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Greater than 500 years in the past, Leonardo da Vinci grew to become fascinated by his anatomical dissection of the womb of a pregnant girl who had died and meant to uncover the secrets and techniques behind conception and being pregnant problems. However da Vinci was stumped. Shockingly, in 2023, there’s nonetheless a lot left to unravel, as ladies’s well being stays one of the crucial underfunded, under-researched, and underserved areas of funding and examine.
It’s a chance with an enormous viewers — doubtlessly each household — that due to the historic underinvestment, has very low competitors. The market is on the point of breaking by way of with genomics and AI rising to fulfill the acute unmet want. Now’s the time to take a position and innovate.
As ladies more and more share their experiences, their tales convey to life how America is failing mothers and amplify the urgency for us to behave and innovate breakthroughs in ladies’s and being pregnant well being. Current CDC knowledge reveals U.S. maternal mortality charges have elevated by 40% — that means being pregnant is extra harmful now than it was for our moms.
The maternal well being disaster is much more devastating for Black ladies, who’re 2.5x extra more likely to die from pregnancy-related problems in comparison with white ladies. And 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, highlighting how we as a society should do extra to make being pregnant and childbirth a dignified and secure expertise for all. I imagine as entrepreneurs, founders, technologists and extra, we should lead the cost on this.
We’ve entered the golden age of drugs: From the lightning-fast growth of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines that saved tens of millions of lives to unimaginable progress on immunotherapy interventions concentrating on metastatic types of most cancers, to the arrival of AI and machine studying to speed up drug growth throughout the healthcare spectrum, it’s an thrilling time to be in medication, given the tempo of breakthroughs we’re seeing each day. In comparison with crowded fields like oncology and different biotech areas, there are solely a handful of gamers working to champion the massive alternatives in maternal well being and to actually be the chief within the area.
Ladies’s well being stays one of the crucial underfunded, under-researched, and underserved areas of funding and examine.
It’s clear that maternal well being has been left behind among the many breakthroughs in medication. That is troubling as a result of ladies’s well being is household well being. Ladies who expertise being pregnant problems face an elevated threat of coronary heart illness, stroke, psychological well being circumstances and untimely loss of life, and youngsters born preterm are at elevated threat for quite a few challenges throughout their life span. This disproportionate influence on households implies that ladies’s well being ought to concern each one in all us, not simply moms. This could, and should, change. Maternal well being is household well being.
Ladies’s well being must be the brand new frontier in expertise investing
Understanding and believing the reality that ladies’s well being is household well being is a vital first step in ushering in a brand new wave of funding and a spotlight to corporations targeted on advancing ladies’s well being outcomes. This once more highlights the massive want and alternative — the market is massive, with practically 4 million infants born yearly within the U.S. With a wholesome being pregnant freed from problems, youngsters are extra outfitted to attain good well being outcomes over the course of their lives, creating constructive ripple results for the well being of their households and their future households for generations to come back.
One other necessary step to usher in funding and a spotlight on ladies’s well being is to extend the variety of ladies in high-ranking positions inside expertise, enterprise capital, authorities establishments, and extra. Merely put, we’d like extra ladies in high-impact roles. Amongst enterprise buyers, ladies signify solely 9% of all enterprise capitalists within the U.S. Ladies maintain solely 25% of the seats within the U.S. Senate and 28% of the seats within the U.S. Home. And solely 37 ladies at the moment serving in Congress are moms to youngsters underneath the age of 18.
I’m completely happy to report that ladies make up roughly two-thirds of our management group at Mirvie.
Along with including extra feminine buyers, elected officers, founders, and CEOs, we’d like males in these positions to champion maternal well being. It’s mind-boggling that we’ve gone backward within the twenty first century. Reversing the developments of maternal mortality and morbidity is likely one of the largest societal challenges we face. We have to broaden the help and guarantee each women and men are serving to drive adjustments to create more healthy futures for our households.
Whereas there’s a whole lot of “doom and gloom” surrounding the present state of maternal well being, it’s necessary to acknowledge the promise and hope for breakthroughs on the horizon. From the prediction of being pregnant problems, focused therapies if problems do come up, and a concerted effort to enhance entry to doulas and different care suppliers to enhance outcomes, we’re on the cusp of propelling ladies’s well being ahead with elevated funding, consideration, and alternative.
On the planet of expertise and enterprise capital, we have now the immense privilege of having the ability to present the required assets to fund life-changing — and even life-improving — corporations which are pushing ladies’s well being ahead. Now’s the time we give them the eye and funding they deserve to make sure we’re making a world the place each being pregnant is as secure and wholesome as potential.
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