2023. We’ve made it through another year. And as many others I’ve spent some time over these past couple of weeks to think and reflect. I’ve been writing this email on a weekly basis for the past two-ish years, so first of all I want to thank all of you for being on this journey with me. I’m grateful for your interest in women’s health innovation, and the developments in science, tech, and our ecosystem. I am convinced, that the work we do will help many, who are underserved today, to access and experience better care in the years to come. Thank you for all you do! 🙏
I've always through the purpose of this Inner Circle email is to share the things I see and learn, to encourage you to dive deeper into topics, that I feel we, as members of the healthcare innovation community, should be paying attention to. I follow the women’s health innovation ecosystem closely, and often as I learn about new companies, research or technologies, and start to envision how they fit into the future of healthcare, I end up with more questions than answers.
While I usually try to give you an overview, of a specific topic in this email, today I’d love to try something a little bit different and share some questions and thoughts with you. Why? Well. My theory is that in a field as nascent as femtech, it sometimes feels like no one has all the answers as we often lack research and clinical studies. So maybe there’s value in putting our questions out there, so that our collective hive mind - aka you - can start to think about what's useful, what's next or also what's concerning.
Below is Part 1 of this post. Part 2 will follow next Monday. I hope you stay tuned!
1️⃣ 3D Printing and Medtech Customization
In April I wrote about Cosm, a Canada-based company that had just raised $3.8M in seed funding for its software-enabled medical device platform. More than 8 months later I still think about this story sometimes.
First of all because it is such a smart solution for POP (pelvic organ prolapse), a completely underserved condition. Secondly because Cosm’s use of 3D printing to create customized gynecological prosthetics has left me wondering where else personalization could replace one-size fits all solutions, medical devices, and instruments.
For context: To date the "medtech x 3D" printing space has largely focused on surgical planning (3D models), design/manufacturing of surgical devices, and the printing of protheses & moulds. The moonshot is the 3D printing of biomaterials, which can be used to patch or replace original tissue or organs. Tissue engineers have already been able to 3D print blood arteries, bones, heart valves, human ears and noses, skin and more.
The work done in this space is extremely promising, and the questions I ask myself: What other use cases are there for 3D printing that we're currently not thinking about? I'm sure there's many, and I'm stoked to see what's next in this space.
2️⃣ DAOs and Decentralized Science
Over the summer DAOs (decentralized autonomous organizations) caught my attention. For those maybe not so familiar with the concept: Per definition DAOs are member-owned communities without centralized leadership, whose financial transaction records and governance rules are maintained on a blockchain. Yep. It’s one of these “Web3 things”. ;)
I spent a bit of time exploring different DAOs aka spending too much time in somewhat chaotic Discord Servers, where these groups usually organize. While ChoiceDAO with its mission to raise funds for abortion access was my entry into the space, I eventually landed in DAOs mostly dedicated to DeSci (Decentralized Science).
The idea behind DeSci is to leverage blockchain tools to address issues research organizations and science overall face today like funding, publishing and copyright ownership. I found especially the funding bit quite intriguing and started following a few DAOs I found interesting:
VitaDAO: longevity-focused
AthenaDAO: reproductive health-focused
HairDAO: hair loss-focused
I’m intrigued by the idea of DeSci, and thought it was especially exciting when Pfizer became the first company to invest and exercise their voting rights in a DAO (VitaDAO) just a few short weeks ago. A first sign of "mainstream-ish" industry adoption? Maybe.
In my opinion (and please challenge me on this if you think otherwise) DeSci DAOs are currently somewhere between hype and hope. I like the idea of engaging communities around science, yet - and I’m quoting a friend here - DAOs can sometimes also feel like “glorified Facebook groups”: Chaotic and full of lurkers, who don't really contribute much and are mostly along for the ride because it's a new hot web3 thing (basically people like me :D).
Some DAOs are venture backed, which seems to contradict their very ambition of community ownership and decentralization. It is common in DAOs today for core teams to make most of the calls and community engagement sometimes feels like an afterthought unfortunately.
Another issue I see specifically in the context of research funding is that science isn’t a “one-off” investment. Moonshots need ongoing (financial) support, and while DAOs may help with awareness and some capital there are limitations at this point in time when it comes to ease of access, and long-term collaboration between the DeSci communities and research institutions.
Will DeSci have a big impact on research? Time will tell. I’ll definitely keep following this nascent space, and while I remain a little bit skeptical, I am intrigued by the opportunity to get more people from diverse backgrounds excited about scientific research and healthcare innovation.
3️⃣ CGM & Precision Nutrition
Intuitively most of us know that the food we put into our body is in direct correlation with our wellbeing. Good nutrition is important. But what does good nutrition actually look like?
After writing about Hello Inside, a continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) startup, I got quite interested in the concept of precision nutrition and applying a “n=1” approach to diet. In times when quantified-self startups are booming among consumers, CGM, which has been used in diabetes care for a long time, might be ready for a more mainstream market.
So how does it work? Essentaily data from a CGM sensors can help to optimize for metabolic health by keeping users informed about metrics such as fasting and post-meal glucose levels. These differ from user to user, and the data and insights can help to optimize nutrition for one's unique body and needs.
CGM is now slowly moving beyond diabetes care into data-based lifestyle management. The obvious use case here is weight management, but I believe there is more to this technology. Two examples I got excited about:
- About a third of women with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) are affected by Metabolic Syndrome. Could CGM contribute to weight and health management for this population? I think so.
- Dr. Chris Palmer’s research suggests that mental disorders are metabolic disorders of the brain, and may be addressed through dietary intervention in addition to (drug) therapy. The “brain-gut connection” is an active field of research, and definitely worth following.
Food as Medicine may not be a new concept, but the idea of giving consumers tools to better understand the impact their diet choices have on their unique bodies (and minds) is exciting. So the question I ask: Can CGM help precision nutrition go mainstream and beyond weight management? It's an exciting idea.
And that's it for today! Part 2 of this post will follow next week.
