African American female doctor with patient
Women's Health Is Ignored
For decades, clinical research was done on men for the most part, and the results were extrapolated to women. It set a precedent for ignoring women's health. It's only since 1993 that medical research began to include women and noticed sex/gender differences. Research and funding haven't caught up.
The medical model is based on one gender—men. Understanding that women and men are biologically different has led to the identification of gaps in women's health outcomes. Closing these gaps will lead to women being healthier and will lower medical costs. "There's now more than 20 years of evidence that shows female physiology is quite different from males," said Alicia Chong, founder and CEO, at Bloomer Tech. "Yet, even now, most of the devices and treatments are designed around male physiology ... There are lower diagnostic yields and compliance rates [among women] because devices are uncomfortable." Chong and her co-founders set out to address the needs of the other half of the population—women.
The novel coronavirus has raised awareness of the importance of data in understanding how gender, race/ethnicity, income, geography, and other characteristics influence the occurrence of a disease and its outcomes. "Covid-19 is yet another urgent reason why we must study sexes and genders differently," said Anula Jayasuriya, MD, Ph.D., MBA, founder and managing director of EXXclaim Capital. Data suggests that women have a less severe response to the new coronavirus. Researchers are looking at the role female sex hormones may play in the immune response.
The Whole Is Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts
Amy Millman, president of Springboard Enterprises, was frustrated. Investments in drugs, therapeutics, diagnostics, MedTech, and medical devices that addressed women's health needs were perceived as niche markets without a significant return on investment. "Male investors didn't see how they made money solving women's health problems," she said. There wasn't much data sizing the market. Springboard is a network of influencers, investors, and innovators dedicated to scaling technology and life-science companies led by women. Since 2000, nearly 800 Springboard portfolio companies have created over $20 billion in value, are revenue generators, and job creators with 200 exits to strategic acquirers and 20 IPOs.
The Cost Of Not Focusing On Women’s Health
The cost of not focus on women's health
"How do we spark investment in innovation?" said Millman. She spoke with the women who led health and life science companies that participated in Springboard programs. One of those women, Valerie Palmieri (whose previous company, LifeCycle Laboratories) was a Springboard portfolio company, thought that, because she and the other women who have been part of Springboard's healthcare and life science programs were agile learners, they could become agents of change for women's health. Several years ago, Korn Ferry Institute discovered that agile learning sets highly successful leaders apart from the rest. Entrepreneurs are better at it than corporate executives. Agile learners are better able to work through complex problems, drive innovation, and grow the bottom line. Three traits characterize agile learners: tolerance of ambiguity, intellectual curiosity, and emotional intelligence.
Recently, Millman launched the Women's Health Innovation Coalition to focus attention on gender-specific health. It includes gynecological and reproductive health, and sexual health, which, by 2027, will represent a $47.8 billion market, according to Grand View Research. It also includes conditions that women are more likely to have or manifest themselves differently in women than men, such as autoimmune, oncology, bone health, heart disease, and cognitive and brain health conditions. The goal is to promote greater gender-specific health data transparency, spur investment in women's health innovation, and use innovation to produce better health outcomes.
Women’s Health Conditions
The Health of Women
"Women are results-oriented," emphasized Palmieri. They could create a movement that would make an impact around the world.
Women's Health Is More Than Reproduction
"Sometimes, when we think about women's health, we think just of reproductive health and breast cancer, but it's so much more," said Chong. Heart disease is a killer that strikes more women than men and is more deadly than all combined forms of cancer.
"We want to be part of the change," exclaimed Chong. "By starting with female physiology, we can enable more breakthroughs ... [For example,] we're at the early stages of understanding cardiovascular health for women.” Men's health is much better understood.
Autoimmune diseases are the third most common disease in the United States after cancer and heart disease. Conservative estimates indicate that 6.7 million (or about 80%) of the people with autoimmune diseases are women. The incidence rate is dramatically higher for women of color and if you are poor, commented Mette Dyhrberg, founder and CEO of Mymee.
Dyhrberg struggled with an autoimmune disease. Doctors told her you're not going to die, so live with its deliberating effects. As an economist focused on healthcare, Dyhrberg started journaling her life and translating it into an Excel spreadsheet. Within 16 months, she observed patterns and adjusted her lifestyle, which normalized her bloodwork and symptoms without drugs. There are 157 autoimmune diseases. By identifying the triggers, her solution was disease agnostic.
"The cost of autoimmunity is more than double the cost of cancer," Dyhrberg said. "It receives about 5% of the funding that cancer does." She developed an assessment tool that identifies triggers, a protocol using coaches to nudge behavioral changes, and beta-tested it internally. In 2019, the company did a commercial validation with Oscar Health. Data showed the tool improved patients’ quality of life. Trials at UCSF Health and NorthWell are in the pipeline.
Palmieri is now CEO and president of Aspira Women's Health, which uses FDA cleared algorithms to assess ovarian cancer risk from a simple blood test. Ovarian cancer has a greater than 50% mortality rate, which is alarmingly high, especially when compared to male cancers, such as prostate and testicular cancer, which have a 2-5% mortality rate. Despite this statistic, if you catch Ovarian cancer at Stage One or Two, the survival rate is much higher, 70% to 90%," stated Palmieri. We can detect Ovarian cancer risk with 98% sensitivity with ultrasound at early stage, while the standard of care (CA125), only catches 50% to 60% of early-stage disease." This technology does cost more than the current standard of care, but is cheaper in the long run as early-stage detection reduces the overall cost of care. Most importantly, it saves more lives. Right now, 51% of the payors in the US cover the test with more to come.
"So much happens during times of transition and chaos," said Millman. "We will look back at this time as a time of innovation." Let's make sure women's health is one of the areas that benefit from disruption.
How are you using your life experience to disrupt the status quo?
