WoW Woman in FemTech I Lisa Falco, data scientist, digital health expert and book author
Lisa Falco has been working in the interface between medicine and technology for almost 20 years, on how data can be used to better understand the human body.
She was previously Director of Data Science at Ava, a Swiss FemTech startup, where she led a team developing algorithms and artificial intelligence in order to help women get pregnant faster by using their physiological data based on their menstrual cycle.
She is now working as a Lead Consultant for Data & AI at Zühlke with a focus on healthcare and FemTech.
She is the mother of two and the author of the book: Go Figure! The astonishing science of the female body. It is available to order on all major platforms where you buy your books online.
Lisa, tell us a little bit about yourself and your background.
I grew up in Sweden but I always loved the mountains so after my studies in Engineering Physics I moved to Switzerland to do a Ph.D. at the EPFL in Lausanne. After graduating, I moved to Zürich and started working as a data scientist in various startups developing medical technologies. In 2015 I joined Ava Women as Head of Data Science. Ava is a startup using wearable technology to track fertility and help women get pregnant faster. During my time at Ava, I grew passionate about the topic of women’s health and in 2019 I quit my job to write a book about the science of the female body. I now work as a consultant for AI & Data in Health with a specific focus on the FemTech sector.
You are a data scientist and digital health expert, with a Ph.D. in biomedical imaging and almost 20 years of experience in the development of technologies to better understand the human body. How do you use data and technology to decipher the human body and its functions?
In combination with machine learning and analytics, you can generate great insights from data to better understand the body. I have been fortunate to work with many different areas within this exciting field. At Ava we used data collected with a wearable; heart rate, temperature, breathing rate, etc, to measure the impact of the hormonal fluctuations over the menstrual cycle. In my very first job, we also used a wearable, this time measuring bioimpedance, to track changes in blood glucose.
Medical images are also data and they provide great insight into what is happening inside the body. CT scanners are very useful in looking closer at bone structure and I have been working with scanners for assessing bone quality to detect osteoporosis. During my PhD, I worked with another type of image, magnetic resonance images, that we used to map both the anatomy and the connectivity of the brain.
Data from a patient's medical history can not only help to diagnose disease but also be used to predict the future. At Pipra, the latest startup I worked in, we used patients' health records to predict the risk of the patient developing postoperative delirium.
In all these examples we used machine learning to turn the large quantity of data into a deeper understanding of how the body functions. And these are only a few examples of what you can do with data and analytics to improve the health of people, and maybe even prevent them from becoming patients to begin with.
You are launching your first book later this month (so exciting!) called "Go Figure! - The astonishing science of the female body." What can you tell us about it?
The book unravels the mystery surrounding women’s biology and explains what is happening underneath the surface. We all know that the female body changes cyclically every month during the reproductive years and that it completely transforms during puberty, pregnancy, and menopause. However, most of us ignore the fascinating details. What triggers those changes and what are the sometimes unexpected consequences? The facts are as mind-blowing as entertaining. Based on the latest research, all information is presented in an easy-to-read manner with plenty of anecdotes; from historical prejudices to personal experiences, with some evolutionary ideas in between.
But this book is about more than facts, it will teach you how to think whenever you get confronted with new information and how to judge whether new information you come across is valid or not.
When did you get the idea to write this book? What inspired you to write it? Who is it for?
When I was working at Ava I was often shocked how little women knew about their bodies and their fertility. It was also scary to see how much misinformation was out there. I could see a big need for women to have access to reliable information and I also was so fascinated by the topic that I just wanted to learn as much as possible.
When I was then asked to do a talk at TEDx Zürich, I spent a lot of time writing the speech that helped me find back to my old love for storytelling so I decided to take a break from my career to geek out on this super interesting topic and re-explore my passion for writing.
What do you think of the term FemTech? There’s always a lot of discussion about it, so I am curious to hear your thoughts.
I don’t know the exact motives of Ida Tinn, CEO and founder of Clue, for initiating this term but I imagine an important one was to raise awareness that women are not a niche market. Both in medical research and within the male-dominated tech sector, women have been neglected for a long time. The early entrepreneurs with products directed towards women struggled a lot to get investors on board. By inventing a collective term for it, many companies could unify their efforts and launch a movement to create well-deserved attention. Once technology (and research) for women is considered as important as technology for men, and female founders are as respected as male founders, I believe the term has served its purpose. Then we can drop it and find new terms that will serve other purposes.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
I started my engineering studies 25 years ago and have been working in tech ever since, so for me personally; no. However, I do think it is important that we show female role models in tech to encourage younger women to feel comfortable in taking the same step. It is important to show that you don’t have to “be like a man”, to thrive in the industry. Tech is a great sector to be in, there are many interesting jobs, it’s rather well-paid, and allows you to have (in general) a good work-life balance. I am grateful for my own career which has been very fulfilling, while still possible to combine with being a mother and a person with many passions on the side. I think it is important to show these possibilities to other women. All women don't have to become engineers but they should know that this road is open to them.
What will be the key trends in the FemTech industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
I think we will see a lot more products in all possible areas within FemTech, covering the whole spectrum from high-quality medical applications to frankly speaking “useless crap”. A lot of the challenges for consumers and investors will be to be able to tell the two apart. This is where I believe high-quality information and education will be crucial, and where I hope that my book can play an important role. When you know the basics, it will be easier to navigate the jungle of products that we will see on the market.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
A FemTech company will need the same competencies as any other company so the basis is of course to develop such skills. Companies are also looking for people that can demonstrate that they have hands-on experience. If you don’t have a job that can give you such experience, it can be a good idea to start a personal project. That can be anything from a blog to developing an app or analysing some data available on the web, maybe even starting your own company. You need to show that you are interested in the topic and that you have the drive to push things forward.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
1. Lea von Bidder, the co-founder, and CEO of Ava is of course a great inspiration. She has an amazing drive and just bubbles with energy.
2. Sonali Quantius, the founder and CEO of Haplomind, an app for fighting postnatal depression, is another role model. On top of being incredibly intelligent, she has this stubborn drive and uncompromising desire to make the world a better place.
3. Another female founder and CEO that I also admire is Nancy Saddington from Organic Mondays. They produce ecological period pads and tampons. She has such a warm and friendly approach to everyone and is a great example of how you don’t need to “toughen up” to successfully create and run a business.
All three have in common that they want to make a positive change in society and they are not afraid of tackling all the challenges ahead.
