I’m on a mission to start the conversation ‘how can femtech help the NHS’ but of course there are so many organisations that could benefit.  Take, for example, private healthcare providers that need to be on the front foot to maintain their competitive edge.  In the UK the private healthcare offer has traditionally focused on access, choice, continuity of care, facilities and advanced innovative treatments.  Digital health as a differentiator is emerging and femtech will soon become a hot topic.   Listen in to my latest femtech TV interview with Alexander Davidge, Deputy Chief Information Officer at HCA Healthcare (UK) to find out why.

HCA Healthcare is one of the world’s largest private healthcare providers.  HCA Healthcare UK have six hospitals in London, one of which is the famous Portland hospital dedicated to the healthcare needs of women, children and their families.  Alex talks to me about recent covid-19 innovations such as remote postnatal wound monitoring but also many of the challenges, like the ability to identify safeguarding concerns during virtual consultations.  He demonstrates the secret domestic violence hand signal, which can be used in teleconsultations, holding his hand up to the camera with his thumb tucked into his palm and then folding his fingers down trapping his thumb in his fingers.    

Whilst many digital health solutions have been put in place to create a low touch environment and enable remote working, there is clearly much more Alex and his team want to do as soon as they have the opportunity.  He tells me that the physiological and psychological postnatal journey of parents is crying out for more innovation and investment.  His personal passion is to find a digital solution to better identify and treat adolescent girl mental health particularly with autism ADD, citing the difference between female and male symptoms.  Perhaps most interestingly of all, Alex talked to me about women as family healthcare decision makers and the business benefits of building services around them.

After we ended our recorded interview, Alex and I discussed how femtech could support older women and he introduced me to an organisation called Aging 2.0.  It struck me that I don’t know of any femtech innovations beyond menopause and yet women live longer than men and older women are high users of healthcare services.  If you know of any femtech solutions that improve the lives of older women I want to hear from you!

Jenny Thomas is Programme Director for DigitalHealth.London, a startup coach, mum of two little kids, and the co-producer of FemTech TV. linkedin.com/in/jennythomas01

Enjoyed this episode of our “Can Femtech help Corporates?” series? Head on over to our Femtech TV channel for more!

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