Closing the Gender Health Gap: How Digital Technology Can Support Better Women’s Health

The following is a guest article by Juliet Bauer, Chief Growth and Marketing Officer at Livi

I’m often asked where I believe digital technology can make the biggest impact in healthcare. My answer? Women’s health. Today, women spend around a quarter of their lives in poor health or disability, compared with one fifth for men. In a health system that has historically been geared towards men, a gender health gap persists where you are more likely to receive poorer medical advice and diagnosis if you are a woman.

When I look at that gap, I see a key space for digital healthcare in helping us overcome many of the obstacles that we currently face. Those obstacles, which one could summarize as being centered around needs for greater access, education and information, I believe can be overcome through digital’s very power to connect us to all three. 

That’s why I was delighted to see data and digital included prominently as key areas within the recently published Women’s Health Strategy in the UK. 

Expanding the reach of women’s health services

One of the key challenges outlined in that document is of course the postcode lottery that has been described in the UK around women’s health services. We know If you’re a woman living in area of deprivation, you will experience unequal access to key services in pre-conception, maternity care, sexual health and the menopause, to name just a few. 

At a base level, digital consulting offers the potential to increase the reach of these services in areas where they are needed most, and can complement the planned expansion of dedicated women’s health hubs envisioned by the Women’s Health Strategy. 

Facilitating conversations in the consultation room

In addition to access, digital has an integral role to play in supporting discussions in the consultation room itself. Indeed, the development of digital tools such as NHS Digital’s iDecide and within NHS England’s Maternity Transformation and Menopausal Pathway Improvement Programs illustrate a growing consensus about the potential of decision support tools to facilitate more informed conversations between healthcare professionals and women. 

Those conversations are all-important. Research shows that women often feel they are ignored or have to work for a diagnosis with their clinician. In the government-led consultation, Women’s Health Let’s Talk About It, ‘not being listened to’ was said to be a consistent theme across the health journey, experienced by over 80% of women. And a recent Livi survey conducted in preparation for our new women’s health eBook, ‘Miss Diagnosed’, revealed that over 57% of women felt they weren’t diagnosed correctly after visiting a healthcare professional.

Ensuring timely and accurate diagnosis

That feeling of misdiagnosis is not misplaced. Conditions can take too long to diagnose or be missed if you are a woman, whether it be non-gender specific issues or otherwise. The British Heart Foundation reports that a woman is 50% more likely than a man to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack. And taking endometriosis as an example, time to diagnosis is estimated to be an average of eight years after symptom onset.

I believe the underlying issue here lies in information and education. Both have the power to empower women and clinicians. Regarding the latter, planned mandatory training for healthcare professionals on women’s health is a welcome move to address a clinical knowledge gap that has been created in part due to the historic underrepresentation of women in medical research and education for decades.

Digital medical education can support these efforts and facilitate interactive peer-to-peer learning, so women’s health does not become ‘just another resource pack’ that sits on the shelf. 

Providing health information 

For women, the planned overhaul of women’s health content on NHS.uk and NHS Digital’s collaboration with YouTube will go some way to ensuring there is better access to credible, clinically safe health information. This is desperately needed. Data shows only 17% of women feel they have enough information on menstrual wellbeing, 14% on gynecological cancers, 9% on the menopause and 8% other gynecological conditions.

In addition to providing more spaces for women to access information about their health, digital tools can become part and parcel of women’s daily lives. Over the last few years ‘embodiment technology’ for women has advanced greatly, with increasing development of self-monitoring products for everything from ovulation to reproduction. The potential of ‘FemTech’ to provide information to women and understand more about their bodies is indeed great.

Embracing innovation

However, data shows that it has yet to be fully embraced. Forbes reports only 3% of total HealthTech funding went to FemTech startups in 2020. And the UK was reportedly third in the world for digital health investment in 2020 – behind the US and China. It’s therefore encouraging to see the Women’s Health Strategy advocate adoption of FemTech as one of its core goals for the future.

Another of those core goals centers on the expansion of diagnostic services for women. Here, there is scope for adoption of new innovations in data and AI. Indeed, we have seen recent developments in diagnostic screening for ovarian and breast cancer utilizing non-invasive ultrasound. While in areas such as preterm labor, data and AI can support early intervention by giving clinicians greater sight of the overall patient journey. 

Fundamentally, what I believe this represents is a need to shift from a reactive to a proactive approach to ensure better outcomes for women. We know women will seek help throughout the course of life, but we must act now to design a fairer system where the right interventions can be made at every touchpoint. 

The adoption of a life-course approach and the right digital tools and technology to support it will be the key to success. The main challenge regarding the latter, is ensuring widespread uptake and implementation of digital as part and parcel of the patient pathway, while facilitating greater digital inclusion for all. To do that, close collaboration between digital innovators and health system leaders will be vital on the journey ahead.

About Juliet Bauer

Juliet Bauer joined Livi three years ago from NHS England, where she was the organization’s first Chief Digital Officer and launched the NHS App. Livi is now one of the largest digital providers in the NHS, serving 10m NHS patients and 4,000+ GP practices. Juliet has led the delivery of technology programs across many sectors, including the Times Newspaper’s digital transformation.

   

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