Hello from FemHealth: insurance coverage for fertility treatments; the next level of hormone tracking; how sleep affects women’s health.
Hello from FemHealth: insurance coverage for fertility treatments; the next level of hormone tracking; how sleep affects women’s health.
Technology and research transforming women’s health and wellness.
Hi there,
Natasha here, and we are saying hello to the second edition of the FemHealth newsletter. The goal of this newsletter is to bring you into the world of technology for women, covering innovations and research to better women’s health and wellbeing.
Now into the world of technology…
News Reads
What is Femtech? Learn more about the space here.
Fertility treatments—covered. InsurMedix recently developed an AI-powered digital health insurance platform to provide a broader range of coverage for women’s health, including fertility treatments and alternative and complementary medical procedures, as well as issues encountered during travel outside of the US. Founded in 2021, the company plans to launch its platform in the US in early 2022. Read more about future InsurMedix plans here.
Israel-based startup, illumigyn, raises $33M to improve women's gynecological care. Illumigyn created an FDA-approved imaging system, Gynescope, to help detect gynecological problems faster and more accurately using higher-resolution scans and higher magnification. Furthermore, Gynescope can be operated by a trained caregiver and upload the images to the cloud, which can further be remotely reviewed by a doctor. This hugely expands the reach of patient care to places where it previously might not have been easily accessible. In its new stage, the company will focus on expanding its product to international markets (India, Singapore, South Korea, USA, and United Arab Emirates) as well as focusing on transforming the current product into a comprehensive examination system for the pelvic area. Read more about illumigyn’s plans here.
Tracking your hormones is good, but what’s next? Hormone health talk is still considered taboo. Aavia designed a smart pill case coupled with an app that tracks whether or not the user has taken their medication or reminds them to take it. The startup doesn’t stop there. Aavia is also helping women understand the impact of hormones on most aspects of their daily lives including: sleep, muscle tone, sex drive, skin and mental health, and energy levels. They achieve that by engaging with their community of users through blog posts, social media interactions and holding forums with doctors. Read more here.
The next stage of treating endometriosis. Organon, a pharmaceutical giant, acquires Forendo, a drug company specialising in treatments for women’s health conditions. Forendo focuses on creating a drug to treat endometriosis, targeting the problematic tissue locally without affecting the entire hormonal system. The women’s health company is also developing a treatment for polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Neither condition currently has approved long-term treatments. Read more here.
Therapixel receives FDA clearance for its AI software to analyse 3D mammograms. 2D mammography is the most commonly utilized imaging technology for breast cancer detection and diagnosis. Early studies show that the use of 3D mammography instead of 2D significantly improves breast cancer detection and its adaptation has been growing in clinical use. Therapixel is developing an Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to guide radiologists in reading medical images while also reducing errors and interpretation time. The company recently received FDA approval for their cancer screening AI software for 3D mammograms, making a large leap towards wider use of 3D mammograms. Read more about the news here.
Research Reads
Not having a goodnight sleep? Beware of heart problems! Sleep deprivation is not a joke. Neither is the time when we go to bed. A recent study performed on a large cohort of UK men and women shows that there might be an optimal time to go to bed to lower the risk of heart disease, and results for women show an even stronger association between the illness and bedtime. Read more about the study and the results here; find the full research article here.
Why is it important to look at women’s health past reproductive health problems? This Nature review gives you some insights into the differences in how various diseases manifest in men and women.
What I’m listening to right now
That’s it for now. Till the next time!
Yours,
Natasha