WoW Woman in FemTech I Rachel Bartholomew, founder and CEO of Hyivy Health
Rachel Bartholomew is the founder and CEO of Hyivy Health.
She is based in Canada and has been in the startup community for the past 10 years, working in various roles in small businesses, venture capital, innovation labs, and ecosystem partnerships.
Hyivy Health, her second business, is focused on creating a medical device for women with pelvic-based cancers and diseases after her own cervical cancer battle in 2019.
Her last start-up, an automotive e-commerce software, worked with large corporate clients, such as eBay and Canadian Tire. She has worked as a lecturer in entrepreneurship for quantum computing, an Analyst for a venture capital firm, an Innovation Manager at a large Canadian Financial Institution, and helped restart Laurier University’s startup incubator program.
Rachel founded and serves on the Advisory Council for FemTech Canada, is a host of the White Coat Warrior podcast, and in her spare time, she is an avid beekeeper and raises monarch butterflies to release into the wild.
Hyivy Health (pronounced Hi-Ivy) is a FemTech pelvic health startup based in Canada founded in 2020.
Hyivy Health is developing the first smart pelvic health rehabilitation system for the 1-in-3 women who will develop pelvic health complications in their lifetime. This includes a vaginal wand providing three therapies: hot and cold contrast therapy, self-lubrication, and auto dilation. This device connects directly with a patient app and clinician software so a patient can conduct their therapy treatment from the comfort of their own home where they can be monitored by, and be connected with, their clinician in real-time.
Rachel, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I’ve been in the startup community for the past 10 years working in various roles in small businesses, venture capital, innovation labs, and ecosystem partnerships. My first start-up, an automotive e-commerce software, worked with large corporate clients, such as eBay and Canadian Tire. I’m a graduate of the Masters of Business, Entrepreneurship and Technology program at the University of Waterloo and after graduation, I became an entrepreneurial advisor to over 250 formation stage businesses. I’ve worked as a lecturer in entrepreneurship for quantum computing, an Analyst for a venture capital firm, an Innovation Manager at a large Canadian Financial Institution, and helped restart Laurier University’s startup incubator program. In 2020, I founded Hyivy Health after my own struggles with pelvic health and a cervical cancer diagnosis revealed the major gaps in pelvic health treatment and data and research.
I’m also passionate about women’s health and the FemTech industry and I serve on the Advisory Council for FemTech Canada, am a host of the White Coat Warrior podcast.
How did you get into this industry?
Pelvic health has been a consistent theme in my life, including a Bartholin’s gland issue, endometriosis, and at 28 years old I was diagnosed with cervical cancer. The seed for the idea for Hyivy came to me while I was on bed rest after my hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy, I explored how the industry has changed over the years and found that there had been almost no innovation to how pelvic health was treated. In combination with my own experience going through surgery and radiation and listening to the groups of thousands of women on Gynecological Cancer Support Facebook Groups, I surveyed and found that the number one issue these women were dealing with was their aftercare in pelvic health after treatment.
Through further secondary research, I found out that many of the symptoms and complications I was going to experience from my cancer were similar among many diseases, such as endometriosis and PCOS, as well as the physical changes a woman experiences such as post-partum, gender affirmation surgery, and menopause. As I started radiation treatments, I used my time at the hospital to pitch the solution to doctors in the cancer ward who gave me the clinical validation to start building a business, team, and solution to solve these problems.
Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
Where do I even begin! I think the biggest challenge for Hyivy was the lack of awareness about pelvic health. As we built our team of engineers, scientists, and medical advisors and started to scope out the technology, we realized that a lot of the baseline data on basic female gynaecological health was missing, let alone data points for the population dealing with complications. This forced our company to take a step back and start user testing with a small group of women representing each area of pelvic health complications to gather our own baseline data. This data represented information on the shape and size of different vaginal canals to what is the basic composition of the fluids our body produces and their function. When gathering this primary data through testing we reached as far as Australia at the University of Queensland trying to find access to the data that has been researched, our team realized that many of the solutions and research studies that have been developed in the area of pelvic health have been very isolated and siloed into groups focusing on treating and understanding one symptom or function.
This has caused products and treatment plans to be developed that do not encompass the larger picture of what is happening on the pelvic floor. Women often have to purchase multiple treatment options, explore what works best for them, get educated on their own on what the impact of the treatment will be, and stick with it on average from 6 months to a lifetime to achieve any sort of relief and function.
This is why we see 62% of women still reporting symptoms after treatment, 87% of women feeling like they don't know why they are doing the treatment or how to do it properly, and 76% of patients falling off from their regular treatment plans due to lack of motivation, hands-on guidance, and support.
Through our primary research interviewing women, we have found that not only are the treatments uncomfortable, invasive, and often anxiety-producing, but they are also painful and not optimized for a patient’s specific needs. This has led to women giving up altogether on seeking treatment, over-spending to find relief, and potentially going to extreme measures.
These problems are a compound on top of the experiences they are already facing daily with incontinence, chronic pain, fatigue, and other symptoms which affect their ability to participate in work, family life, and their intimate relationships.
