Over the last two years, we organized and hosted three major global conferences: FemTech Forum, Health Tech 2.0, and Investing & Fundraising in HealthTech and FemTech.

This year, we decided to do something different.

Why FemTech Untapped?

In 2022, we are committed to opening the conversation around the topics in FemTech that are still taboo, areas that are untapped, underresearched, and underfunded.

Over the past few years, the term FemTech has become a buzzword, and women’s health, today more than ever, has been getting the recognition and visibility it deserves. But, this is still not enough for the healthcare industry to be more inclusive, and more innovation, disruption, and funding are still needed in some other areas such as cardiovascular health or mental health. Female health is not just reproductive health, and unless we start treating it as such, especially if we don’t see it as a part of a larger public health discussion, things won’t move at the right speed in the right direction for many more years.

That’s why this year we are bringing you a series of events, educational panels, blogs, and interviews with industry leaders, founders, clinicians, organizations, and investors every month throughout the year, with the focus on some of the most important topics in the femtech space, featuring some of the most innovative companies in this industry.

Join us every month for a series of events and educational content where we will cover topics from diversity and inclusion in the femtech space, to innovations in menstrual, mental, gut, and cardiovascular health, to male contraception and baby tech, and everything in between.

This program will be delivered in partnership with our program partners FemTec Health and Goodwin, as well as our webinar partners ByHeart, Biote, Lovehoney Group, Elix Healing, FERTI·LILY, Prosoma, CVS Health, and many more.

Together, we can all work towards femtech innovation and support being more accessible and inclusive!

Find out more about the program

Our September event - Gender Inequalities in Cardiovascular Health

Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are a group of disorders involving blood vessels and the heart. CVDs are the leading cause of death globally, representing roughly a third of global deaths. With 80% of premature heart disease and stroke deemed to be preventable, there is huge scope for companies in the cardiovascular space to make an impact.

Coronary heart disease kills twice as many women as breast cancer in the UK, according to British Heart Foundation. A woman is 50% more likely than a man to receive the wrong initial diagnosis for a heart attack.

It’s time to talk about Gender inequalities in cardiovascular health!

SPEAKERS

Dr. Juliet M. Nevins, Medical Director, CVS Health

Dr. Nevins is a Clinical Solutions Medical Director and a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist. Her passion for consumer health education and wellness informs her roles as both a physician and a clinician executive. She fervently believes that health education is a critical tool that can change behavior, improve the health of individuals, and facilitate intact communities.

Her role at CVS Health supporting the New York and New Jersey sales teams for middle market and key account aligns with her talents and passion. In this space, she employs her training as a physician and administrator, having studied statistical analysis and how to use data to inform health care solutions.

An influential voice in the women’s health and maternity policy space, Dr. Nevins is a member of the CVS Health Women’s Health Committee, where she lends her voice to the company’s goal of supporting women on their holistic health care journey. As an obstetrician committed to health equity, she represents the company as a member of the Core Quality Measures Collaborative (CQMC), a unit housed within the National Quality Forum (NQF), which reviews and outlines the quality measures used by our nation’s hospitals.

Dr. Nevins received her Bachelor of Arts from Vassar College, her Master of Public Administration in health policy analysis from New York University’s Robert F. Wagner School of Public Service, and her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Virginia.

Jennifer Jones-McMeans, Ph.D., Divisional Vice President of Global Clinical Affairs at Abbott’s vascular business

Jennifer Jones-McMeans, Ph.D., is the Divisional Vice President of Global Clinical Affairs at Abbott’s vascular business. Since joining Abbott nearly 15 years ago, Jennifer has worked on gaining approval for numerous medical devices in the US and globally. She has led many clinical trials, including those for resorbable technologies designed to treat cardiovascular disease and peripheral arterial disease, the latter of which disproportionately affects underrepresented communities. At Abbott, Jennifer is invested in driving innovation and leveraging technology to create diversity in clinical trials and has become one of the leading experts in clinical trial design strategy.

Shavini Fernando, founder, and CEO of OxiWear

Shavini Fernando is the founder and CEO of OxiWear. She is also a video game and virtual reality (VR) web designer and developer. She holds a B.S. in Computer Science from the University of Portsmouth, an M.B.A. from Edith Cowan University, and an M.A. in Communication, Culture, and Technology (CCT) from Georgetown University.

After being diagnosed with severe pulmonary hypertension (PH) due to Eisenmenger’s Syndrome, and facing multiple cardiac arrests due to hypoxia necessitating self-CPR to revive herself, Shavini invented OxiWear in 2019 as a tool for herself and the larger PH community. To date, OxiWear has raised over 2Mil in funding and has received a variety of accolades, including the Washington business journal 40 under 40 awards. Originally from Sri Lanka, Shavini currently resides in Arlington, Virginia.

