The healthtech sector needs to stop treating important health issues as ‘niche’
Lucanus Polagnoli, managing partner and founder at Calm/Storm VC, highlights areas that are considered 'niche' or 'taboo' in healthtech, and explains why they deserve more attention from the sector.
As a society, there are some topics we like to keep to the sidelines. Thanks to embedded sexism, education inequality and fear of our own morality, we still get uncomfortable talking about subjects like sexual and reproductive health, or the process of ageing. This unease means we collectively choose to focus on the things we do feel comfortable talking about, and let these other issues take a back seat. We agree that they’re important, but they’re not for the mainstream. They are ‘niche’ interests for other people to worry about.
This artificial separation of issues into ‘mainstream’ and ‘niche’ is something that has plagued healthcare, and by extension healthtech, for a long time. Fuelled by social bias, we continue to categorise certain health areas - such as gender and age-based issues - as less worthy of time and investment. This isn’t just a feeling - the statistics bear it out. One in three women in the UK will suffer from a reproductive or gynaecological health problem yet less than 2.5% of publicly funded research is solely dedicated to reproductive health; 80% of healthcare VCs have never invested in women’s health.
This neglect can’t continue. Our biased view of which health issues are important means key health areas are underdeveloped and numerous demographics underserved. And it’s not just age and gender - our learned prejudice means we too easily ignore the health concerns of people with disabilities, marginalised ethnic groups and people with mental health conditions. Funding and development focusses on palatable projects and billions of people around the world continue to be underserved.
As a healthtech community, changing the way we treat these critical health areas requires a number of different actions. It means remembering marginalised groups in our conversations and analysis. It means demanding more research into health issues affecting overlooked demographics. It means examining the products we build and being vigilant about bias being coded into our tech. And it means intentionally funnelling investment towards these underfunded, ‘niche’ areas.
But whilst investing in healthtech that addresses specific issues related to age, gender, disability and ethnicity is crucial for social equality, it shouldn’t be viewed as philanthropic work. It’s not doing certain groups and demographics a favour to invest in healthtech catered towards them - it’s a savvy business move. These health sub-sectors represent areas of great potential and opportunity. Just ask period tracking app Clue who raised $20 million in Series B funding and is used by 10 million people around the world. Or British adult social care start-up Cera Care who raised $70 million last year and delivers a new care session every 10 seconds. Success stories like these demonstrate that there’s huge demand for tech solutions addressing alleged ‘niche’ health areas and concerns.
It’s not just Clue and others, such as Elvie, who are highlighting the opportunities available in overlooked health areas. There are a host of smaller healthtech companies showing us what’s possible beyond the bias. For example, Keleya is a German-based app that helps guide women through their pregnancy, Blueheart is normalising digital treatment for sexual dysfunction, Swedish company Nectarine Health provides an app-connected wristband to protect older people, and US-based, Google-backed HUED is a platform designed to improve the patient care experiences of Black and Latino people by connecting them with culturally competent care providers. These are just a few examples of the opportunities for innovation and social progress in previously disregarded health areas.
As healthtech pushes the boundaries of what can be achieved in our healthcare, we need to ensure that no demographics are left behind. Socially and financially, the healthtech sector is only holding itself back by failing to acknowledge the importance of issues relating to age, gender, disability and ethnicity. The line between niche and mainstream health issues is drawn by our bias and it’s high time we rubbed it out.