Dear Readers,
This week on Out of Programme, we’re joined by Dr Dom Pimenta — a former NHS cardiologist who left clinical practice to build Tortus AI, an intelligent ambient voice interface for clinicians backed by Entrepreneur First and Khosla Ventures. From a childhood obsession with death to deploying AI in live NHS environments, Dom’s journey is a masterclass in identifying systemic failure and having the conviction to build the solution yourself.
🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube:
You can also listen on: 🎧 Spotify
🏥 The Catholic Upbringing That Led to Medicine — Dom grew up in a family where death was dinner table conversation. That unusual childhood shaped his decision to become a doctor — and ultimately his decision to leave when the reality of NHS IT clashed with his ideals.
🧠 The Breaking Point — It wasn’t just bureaucracy or long hours. It was watching IT systems actively make patient care worse — adding clicks, creating friction, pulling clinicians away from the bedside rather than enabling them to do their jobs.
🔧 From Doctor to Founder — Dom’s pivot was a deliberate leap. Leaving a secure NHS career to join Entrepreneur First meant learning an entirely new language: product-market fit, fundraising, go-to-market strategy. The transition from clinician to venture-backed founder required rewriting his identity.
⚖️ The Ethics of AI in Healthcare — Dom is clear-eyed about the risks. AI in healthcare isn’t just about efficiency — it’s about trust, safety, and maintaining the human connection at the heart of medicine. “Human-in-the-loop” isn’t a feature; it’s a principle.
📈 Building Tortus AI — The insight was simple: clinicians spend too much time documenting and not enough time caring. The solution? An ambient voice interface that listens, understands, and documents — freeing doctors to focus on patients rather than keyboards.
🎯 The Gap Between Demo and Deployment — NHS procurement, clinical governance, user adoption — each presents challenges that can’t be solved with code alone. Dom’s experience deploying AI in live clinical environments has taught him that the distance between a good demo and a working system is vast.
Dom’s episode is proof that:
🏥 The NHS’s problems aren’t unsolvable — but they require people who understand both clinical reality and technical possibility
🔧 Building for healthcare requires humility. You can’t parachute in with a Silicon Valley playbook and expect success
⚖️ The founder journey is lonely. Leaving behind the tribe of medicine — the shared identity, the clear career path — is harder than leaving behind the salary
🧠 Real change in healthcare is measured in quarters and years, not sprints and pivots
As Dom says:
“The goal isn’t to automate medicine but to remove the administrative burden that prevents clinicians from doing what they trained for.”
🧠 Interested in building in digital health?
Applications are open for the BiteLabs Digital Health, AI & Innovation Fellowship — cohorts in both the UK and the US.
BiteLabs is where clinicians build, launch and lead in digital health. 800+ fellows · 200+ advisors · £15M+ raised · Rated 4.9 on Google.
Apply via Out of Programme and you’ll receive: ✅ Extra points on your application 🎯 A 1:1 career coaching session with the BiteLabs team 🤝 A personal session with a BiteLabs founder
🔗 Apply at bitelabs.io 💬 Use referral code: OUTOFPROGRAMME in your application form
💡 Subscribe for more stories of career reinvention:
🗞️ Substack | ▶️ YouTube | 🎧 Spotify | 🍏 Apple Podcasts | 🔗 LinkedIn
If you know someone contemplating their next move — share this episode with them!
Until next time,
Dr Jing Ouyang
👉 Follow me on LinkedIn for a behind-the-scenes look and reflections on Out of Programme.
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