Via Negativa Health · for organisations
T1D is a Black Swan game. Innovation needs precision, evidence, and the devices where risk is known.
We work with device manufacturers, digital health platforms, research groups, healthcare institutions, and medical communications partners shaping the next generation of diabetes care.
This page is for organisations: manufacturers, platforms, research, NHS, medcomms, grant funders. For individual coaches, clinicians, and creators building their own practice, see Consultancy for individuals →
The name is the method
Via Negativa: antifragile by subtraction
Via Negativa is an ancient principle: the wisest path forward is not to add more, but to remove what is unnecessary. Applied to organisational work in diabetes: remove the claim the evidence does not support. Remove the advisory board that cannot defend its own conclusions. Remove the opaque contract that rewards the consultant and leaves the manufacturer exposed. Remove the AI tool that speaks with confidence about devices whose risk profile is not yet known. What remains is precision. We only work on the ground where evidence is already strong, and we make it stronger.
“Innovation in T1D needs three things: precision, evidence, and the humility to only speak where the evidence is already strong. We run an up-to-date clinical brain called Grace Max. We write position papers that organisations like yours commission because we defend them in front of the people who will cite them. We build tools only when the risk profile of the underlying device is actually understood. When you work with us, you get the clinical precision of a specialist, the technical reach of a working platform, and the accountability of partners who will still be in the conversation when the paper lands.”
John Pemberton & Phillip Hayes, Via Negativa Health
Who we work with
Organisations building the next layer of diabetes care
We are commissioned where a project needs clinical precision, up-to-date evidence, an international view, and a delivery team that can write, build, and publish as one unit.
What we do
Six areas, scoped to where the evidence is actually strong
Each of these is operational today, not aspirational. We accept briefs only where the underlying evidence supports the work; we decline where it does not. This is the subtraction principle at client level.
The team
Clinical authority, technical reach, moving at the speed only a small team can
We are not an agency. We are two senior operators, bonded by a lifetime of friendship, who have spent twenty years becoming very good at their specific craft. When you partner with us, you are buying clinical authority backed by academics at the top of their game, mixed with technical delivery built by a senior engineer who has shipped for the biggest organisations in the world. No other small creative team can match this package at pace, with flair, and with proven results.
Clinical lead
John Pemberton
Top-tier diabetes educator with academic-writing pedigree and international speaking presence.
Key consensus role
- Lead author, 2026 international clinical position paper on CGM evaluation. Pulling together the likes of Prof Tadej Battelino, Prof Chantal Mathieu, Prof Thomas Danne, and Prof Othmar Moser to raise a clinical voice on a topic the field needs clarity on.
Secondary consensus roles
- Co-author, EASD / ISPAD 2025 position paper on automated insulin delivery (AID).
- Co-author, ISPAD 2022 position paper on exercise in type 1 diabetes.
Also
- Member of the IFCC working group on CGM, pushing the field toward accuracy standardisation.
- Sits on advisory boards for several market-leading device manufacturers.
- Lead author of over ten original articles on structured diabetes education, delivered face-to-face and online through flipped-learning methodology. Programme replicated internationally.
- Conference speaker at ATTD, EASD, ISPAD, and the Diabetes Technology Meeting on technology, T1D, and structured education.
- Pioneered a virtual-school T1D training programme that delivered a paradigm shift in how UK school staff are trained to support children with type 1 diabetes; the model has since been adopted internationally.
Technical lead
Phillip Hayes
Founder of a character-education platform that measures the skills that matter beyond the numbers.
- Creator of Kloodle, the character-education platform that uses novel technology to document the skills beyond the numbers: the qualities that really matter and that traditional grading cannot capture. Used by universities, professional bodies, and employers to evidence learner development at scale.
- Senior software engineer; career spent delivering enterprise platforms for some of the largest organisations in the world.
- Harnesses AI, customer-focused delivery, and outcome measurement as default engineering practice, not aspiration.
- Built the full GNL stack: six interactive explorers, the Laravel API, the Grace widget and its API, the registration and login system, the AID and CGM selectors. Every component live and shipping.
- Brings enterprise engineering discipline (CI, deploys, audit trails, monitoring, rate limits, rollback plans) to a small-team delivery cadence most agencies cannot match.
“Partnering with us means your product is shown off in its best light, referenced against the latest evidence, and delivered in ways that land across the board: HCPs, patients, commissioners, and your own medical affairs and education teams. We combine clinical authority backed by academics at the top of their game with technical delivery from an engineer who has shipped at enterprise scale. Bonded by a lifetime of friendship, we move at a pace no larger agency can, with precision no smaller one can match.”
John Pemberton & Phillip Hayes, Via Negativa Health
Packages
Company and charity packages, bundled for impact
Most organisational work is not a single asset. It is a co-ordinated layer of education, content, tooling, and clinical writing that needs to move as one. We run two pre-scoped package shapes for organisations that know what the brief needs but not yet how to wire it together.
Company package
For manufacturers, platforms, data companies
One commercial engagement, multiple moving parts, delivered under one SOW and one clinical lead. Built for medical affairs, marketing, and clinical education teams that need education output without fragmenting the brief across three agencies.
Every company package is assembled from the deliverables below. The tier names give the commercial shape at a glance; what each brief actually contains is confirmed after intake.