Alicia Chong Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Bloomer Tech

Alicia Chong Rodriguez is the Founder and CEO of Bloomer Tech, a company focused on accelerating cardiovascular research and improving patient care through advancing personalized diagnostic and therapeutic processes for women. She graduated in Electrical Engineering & Computer Science from MIT along with the MIT Integrated Design and Management Program. Her research focused on sex-specific, computationally-generated, cardiac biomarkers at the MIT Computational Cardiovascular Research Group. She received the MIT Legatum Fellowship and the Biennial MIT Graduate Women of Excellence Award. Her TED Talk on a smart bra for better heart health has over 1.8 million views. She has also been recognized as a 2021 TED Fellow, 2018 Medtech Boston 40 under 40 Healthcare Innovator, and in the top 100 Female Founders across the U.S. by Inc Magazine.

AGENDA

(*All time slots are BST)

4 pm - Opening words by organising team

4:10 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Dr Juliet M. Nevins, Medical Director, CVS Health

4:20 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Jennifer Jones-McMeans, Ph.D., Divisional Vice President of Global Clinical Affairs at Abbott’s vascular business

4:30 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Shavini Fernando, founder, and CEO of OxiWear

4:40 pm - Company introduction - presentation delivered by Alicia Chong Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Bloomer Tech

4:50 pm - Panel discussion

5:30 pm - Q&As

6:00 pm - Closing words by the organising team

Book ticket

About our partners and sponsors

Program partners

FemTec Health

Founded in May 2020 by Dr. Kimon Angelides and publicly launched in October 2021, FemTec Health is the leading Health and Beauty Sciences Company focused on using technology and data to transform the total healthcare experience for women in every stage of their life cycle. Areas of focus include specialty care, wellness and prevention, reproductive care, sexual wellness, mental health, chronic care, and beyond. Angelides has brought together A female-led team with decades of experience across healthcare, wellness, and consumer products in public and private companies. FemTech Health’s mission is to revolutionize women’s healthcare by using state-of-the-art genomics, predictive intelligence, and digital technologies to create an experience that is unified, coordinated, and provides personalized services and products based on every woman's unique needs. FemTec Health currently has offices in Houston, New York, San Diego, London, Barcelona, Athens & Shanghai.

Goodwin

Goodwin partners with clients to practice law with integrity, ingenuity, agility, and ambition. Their 1,600 lawyers across the United States, Europe, and Asia excel at complex transactions, high-stakes litigation, and world-class advisory services in the technology, life sciences, healthcare, private equity, real estate, and financial industries. Goodwin’s extensive experience and knowledge of the women’s health and wellness industry coupled with their deep industry contacts helps them to foster relationships between their clients and stakeholders to provide them with full-service legal offerings. From intellectual property to regulatory and from structuring capital raises to IPOs, they advise clients at all stages of the company lifecycle.

Webinar partner

CVS Health is the leading health solutions company, delivering care as no one else can. They reach more people and improve the health of communities across America through their local presence, digital channels, and over 300,000 dedicated colleagues – including more than 40,000 physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and nurse practitioners. Wherever and whenever people need us, CVS Health helps them with their health – whether managing chronic diseases, staying compliant with their medications, or accessing affordable health and wellness services in the most convenient ways. They help people navigate the health care system – and their personal health care – by improving access, lowering costs, and being a trusted partner for every meaningful health moment.

About Women of Wearables

Women of Wearables (WoW) is a leading global organization and ecosystem aiming to connect and support women and allies in wearable tech, health tech, and femtech, as well as educate about the latest innovations in the world of emerging technologies. With headquarters in London (UK) and more than 20,000 members located around the globe, WoW has become a global movement that supports its growing community through events, mentorship, educational programs, and collaboration with its network of local collaborators and partners. Our members are startup founders, designers, technologists, industry experts, researchers, bloggers, journalists, investors, and many more.

Our community is open to anyone who is affiliated with and interested in emerging technologies and is not just for professional women, but for anyone with an interest in wearable technology and providing women with a platform for growth.

HOW TO JOIN US

➡️ Become a WoW member to learn from and connect with our community of entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists, leverage valuable resources, and discover career and business opportunities! By joining, you’ll get the opportunity to promote your company at one of the leading global organizations for women in tech, advertise in our newsletter and collaborate with us for our webinars, conferences, and content.

➡️ Follow us on Twitter / LinkedIn / Instagram / Facebook.

➡️ Join our femtech group on LinkedIn.

➡️ Get in touch if you’d like to become our partner!