FemTech - Active MedTech for Women's Health

Written by Luke Sy on 9th Sept. 2020

In the webinar, Megan Capriccio, Sarah McDonald, and Michelle Perugini shared an overview of the FemTech industry and stories about recent innovations here in Australia.

What is FemTech?

FemTech or women's health technology is a term applied to a category of software, diagnostics, products, and services that use technology often to focus on women's health. As an industry, FemTech is projected to reach $50 billion by 2024. It encompasses the full care continuum (e.g., pre, during, and post-care) across key women's health issues (e.g., reproductive health, pregnancy, pelvic and uterine care, and general health and wellness) which can use any digital health technology. It is an approach towards more personalized healthcare, acknowledging that diagnosis and treatment vary for women and men. With a focus on finding pain points in women's health that women accept without complaint.

Two startups in Australia were featured:

  1. Life Whisperer which uses AI to predict which embryo in IVF can lead to a more lifely pregnancy. As a digital health company, they need to comply with data privacy and cybersecurity compliances, as well as proving to regulators that their model is safe.
  2. Baymatob which uses a non-invasive device to monitor pregnancy and labour progression. Current practices wait until an issue in pregnancy arises. Baymatob's goal is to use their sensors to get a pregnancy journey baseline which can potentially enable early complication detection and tailored interventions.

FemTech Collective

Lastly, if anyone would like to know more about FemTech, the audience/reader is encourage to visit FemTech collective, an organisation that supports collective growth of the FemTech industry, and provides business support, mentorship programs, networking opportunities, and educational events.