Issue 10: ☀️ AI in fertility, from pelvic pain to entrepreneur, Govt money for healthtech & more
Your weekly round-up of women's health and FemTech news
Hi! Welcome to issue 10 of FutureFemHealth, the newsletter shining a spotlight on innovation in women’s health and FemTech.
I’m Anna and whether you’re a founder, an investor, someone who works in women’s health / FemTech or are simply a fan, I’m glad you’re here to join me.
News for w/c 26 June 2023
Lots of news out this week about fertility and IVF - to coincide with the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology in Denmark this week - and you can read all of the announcements from that summit here.
Elsewhere, also on fertility, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) released its latest fertility treatment data showing an increase in use of private IVF clinics and an increase in egg freezing too.
There was also an exciting launch from Fairtility which is using AI in the IVF process to enable better decision-making in the egg freezing, egg donation and IVF process.
This comes as a new report out last week from McKinsey says that Generative AI has the potential to generate up to $260b in value for healthcare. This huge health value-add is higher than most other industries including Education, Energy and Admin & Professional Services.
If you want to learn more about generative AI, Google has released a new set of free generative AI training resources you can access here.
Now, onto the rest of this week’s newsletter:
🌟 FemTech industry news & FemTech in the news
Your guide to starting a women’s health company. A fantastically useful ‘101’ guide from Halle Tecco. One to bookmark! (Halle Tecco’s website)
AI is the answer we need for solving fertility. Featuring Australian start-up Life Whisperer and Alife Health’s CEO Paxton Maeder-York. (She Knows)
AI can make healthcare more accurate, accessible and sustainable. Featuring fertility start-up AIVF. (World Economic Forum).
How pelvic pain inspired me to start a pelvic care company. Featuring Kerstin Recker Alexandre from Elana Health (Fast Company)
The Contraceptive pill is no longer a sign of women’s liberation. Featuring Dr Bryony Henderson, lead GP at digital health company Livi (Harper’s Bazaar)
Celebrating the NHS at 75: why investing in FemTech will guarantee a healthier future for all women. Karen Taylor, Deloitte’s Director for its Centre for Health Solution adds support for FemTech. (Deloitte)
🩸 Research and women’s health news
The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) releases its latest fertility treatment data from 2021. (HFEA).
Also from the HFEA report: Egg freezing rises as more women look to preserve their fertility. More than 4,000 patients froze their eggs in 2021, compared to 2,500 in 2019.(BBC)
Bejing offering to pay for IVF. Amid population decline (Insider)
📌 Govt & policy news
£21 million to roll out artificial intelligence across the NHS. Trusts can apply for funding to use AI to help diagnose conditions such as cancer and strokes more quickly. (Gov.UK)
Government will ringfence money for health tech says health secretary Steve Barclay. Including making better use of NHS health app. (Digital Health)
✅ Campaign of the week
Period care company Bodyform arranged a demonstration at Meta’s head office after its adverts featuring words such as ‘vagina’ and ‘menstrual cycle’ were rejected as sexual content by Facebook.
Bodyform was joined by TV presenter Cherry Healey to lead the campaign, which picked up a lot of mainstream tabloid coverage. Although Meta has since said that the adverts were flagged and removed in error!
That’s all for now. Until next time,
Anna
Wow this weeks newslatter packs a punch! Thank you for sharing the news on Pelvic Pain!