If you are reading this, you have said yes to something genuinely good. Whether you wandered in through the website, came to an event and thought "wait, these people are lovely, what is this?", or were dragged in by a friend who would not stop talking about community building, we are really glad you are here.
This guide is your starting point. It will not tell you everything, because honestly, a lot of the best stuff you will figure out as you go. What it will do is help you understand what OHT is, what being a Fellow actually involves, what to do in your first few weeks, and who to ask when you are stuck.
Read it once. Then come back to the bits that matter when you need them.
And just so we are clear from the start: you are not doing this alone.
OHT is a global, volunteer-led community-of-communities for people working in and around health innovation. Not a charity, not a startup, not a conference circuit. A third space where people connect, build trust, and make health innovation feel more human and more inclusive.
The big idea is this: innovation rarely starts in boardrooms. It starts at kitchen tables, in WhatsApp groups, in chance encounters between people who would not normally meet. OHT creates the conditions for those encounters to happen on purpose.
We sit at the intersection of three things, and Fellows usually care about all of them in some way:
OHT communities form around places (London, Nairobi, Hong Kong), topics (AI, Women's Health, User Design), and identities (Queer HealthTech, Disabled Innovators).
Each community defines its own purpose. Some are about bringing people together. Some are about shifting narratives. Some are about building networks in places that have been overlooked. All of them are valid.
These are not just words on a page. They are how OHT spaces actually feel, and you will be part of making them feel that way.
People before logos. We care more about who is in the room and how they feel than about job titles, branding, or metrics. Credit is generous. Airtime is shared. Ego is kept low.
Welcoming by design. Diversity is not a side project. It is the point. We keep asking who is missing, and then we change what we do and how we do it.
Playful seriousness. The topics are serious. The rooms do not have to feel heavy. We use warmth, humour, and creativity to make hard conversations easier to enter.