- Unrestricted educational grant structured against delivery milestones
- Multi-episode podcast series, hosted and scripted, scoped to your product line
- White-labelled Grace on your patient or HCP portal, scoped to your products
- Grace Max internal access for your medical affairs and clinical education teams (negotiated per engagement)
- Medical writing output: position briefs, consensus input, HCP education assets
- Bespoke CGM or AID selector tool scoped to your product mix
The three tiers in plain language
Insight. Entry-level educational grant. One focused asset: a position brief, a podcast mini-series, a Grace widget scoping, or a one-off clinical education piece. Short engagement, light retainer or none.
Partner. Anchor tier for most manufacturer engagements. Multi-asset annual engagement across podcast series, content pipeline, white-labelled Grace, and medical writing, with a named medical affairs counterpart.
Integrated. Full multi-year engagement. Everything in Partner, plus a platform build, bespoke tools, Grace Max internal access for medical affairs, and structured outcome-sharing on the commercial.
Scope, timeline and commercial model (fixed fee or Skin in the Game) defined per engagement after Stage 2 intake. Grace Max access for internal teams is negotiated commercially, separate from the £50/month personal tier.
Charity package
For diabetes charities and patient organisations
Same clinical and evidence spine as the company package, scaled and priced for the non-commercial context. We build so the charity can lead the patient-facing voice while the clinical and technical layer stays defensible.
- Charity-branded Grace for members and HCPs, scoped to the charity’s remit
- Patient-facing education series (CGM, AID, exercise, mental health) built from ISPAD and ADA in plain language
- HCP and DSN education assets the charity can offer to its clinical network
- Commissioning-grade briefings for NHS and ICB-facing advocacy
- Often funded by an aligned manufacturer grant, so the charity delivers the output at no cost to itself
We actively broker the manufacturer sponsorship where the clinical fit is right. That is part of the work, not an add-on.
Commercial model. Both packages are quoted per engagement. Figures are never published. We do not take a retainer without a defined deliverable, and we do not quote before Stage 2 of the intake process is complete.
Proof
Named engagements, verifiable in the public record
Short list of work signed, delivered, or actively running. Each is something a procurement or medical affairs lead can sanity-check directly.
In motion
In negotiations with three AID and three CGM manufacturers
Educational-grant conversations are active with three AID system manufacturers and three CGM companies. Each grant does the same job. It keeps the product’s public-facing information aligned with the latest evidence, accuracy data, and real-world findings, and gets that straight into the hands of the people using the device and the clinicians supporting them.
Device competition in T1D is moving fast. Every major brand is now investing in evidence-led education for a reason. The brands that do not are noticed. If three of your peers are funding independent evidence output that reaches their users and HCPs, silence on the same ground is a position statement whether you meant it to be or not. The manufacturers we talk to understand this. They treat the grant not as marketing spend but as the cost of staying level with what their users and clinicians actually know. Keeping pace with the evidence, not just the feature list, is how a device stays recommended.
We do not name prospects until a grant is signed. On delivery, each named engagement joins the proof section above.
How engagements start
Three stages before we quote, and before you commit
We do not price on a scoping call. We price once we know what the brief actually needs, and once we have confirmed we are the right team to deliver it. No charge and no commitment until Stage 3 is complete.
The scope conversation is a chance to see whether our future activities and upcoming tools benefit your organisation. We tell you what we are building and we operate on a Via Negativa framework: we deal in evidence, clear risk identification, and education and tools that support people with T1D to mitigate risk and get the most out of technology. You then decide whether your company wants to support this type of initiative with an unrestricted grant. We of course inform you of the plans; however, the final decisions are made by our team to ensure independence. Essentially, we say what we will deliver, you trust us based on our exemplary track record, we deliver, and the main beneficiary is world-class education for the people we serve and you serve. It is an independent win-win.
Every engagement offers a Skin in the Game commercial model. Where our work drives a measurable outcome (a grant defended, a paper submitted and cited, a claim supported, a platform deployed) we structure the engagement so we share the risk on delivery. Figures are specific to each project; the principle is not.
- Agreed project fee, agreed milestones
- Predictable cost, predictable deliverables
- Right fit for discrete asset work: a podcast series, a position paper, a widget build
- No outcome share, no exposure beyond scope
- Lower upfront, outcome-linked tail
- We are paid in full only when the defined outcome lands
- Right fit for larger consensus work, platform builds, and anything where our work and your result are structurally connected
- Outcome is pre-defined and capped, never open-ended
What we are not. We do not take a retainer and send a junior. We do not write what the evidence does not support. We do not put a device into a public-facing tool before its risk profile is understood. We do not stay quiet when the brief drifts outside what the data can defend. Via Negativa: we remove the claims, the shortcuts, and the optics that would cost you more than the fee ever saved you.
Every Thursday morning
Via Negativa 80/20: So What Research Signals
One clinical finding a week, stripped to the 20% of the evidence that changes 80% of how a clinician or medical affairs lead should think about it. Written by the clinical team, reviewed by the scientific advisers. Free for GNL subscribers. Many of our manufacturer counterparts read it to stay ahead of ISPAD, ADA, and EASD in real time.
John Pemberton + Phillip Hayes · reviewed by our independent scientific advisers · No sponsors. No filler.
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If your organisation is briefing a piece of work where clinical precision, up-to-date evidence, and accountable delivery matter, we would like to hear from you.
Get in touch with Johnjohn@theglucoseneverlies.com · NDA-friendly · Scope conversation free
Working as an individual coach, clinician, or creator instead? Consultancy for individuals →