principal Researcher at Microsoft. She works on the big ethical questions that need to be posed as technology develops.
Join Thrive’s virtual femtech event - Bridging the gender health gap: Technology and the future of women's health, taking place on February 2, 2022!
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.