December 16, 2024

Initiative and Buerk Center co-host an Innovation in Women’s Health panel

Students gathered in the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health in October 2024 for a panel event focused on Innovations in Women’s Health. This panel event was a partnership between the Population Health Initiative and the Buerk Center for Entrepreneurship’s Women’s Entrepreneurial Leadership program (WE Lead).

The panel event set out to highlight the crucial role that research, investment and innovations in women’s health plays in addressing centuries of gender disparities in medical research, amplified by guidelines that excluded women from clinical trials until the 1990s, and the continued underrepresentation of women, particularly women of color, in clinical studies today.

Panelists included Mary Fenske (Founder, CEO, and Inventor, Posture Wings), Stephiney Foley (Founder & CEO, Yuzi Care), Bettina Paek, MD (Co-Founder & CEO, eDoula) and Nikhita Vaddineni (Co-Founder, Revive Her) and was moderated by Georgia Cavanaugh (Principal, Steel Sky Ventures). Each brought her own unique experience and perspective to the conversation, sharing lessons learned while building companies and products addressing women’s health as they addressed the following questions.

How did you arrive at your idea?
Despite the varied backgrounds and experiences of the panelists, a common thread emerged in response to the first question: these innovations were born of a personal connection or need to an unaddressed issue.

Whether it was Mary’s pain from physical therapy for back and neck pain, Stephiney’s lived experience through early motherhood and postpartum depression, Nikhita’s journey with the Buerk Center’s annual Holloman Health Innovation Challenge or Bettina’s shock at the systemic differences when moving from Germany to the US in regards to maternity, each panelist was inspired to take action to address a serious gap in women’s health.

How did you build upon your initial idea? What are the next steps, next chapter in your company’s life?
The next chapter in many of the panelists’ journeys focused on relationship building and leveraging connections.

Bettina spoke on her quality improvement plan with Evergreen Hospital to further amplify the voices of doulas, with hopes of connecting even more women with qualified and educated doulas to empower and support them through the pregnancy and birthing process. Nikhita, who is still in the early stages of her entrepreneurial journey, plans on further utilizing and deepening her partnerships at UW and other local colleges to build a foundation of education for her company. Mary spoke of exploring more partnerships with brands and doctors as a way to change standards in women’s health. Alternatively, Stephiney mentioned taking a step back and continually re-evaluating the business model, stressing the importance of knowing where to funnel your time and energy.

(strong>What are the current challenges in the entrepreneurship space and opportunities to change/tackle those challenges?
Policies, how to change consumer behavior, lack of funding opportunities, taboo around women’s health and building awareness and education were brought up between the panelists as ubiquitous and constant challenges in the FemTech space.

With women’s health still being hugely under-studied, both Stephiney and Bettina pointed out, it is imperative to find your champions in the spaces you are interested in as a way to keep chipping away at the inequities and to build awareness.

What is one piece of advice you would give to someone beginning their journey?
Advice ranged from the practical–like finding a mentor who is supportive, finding and securing funding sources and having solid data to back your claims up, to considering the emotional side of the journey–preparing for the high highs and low lows, being able to reflect on your learning, impact and improvements as you go along, and keeping your thoughts positive and network supportive.

The official panel questions were followed by audience questions, covering topics from logistics around working with electronic health data, how to best find funders that align with one’s company and how the panelists like to celebrate their wins and successes.