Innovations in health tech are changing the way people access healthcare. At the same time these innovations are enabling people to learn more about their bodies.
Read more Femtech Startup Bloomer Develops Smart Bra that Can Monitor Women’s Health
Women, in particular, are benefiting from health tech innovations as this group is worse affected by the limitations of health and sex education, reports MobiHealthNews.
Women make up about half (49%) of the world’s population. Statistics show that women live longer than men, but they may spend a greater part of their lives in poor health for various reasons. In the developing world, pregnancy and childbirth take a heavy toll on women’s health. Worldwide, nearly 380,000 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy each year.
From wearable breast pumps to digital birth control, the Femtech market is gearing up to see an unprecedented wave of innovation.
Dr Deborah Maufi, a project manager at the Health[e]Foundation, saw the harm of ignorance and misinformation firsthand in her native Tanzania.
“It made me really aware…that a lot of educated women also don’t know [about their reproductive rights]. Now imagine those who are not educated at all,” Maufi said. In response, she developed an app called MyHealth@Hand. Using the app, pregnant women in Sub-Saharan Africa can connect with healthcare workers. “They can share health data and also the woman has access to health information about pregnancy and the newborn and can also chat to the healthcare professional in the app,” she said.
Read more How Femtech Companies are Helping to Make Women’s Lives Easier and More Comfortable
The Femtech market could appeal to women of all ages, races and nationalities. Innovations in this field aren’t only making it possible for women to manage their health on a more personalized level, but it is enabling them to learn more about their own health.
The key benefit of combining education with the digital is its accessibility. “Almost everything that we do now is digital,” comments Dr. Maufi. “Even in developing countries: you see the economy's very low, but people still have access to smartphones.”
