NHS – Duncan Stephen

Article — 20 August 2026 — 2,461 words

Protected: Seeing over the hill

This is password-protected as it describes gruesome medical events I have recently experienced. If you wish to read it, you can guess the password with this clue: It is a colloquial name given to the sensitive body parts that have been affected; also objects commonly used in sports. You have been warned.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

Article — 29 December 2025 — 4,552 words

I was hit from behind by a bus

Personal — Society

For me, 2024 was an extraordinary year of milestone moments and major achievements. It was all overshadowed by one negative event in the summer that I had not received closure on. A year and a half on, I have only just reached something resembling a resolution.

Article — 31 March 2022 — 2,637 words

Half a year on parental leave with a broken ankle

Personal

Work: The University of Edinburgh

Becoming a parent is a huge privilege. But it’s no secret that it’s also hard work. You don’t plan to break your ankle during the first year of your child’s life.

Linknote — 30 April 2020 — 171 words

Politics — Technology

UK infosec experts flag concern over NHSX contact tracing app — Laurie Clarke — NS Tech

Mobile app displaying a text message from the government

This is the sort of reason why I don’t trust the state with my data as much as I trust many private companies. Apple and Google have worked together (itself a minor miracle) to develop a method of contact tracing that does not collect personal data and does not invade people’s privacy.

NHSX has rejected that model in favour of one that will enable them to deanonymise people, and store that information in a centralised database. This is the surveillance state. It risks reducing goodwill towards the NHS and other public institutions.

A statement for medical privacy campaign group Medconfidential reads: “Given NHSX has chosen to build an unnecessary massive pool of sensitive data, it must ensure that the data is well protected. With combined effort, GCHQ and NHS Digital will likely be good at defending the big pool of sensitive data. But there is no need to have that data. The best way to make sure data doesn’t leak, is to have chosen the method that never collected it.”

Article — 1 April 2020 — 2,180 words

Adapting to the new normal

Current affairs — Personal — Politics — Society

One of the (many) strange features of the coronavirus outbreak is that in many ways I feel busier than I have ever been. It is almost three weeks since I was last in my office, yet I haven’t had the time to commit my thoughts to writing.

Article — 11 March 2020 — 2,196 words

View from Service Design in Government 2020

Service design — User research

Work: The University of Edinburgh

Last week I attended the Service Design in Government conference, held here in Edinburgh. It was a hugely thought-provoking event. Almost every session I attended was excellent, sparking new ideas and thoughts that I am still getting to grips with almost a week on.

Article — 1 November 2008 — 1,081 words

Happenings at Scotweb2

Business — Society — Web

I said that I had hoped to tweet a bit from Scotweb2. I am terrible at multitasking though so I only managed a miserly two, hurriedly posted during lunch. So instead I will write a report of what went on. First off there was a great talk by James Munro who works on an interesting […]