WoW Women in FemTech | Agate Kalcenaua, Jana Visnevska, Zlata Potilicina, Linda Seibe and Ieva Danovska, co-founders of Skrinings
Interview by MarijaButkovic
There are 5 ambitious young women in the Skrinings team who have combined their knowledge to develop a digital breast cancer risk stratification tool with built-in digital consent for the population cohort’s engagement into breast cancer-related research studies.
Agate Kalcenaua - young and enthusiastic Medical Doctor with a deep interest in technologies, innovation, and art.
(Experience in medical product management - 3D printed casts and digital solutions for research acceleration.)
Jana Visnevska - Medical Doctor focused on an interdisciplinary approach to solving principal problems in health and technology.
Zlata Potilicina - a software developer who is passionate about connecting technology and natural/life sciences together.
Linda Seibe - digital product designer with a strong passion for illustration and projects that make a difference.
Ieva Danovska - project manager, amazed by the endless opportunities and benefits that are being brought into our lives with the help of technologies.
Ladies, what is the idea behind your project/product and how did you come up with it?
Skrinings.lv is a web-based tool for proactive involvement of the population in breast cancer risk calculation aiming to educate, raise self-awareness and screening participation rates, as well as create a dynamic ecosystem for population cohort’s engagement into breast cancer-related research studies.
The idea of this project arose from the understanding of how large the breast cancer problem in Latvia is. With one in eight women being eventually diagnosed with breast cancer and more than a third of them being diagnosed as late as stage III, we were driven to create a solution by combining the knowledge of our multidisciplinary team that could change this situation - revolutionize breast cancer pre-screening, improve early diagnostics and put women in charge of their own health and opportunities to participate in impactful research studies.
When did all start and do you have other members in your team?
We began working on this project in July 2019, as a part of the Longenesis - a medical technology company that offers solutions for research and development. Our team consists of computer scientists, medical doctors, graphic designers, and project managers. The project is developed with the help of the University of Latvia (DF LAB healthcare technology lab) and VITA female oncology patient association. As skrinings.lv grew bigger it became a separate company.
How long did it take you to be where you are now?
It took us about a year to create the concept, gather the information, verify it with specialists, create the platform, and deploy the tools. The working process did not stop right after the launch, we are working on polishing the concept, developing new tools, based on the feedback from our users, as well as advice from oncologists and patient advocates.
What was the biggest obstacle?
The biggest challenge was to create a platform that would be user-centric, user-friendly, and overcome the conservatism barrier with healthcare professionals. Despite the high interest among the society on the tools described above, there is a lack of ability to engage individuals into prospective research initiatives, by building “a bridge” between population and research communities, preserving privacy and transparency in the processes. With skrinings.lv we propose to fill the gap between these two stakeholders. We believe that it would create a way to effectively communicate the scientific results, as well as to provide inclusion and a proactive collaboration environment that can also benefit clinical research.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
We have successfully deployed the survey tool, which calculates the risk of developing breast cancer and stratifies it to low, medium, or high-risk groups, and depending on the group and individual factors, a woman receives personalized recommendations and offers for a doctor's visit with a discount. Also, we have implemented a digital consent form for future opportunities to send a request to women and offer to participate in research studies. It’s very important for us to build our solutions user-centric and keep the user in charge of their health, their data, and their consent. And we are getting there!
What are the challenges of being an entrepreneur in the niche you are in?
Healthcare is one of the most conservative industries, having a long and risky pipeline of validation of the proposed concept and technology. One of the challenges of any health-tech related enterprises is a thorough process of validation and ensuring that the product you are developing, actually does improve the outcome, the quality of life, and the wellbeing of the person using it. That is why we are moving towards initiating a clinical trial with existing breast cancer patient groups, to validate the precision of tools offered in the platform.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
In the autumn, we are launching a breast self-examination tool where step-by-step instructions and visual aid for monthly breast examinations will be provided and a genetic mutation parsing tool that would allow us to analyze the uploaded genetic sequencing report and would calculate the risk, based on the presence of certain breast cancer-associated mutations or on total mutation burden. In case of finding high risk or red flag symptoms, the platform suggests the user visit the doctor as soon as possible. Also, we are still friends with Longenesis and we are starting anonymized skrinings.lv metadata curation on the Longenesis curator platform (if the woman has given the digital consent for that) that offers legitimate ways to showcase metadata to research organizations engaging the population in research studies.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
This movement is of such value and necessity! It shows that any woman in tech already or a girl with the just ambition to create something can be a part of a success story, and even more - have a leading role in it.
What is the most important piece of advice you can give to all female founders and female entrepreneurs out there?
Gather information you know, gather problems you want to solve, gather questions you want to answer, and gather a crazy team you want to change the world with!
Be yourself, have your voice strong and brave.
Never stop learning.
Don’t hesitate to ask for advice.
What will be the key trends in the health tech and fem tech industry in the next five years and where do you see it heading?
The key trend could be personalized medicine, user-centric tools, which will make the health industry more accessible, preventive medicine, and disease prophylaxis easier, more attractive, and even fun. I hope that the general population will have accessible health education, develop a better connection with healthcare professionals (directly or via digital tools) and scientists, gain more trust in evidence-based medicine which would hopefully encourage them to participate in research studies, clinical trials accelerating research and development of new diagnostic and treatment options.
Who are your inspirational women in tech?
Samantha Payne - Co-Founder and COO of Open Bionics
Anne-Marie Imafidon - Founder and CEO of Stemettes, because of all the encouragement she gives for all the girls aspiring to have a profession in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths field.
Karlie Kloss - founded the "Kode with Klossy" camp, which aims to get young girls interested in STEM fields
Elizabeth Varley - Founder of TechHub, especially because we are sharing the coworking space with other entrepreneurs in TechHub Riga.
Simone Giertz - inventor, robotics enthusiast, TV host, and professional YouTuber.
Website: https://www.skrinings.lv/en
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.