Dr Sumera Shahaney explains how a rise in use of data and analytics is helping to understand and improve healthcare for women. 

Like countless other industries, healthcare has historically been led and run by men. As a result, there has been, and still is, a damaging level of female under-representation in both scientific studies and health datasets. This has led to poorer outcomes for women and low awareness and support of female-specific health issues across the board. 

A study from the BMA showed that women spend less of their lives in good health (free from long-term illness or disability) compared to men, even though they have a higher life expectancy.

This gender inequality leads to great risks, as we generalise symptoms according to data which was not designed to highlight differences in presentation - for example in heart attacks, where female symptoms vary from those displayed by men - something researchers only discovered in the last decade. This both reflects and exacerbates the gender inequalities we witness across society and, when it comes to healthcare, clearly has potentially life-threatening repercussions. 

The good news is awareness of this inequality has never been greater, and it is innovation coming from technology companies which is driving change. In recent years we have started to see a move towards personalisation in healthcare and, as part of that, a greater understanding of women's health. The global femtech market is expected to grow to $71,000 Million by 2026. Powered by the rise in digital and proactive health, we’re unlocking new opportunities to use data and Artificial Intelligence to close this gender gap and improve healthcare for women across the world.

The rise of proactive health

The rise of wearable technology, femtech and at-home health solutions have offered us all unprecedented ways to understand and manage our health. Every day, five million people download a health app – with 90% of healthcare professionals supporting its use in helping their patients' health. From menstrual tracking apps, like Clue, to at-home hormone tests like those designed by Thriva, fertility apps like Natural Cycles, or new hardware and product innovations like those developed by Elvie, women have never been more in control of their own health and as a result, there has never been more available data about them.

On an individual level, this can be vital for self-management of conditions and proof of symptoms, which can enable women to provide evidence and access treatment, but it has a much greater benefit to society as a whole, when whole data sets can be used to understand what has never been understood about female health.

Collaboration and innovation 

Large datasets gathered by digital health companies, which are tapping into the proactive health trend, are proving critical for researchers understanding women’s health and developing new treatments. By sharing anonymised and aggregated data with universities and researchers on all matters of women’s health, from menstrual patterns, hormone changes and links to contraception or other treatments, researchers are able to access data never before available.

This paves the way for new products or medicines and unlocks an opportunity for a truly preventative model of care, as clinicians will be able to use data and AI to determine which patients are most likely to be at risk from diseases before they take hold. Clinicians will be able to use data to determine which patients are most likely to be at risk from diseases and the focus of healthcare can shift from cure to prevention.

Unique data enables tailored treatment

Tech innovation combined with personalised medicine will enable treatment that can be tailored for each individual – resulting in a better medical response and improved patient care. Start-up Tuune is the world’s first business to develop a personalised oral contraception service, combining data from an online questionnaire, DNA and hormone test kits to predict the best pill for individual women. This level of personalisation and tailored care could be transformative for our healthcare system. For this to be implemented, new systems of care will have to be designed but the ability of individual diagnosis and treatment will be hugely advantageous to patient groups that have previously had marginalised health care.

The privacy issue

Whilst there is an opportunity for great progress thanks to these datasets, there is a challenge to overcome around privacy and security, concerns about which have never been greater. Trust between private technology companies, healthcare providers and individuals is critical to ensure the progress being made continues. Sharing large pools of data is one of our greatest opportunities however the real benefits will only be felt when there is true collaboration.