How Top Innovators Are Closing the Women’s Health Gap – Be A Part Of It!
Corporations Driving Change (HBA - Toronto), The Shifting Policy Landscape ([w]health -NYC/UNGA), Translational Breakthroughs (Wyss Institute - Boston, Magee Women's Research Institute - Pittsburgh)
HBA Annual Conference: Closing the Women’s Health Gap
💸 Failure to Address the Women’s Health Gap is Costing Employers MILLIONS —
Employers are losing $15 million annually for every 10,000 employees in indirect costs (presenteeism, absenteeism, employee retention) and direct costs (provider visits, medication, etc.).
📈 Some Key Figures:
For sex-specific conditions like endometriosis (affecting 10% of women), female employees lose an estimated 10.8 hours of work weekly, amounting to $15,000 per year in lost productivity per woman.
Incontinence, which affects 1 in 3 women, results in a 6.5-year delay between symptom onset and care, costing $10,000 in lost productivity per year.
Our healthcare system does a poor job of managing chronic conditions and women are disproportionately impacted.
These costs show up in claims data but are obscured due to misdiagnoses, cultural taboos and the tendency to dismiss female patients’ concerns as psychosomatic.
For every 1 woman diagnosed with a 'women’s health' condition, 4 go undiagnosed. This delay in care leads to greater downstream costs.
For instance, PCOS, which impacts 10% of women, often goes undiagnosed in 70% of cases, contributing to significant missed opportunities for early intervention and worsening outcomes in diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and mental health.
💡 Attend the Session on Closing the Women’s Health Gap to Discover:
Insights from industry leaders: Mary Stutts (CEO, HBA), Stephanie Sassman (Women’s Health Portfolio Lead, Roche/Genentech), Charlotte Owens (Head of Medical Affairs, Organon), Liza Vityuk (Partner, McKinsey & Co) And Oriana Kraft (Founder, FemTechnology)
What It’s Costing You: Understand the financial (and emotional) toll of misdiagnoses, delayed treatments and the impact on career trajectories.
Tangible solutions to address these gaps, reduce costs, and improve employee health — (tools like FemTechGuide: aggregating both quantitative and qualitative data, to enable employers to better support their workforce, enhance health outcomes, and close the gender data health gap).
[w]Health at UNGA: From Ambition to Action
Join the [w]Health community on the sidelines of UNGA. This year’s theme, “Ambition to Action,” will highlight the journey from identifying healthcare gaps to implementing real-world solutions.
📉 Why It Matters:
The lack of comprehensive datasets on women’s health is a major barrier to progress. Without accurate data, we can’t fully understand the gaps or measure improvements, especially in the context of AI, which risks solidifying outdated medical biases. This perpetuates suboptimal outcomes for women, delaying diagnosis, treatment, and care.
📣 What gets measured gets acted on — What We’ll Be Discussing:
How to effectively collect, measure, and integrate women’s health metrics to drive meaningful change within organizations.
How the 200+ organization-strong [w]Health community is transforming ambition into action by redesigning healthcare with women’s needs in mind.
Hear from: Paula Bellostas Muguerza (Global Lead Healthcare & Life Sciences, Kearney), Carolee Lee (CEO & Founder, WHAM), Stephanie Sassman (Women’s Health Portfolio Lead, Roche/Genentech), Oriana Kraft (Founder, FemTechnology)
Will You Be In NYC for UNGA ?
Wyss Institute at Harvard – Building The Women’s Health Pipeline
📅 September 25, Boston - Women’s Health Catalyst Symposium – Making Up for Lost Time
The Wyss Institute is determined to close the gap in women’s health research and fast-track solutions that address the unique needs of women.
🧬 Discover the latest innovations in women’s health:
ReConstruct: Patient-derived tissues for breast reconstruction
Lactation Biologics: Increasing milk production for healthier babies in the face of supply chain disruptions
Human Ovarian Organoids to solve the rising global problem of infertility.
+ so much more!
📉 Why It Matters (tackling our unknowns):
Female genital tract is one of the least understood structures in the human body.
5-10% of people in the US suffer from an autoimmune condition; 80% of patients are women. Why do women experience more autoimmunity than men?
Gynecological cancers are much more lethal than many other forms of cancers but receive far less funding for research. What if ovarian cancer became as survivable as prostate cancer?
🔬 Why Funders Should Attend:
The future of personalized medicine for women starts with platforms like Organ Chips, which study women-specific responses to diseases and drugs. Fast-track your organization’s role in supporting life-saving research and unlocking next-generation therapies.
Magee-Womens Summit – From Gaps In Care To Solutions
📅 November 13-15, Pittsburgh
The Magee-Womens Summit is a signature event of Magee-Womens Research Institute, one of the world’s largest organizations dedicated exclusively to women’s health and reproductive sciences.
Together with UPMC, a world-renowned health care provider and insurer, UPMC Magee-Womens Hospital, one of the nation’s top hospitals specializing in women, and the University of Pittsburgh, ranked among the top 10 nationwide in federal grant and contract support, Magee-Womens is uniquely positioned to promote and shape scientific inquiry for women’s health topics.
FemTechnology will be hosting a breakout session at the Biannual Magee-Womens Summit on how to move from identifying gaps in women’s healthcare to developing breakthrough technologies.
Bringing together researchers, clinicians, startups and industry leaders, we’ll focus on connecting the dots and stakeholders from innovation to implementation, ensuring today’s research transforms healthcare for women tomorrow.
To claim 20% off your tickets to the Magee Summit — include the keyword "FemTechnology" in the "Organization" field in this Contact Form to receive the discounted ticket. We Hope To See You There!
Still reading? Wow — look at you! That’s all we have for you this time … but we promise we’ll be back VERY soon with more exciting launches in 2024!
If you’re interested in finding out more our work, partnering with us, have feedback, or you will be in NYC for UNGA this year and would like to meet in person — we’d love it if you’d reach out to us at: oriana@femtechnology.org.
Until next time!