Judith Nowlin, Chief Growth Officer, Babyscripts

If health systems are going to retain and attract new customers, femtech is a critical starting place: its what women want.

In 2012, investments in female-specific health technology (femtech, as it has been coined) totaled $57M. By the close of 2019, theyre projected to reach $1B. Thats a 1651% increase in a mere seven years and the numbers continue to climb.

The boom can be pinned to a multitude of causes, not least among them a growing (though still very much in the minority) number of female venture capitalists, and their interest in investing in female-driven solutions. But at the root of the phenomenon is something much more basic and fundamental than an uptick in female leadership: VCs are investing infemtechsolutions simply because women need and want them.

Itwasa mans world

Until very recently, medical research was carried out on the assumption that, with the exception of breast cancer, gynecology, and obstetrics, there is no difference between men and womens healthcare. Not surprisingly, based on these assumptions, a meta-analysis of important medical trials conducted in the late part of the century found that participation numbers were highly skewed toward males, with women rarely making up more than one-third of trial populations.

As a result, many of the protocols and solutions targeted to manage chronic illness and other health concerns were developed based on the physiology of men physiology that is now acknowledged to be significantly distinct from that of women.

In the modern workforce, women freeze in offices that are controlled by temperature equations developed in the 1960s, based on the metabolism of men. In the same way, women have been woefully underserved by a healthcare system that services them with standards of care based on male physiology.

Until now. As healthcare innovators have recognized the distinct needs of females and the biases of former research trials, resources and solutions have proliferated to fill the gender gap in the delivery of healthcare. We talk about womens health vs. general healthcare, but thats really a false dichotomy. General healthcare is typically designed with men in mind, and allocating resources to womens care isnt taking away funding from men, but simply trying to right the scale.

Whatever women want, womenshouldget

Women are the primary healthcare decision-makers in a household. Theyre also the more likely of the two sexes to have healthcare, to go to the doctor, and to use tools geared toward their health and wellness. By offeringfemtechsolutions to their female patient populations, healthcare providers are doing more than the necessary and important work of filling the gender gap theyre engaging their constituency.

A positive experience with a health provider can bring a woman back to a health system for her pregnancy, for pediatric care, for her spouses care or her live-in mother. Targeting her experience is crucial for a health provider to build their customer base and establish brand loyalty.

And what do women want? The success offemtechshould answer the question. They want convenient solutions, specifically, digital solutions that are personalized for their needs needs that have been left out of the scope of comprehensive care even in our age of innovation, an age that we expect to be synonymous with inclusion and progress. Take Apples Healthkit, for example. In the 2014 release of the app, it was billed it as a comprehensive health tracking solution, yet it included no function for tracking female reproductive health (NB: the app has since been updated to include such a function).

Women are from Venus, Men are from Mars

Beyond redrawing the limits of comprehensive to actually fulfill its meaning,femtechis meeting the needs of women that dont fall within the scope of general healthcare. Its a both/and issue. General health protocols should be based on male and female physiology, and we also need tools to address the specific needs of females, whose unique physiology demands something outside the limits of general healthcare.

Pregnancy, menstruation, and menopause are just a few of the unique health events that solely affect women. And possibly because of their gender-selective nature, theres been an implicit embargo on any conversation surrounding them. A history of shame and stigma around the problemsfemtechaddresses has made the market all the more ripe for it, to make up for the years of sweeping female needs under the rug.

And women crave solutions that meet these needs. Theres a reason the pinktax is effective women will pay more (though they shouldnt need to) for products that complement their individual experiences, and significantly for customer building and brand loyalty they will patronize and return to the businesses that offer them these tailored products and experiences.

If health systems are going to retain and attract new customers,femtechis a critical starting place: its what women want.

About Judith Nowlin

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Thinking Pink: The Case for Femtech in 2020 & Beyond - - HIT Consultant