Overall, the medical industry has been relatively easy to learn over time, but the awareness and understanding of pelvic health have been the biggest challenge.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
It’s been just about two years (pandemic years mind you which I think should count for longer like dog years!)
One obstacle with Hyivy we met early on was the decision to create a medical device as opposed to direct-to-consumer. It’s more expensive, it takes longer to get Health Canada and FDA testing and it requires a lot of capital upfront to be successful.
However, it’s an obstacle I’m willing to undertake because it is a huge piece of our vision to provide a clinically tested device that connects patients to clinicians. The medical device route also presents the potential to be covered under insurance for patients who desperately need it, and may not be able to afford out-of-pocket expenses. Getting these regulatory approvals and certifications as well as fighting the challenge of pelvic health misinformation will be our next biggest obstacles.
What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in?
In terms of getting into the FemTech industry, I have to say the biggest challenge I’ve come against is stigma.
FemTech faces challenges rooted in stigma against women’s bodies every day. From legislation that neglects women’s health to traditionally all-male investors who may not see the value in these solutions, to getting our social media ads banned simply for using words like ‘pelvic floor’, and then there’s the stigma inflicted on the women who are suffering in silence because they’ve been told their bodies and health aren’t a priority.
In terms of pelvic health, unfortunately, there is a misunderstanding that Kegels and stimulating the muscles will fix all of your problems, and we often get compared to devices that facilitate these. The problem is that hypo and hypertonic pelvic floor definitions are only talked about in the offices of pelvic health doctors and not to the wider medical community, causing women to make themselves worse off than better off with their recommendations from their doctors. And it is not just patients and doctors. We meet regularly with investors who think our space is “niche” and when we end up crunching the numbers, it ends up right back to 1 in 3 women with pelvic floor conditions.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
Our 2 years have been full of amazing achievements. We have taken on the medical pathway and have learned collectively as a team, raised $1.9M in non-dilutive and investor funding, filed patents, 6 clinical studies in the works, and were named one of the top 5 Femtech trendsetters out of 1550 Femtech companies by Femtech Analytics.
If I have to narrow it down, I think the biggest achievement has been building a group of dedicated, diverse, and majority female individuals who have joined my team. Without their expertise, knowledge, and passion Hyivy Health would just not be possible.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We are currently nose-deep into finessing the manufacturability of the device, safety testing, ISO 13485 certification, and regulatory approvals for the FDA and Health Canada as a Class 2 Device, all to prepare for our upcoming clinical trials with McMaster University to further explore the device’s use for pelvic pain with endometriosis patients and Grand River Cancer Centre, where we are exploring the changes in stenosis, pain, and incontinence in gynaecological and colorectal patients. We are launching the first private, anonymous online pelvic health community where women can have a safe space to ask their pelvic health questions and can even be connected with Hyivy Accredited Clinicians. We also have an R&D pipeline of products that has begun this year, which I am really excited about! While our device goes through trials, we are also currently recruiting both patients and clinicians for focus groups and product testing to ensure we are creating an effective, patient first, clinician-friendly pelvic health rehabilitation system and we welcome anyone interested to visit our website hyivy.com.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Yes, for a lot of reasons. One would be that women – and that definition I use as an all-inclusive term – across a wide range of lived experiences who can be more equally reflected in the tech industry can only bring with them more diverse and equitable technologies. The more representation we have out there, kicking butt and showing others that it is possible, the more women we join the movement and create amazing, valuable things.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Pelvic health is on an upward trend with increasing awareness of the need. The need for adoption of telehealth and digital health solutions has only been accelerated by the ongoing pandemic and response and I see adoption outside of general healthcare and into more specialized care like pelvic health.
In terms of the FemTech industry, a major trend is data. We’re seeing a myriad of companies with specialties focusing on data collection, filling data gaps, clinical trials, and research we’re going to see a groundswell of ways to interpret and use this data to better serve women.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
Don’t be afraid to take a risk and build your community. Asking for help, advice, or access to resources is not a sign of weakness – for a founder, it’s a sign of strength. And when you take a risk and fail, learn to take that failure as a building block to make your ideas that much stronger and bulletproof.
That also extends to making connections and community with other folks in FemTech and women in tech. We have unique challenges, for example, last year I think somewhere around 2% of VC funding went to startups led by all-women teams. Find other women looking to build things who are either on a similar path as you, have been through things you have, and to who you can give some advice.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?
There are so many to list and I could only refine my list down to four!
I love the work Cindy Gallop is doing with MLNP and her passion, authenticity, and hutzpah!Sherrie Palm Founder/CEO of the Association for Pelvic Organ Prolapse Support (APOPS is a huge inspiration for me with her work that has a patient-driven perspective and the research she and her organization are doing.
Karen Leshem CEO of OCON is doing groundbreaking work in the medical device industry.
I admire Saundra Pelletier CEO of Evofem Sciences and her work as a fellow cancer survivor who took her journey and challenges from her diagnosis and turned it into a force for positive change in the world.
I really could go on all day with all the amazing folks doing great work in this industry!
Find out more about Hyivy Health on their website.
Follow Hyivy on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and
Connect with Rachel on LinkedIn.
This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.