WoW Woman in Wearable Tech I Divyakshi Kaushik, founder and CEO of Anatomech

Divyakshi Kaushik is the Founder and CEO of Anatomech. She has a Master’s in Industrial Design and Bachelor’s in Electronics and Telecommunication from India. She is the recipient of the BIRAC – Social Innovation Fellowship and Nidhi Prayas Grant from the Govt. of India. She has experience of 5+ years in the healthcare space and has commercialized 3+ wearable health tech products. At Anatomech she leads Product Development and Business Operations. In Sept 2021 Anatomech raised their pre-seed round of an undisclosed amount through Riidl – Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory, Mumbai along with grant support from Venture Center, Pune, and NSRCel, IIM Bangalore.

Divyakshi, tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.

I started my career in 2016, with a wearable health tech startup in the pain management space, where I designed 2 products for back and joint pain management. In March 2018, I had the opportunity to be part of a Social Innovation Program by the Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India. Under the program, I was extensively exposed to the challenges of long-term therapy post-injury, surgery, and strenuous physical activity. That led me to develop graduated compression socks, that are lab tested for medical-grade mild compression – 18 - 21 mmHg. These are suitable to relieve leg edema – (pain and swelling) experienced by Sportspersons, helping them battle delayed onset muscle soreness, Long Haul Flyers and Desk jobbers who experience swelling and tingling due to extended hours of sitting, Professionals whose jobs require them to stand for long periods causing excruciating fatigue, Elderly with aching joints and feet that lead to swelling and Pregnant women. They are also suitable for other medical conditions like varicose veins and DVT that lead to muscle cramps and edema. They are available under our brand KUE.

How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?

I was fortunate to have access to the healthcare ecosystem from the beginning of my career. As I continued to speak with therapists for deeper insights, I was introduced to an educator in oncology who had been managing her own arm lymphedema for 10+ years, which was an outcome of mastectomy. Lymphedema affects 40% of breast cancer survivors causing a sizeable swelling and associated pain due to lymph fluid congestion in the adjacent arm. It is irreversible and requires daily drainage, lifelong. Presently 3.1 million women, worldwide live with the condition and 930K women are susceptible to Breast Cancer Related Lymphedema per year. The current options for therapy involve Manual lymphatic drainage followed by big bandaging or bulky compression pumps that restrict the user’s movement for at least 3 hours per day and in some cases, they must travel long distances to get access to therapy which leads to high dropout rates. That insight was a defining moment for me. World Health Organisation says that there are more lost disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) by women to breast cancer globally than any other type of cancer. 

How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle? What are the challenges of being in the industry you are in? 

While I started validating the problem through primary and secondary research in the final quarter of 2019, Anatomech was registered in March 2020, just 4 days prior to when the nationwide lockdown for the Pandemic was announced in India. We lost all access to healthcare facilities for months together. Even once the infection rates for covid -19 stabilized, it took us a while to get back in touch with patients and healthcare facilities as cancer and post-cancer care require to be dealt with utmost caution. During this time, we also faced delays in shipments of major components for our technology development, as logistics services were restrained.

What are your biggest achievements to date?

Having tested and validated our proprietary technology that will be integrated into the wearable sleeve for lymphedema. The technology will help make the sleeve portable and lightweight for daily use, allowing productive use of hours lost during therapy. The snug fit will help conceal the product under the user’s regular garments to avoid social stigma and psychological trauma.

What are the projects you are currently working on?

We are solely focused on optimizing the technology and developing the beta version of our wearable product. Once the technology is in advanced stages it can be further used to develop products for the management of edema, venous insufficiencies, and assistance with musculoskeletal deterioration. 

Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why? 

Yes of course! Women are grossly underrepresented amongst tech entrepreneurs, and they need to equitably lead from the forefront as changemakers and trailblazers.

What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?

The focus in wearable health tech has primarily been on monitoring devices. However, the medical device industry is now moving towards preventive and care/management wearable devices. As per a survey by a World Economic Forum (WEF), 92.1% of corporate leaders believe that 10% of people will wear internet-connected garments by 2025. Also, 5G will have a key impact in reducing storage capacity and processing powers of smart garments and other wearable devices, which will reduce hardware, making smart therapy garments lightweight and compact. 

What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?

The future of wearable tech to tackling health challenges is bright and thrilling. If you spot a gap in healthcare and can build technology to solve it, you’ve landed yourself a great opportunity to make a purposeful impact.

Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry you admire?

Maddison Maxey, Founder and CEO – Loomia. Her work on soft circuit systems will enable entrepreneurs like me to build lightweight, compact, and smart wearables for healthcare.

Billie Whitehouse, CEO and Creative Director - Wearable X: A pioneer in Wearable tech, she specializes in the combination of hardware, software and apparel and is focused to improve quality of life.

Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and Founder – Openwater. Her inspiring journey and acclaimed work at Google [x], Facebook, Oculus in the field of VR, wearables, and healthcare, make her an exemplar for an entrepreneur in the wearable health tech space.

Anatomech website

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Connect with Divyakshi 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.