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Digital mental health start-up expands access to ‘culturally-responsive’ care

Anise Health provides holistic and personalised services to support people of colour and Asian Americans

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Alice Zhang and Nisha Desai, co-founders of Anise Health

The US digital mental health platform Anise Health has expanded access to “culturally-responsive” care in three new markets.

Anise will be expanding its individual and group mental health services to three new states, MassachusettsFlorida and Washington, in addition to its current operations in California and New York.

The female-founded start-up is able to support ~50 per cent of the Asian population in the US, marking a significant milestone in its mission to help the Asian community.

Dr Marcy Carty, Anise advisor, said: “Expansion to these new states, which hold a significant share of the US Asian population, is critical.

“I’ve seen through my clinical work in Massachusetts how deeply needed Anise’s care model is, and I am confident that it will improve access and drive positive outcomes for underserved community members.”

Asians are the fastest growing US minority group with 81 per cent population growth between 2000 and 2019, but are the least likely to seek mental healthcare due to cultural barriers such as stigma and symptom suppression.

New research from Bain & Company shows Asian Americans feel the least included in the workplace, further contributing to a decline in wellbeing.

Founded by Alice Zhang and Nisha Desai, Anise aims to incorporate culture and intersectionality into provider training and evidence-based clinical interventions.

The platform, which uses AI and progress measurement, recommends treatment plans that integrate therapy, coaching and digital resources to support people of colour and Asian Americans.

“I’ve experienced firsthand the feeling of not belonging, the pressure of demanding expectations and the struggle of being caught between polar opposite cultures,” said Zhang, co-founder and CEO of Anise Health.

“But when I finally sought therapy to work through those challenges which were inextricably linked to my Asian values and immigrant upbringing, I ended up cycling through multiple therapists, each time feeling more defeated.

“I knew that if finding effective care was so hard even for someone like me who has a good understanding of mental health from having studied psychology and being trained as a wellbeing coach, it must be nearly impossible for many others out there who share my background.”

Co-founder and COO Desai, who grew up in a South Asian household, said: “My emotional personality was viewed as ‘weak-hearted’ and it wasn’t until college that I realised it was ok to not always be ok.

“Unfortunately, my school had a very broken mental health system and, like me, many of my classmates weren’t able to get the support they needed. There was a tragic loss of lives and I noticed many of them were people of colour and Asian Americans, specifically.

“By building Anise, I wanted to destigmatise and expand access to effective mental health care for people of colour and Asian Americans.”

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Pregnancy

New reporting tool targets maternal-fetal teams as pregnancy complexity rises

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A new reporting tool built specifically for obstetrics and maternal-fetal medicine has launched, aimed at teams managing increasingly complex pregnancies with limited time and resources.

Trice Imaging has released Trice Workspace Reporting, which connects imaging, reporting and longitudinal patient data in a single workflow to support faster clinical decision making.

Birth rates are falling worldwide, but pregnancies are getting more complicated. Advanced maternal age, IVF-assisted pregnancies, rising obesity rates and a higher prevalence of hypertension and diabetes mean more cases now require specialist monitoring, advanced imaging and multidisciplinary care.

At the same time, clinical teams are stretched and facing growing administrative demands.

Trice Workspace Reporting brings together customisable reporting, dynamic pregnancy dating and longitudinal patient history with an AI-ready, EHR-interoperable infrastructure, all inside the company’s Tricefy image management platform.

The company says it aims to accelerate standardised and synchronised report turnaround, support timely clinical decisions and improve operational efficiency for fetal medicine services.

“Maternal fetal medicine teams are managing increasingly complex pregnancies while being asked to do more with limited time and resources,” said Mark A. Samii, chief revenue officer at Trice Imaging.

“Trice Workspace Reporting is designed to remove unnecessary friction from reporting by creating a structured digital foundation that supports today’s need for connected clinical workflows.

“It also provides a digital foundation as practices prepare for tomorrow and the evolution of AI-enabled fetal assessment, anomaly detection and outcome prediction technologies.”

Trice Imaging describes its mission as transforming the women’s health journey by connecting physicians, patients and healthcare systems. From independent practices to large hospital ecosystems, it aims to reach the entire women’s health continuum, spanning IVF and reproductive health, maternal-fetal medicine and OB/GYN, and onwards to lifelong women’s health.

For more than 17 years the firm has worked on cloud-based storage, retrieval, display, organisation and exchange of ultrasound medical images and associated information across health environments.

Its wider platform now extends to dynamic clinical reporting, AI-driven workflow optimisation, data analytics and secure patient engagement.

Trice Imaging holds regulatory and data protection clearances in 40 countries. It has offices in Miami and Stockholm, alongside a growing network of global distributors.

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Vespexx signs MOU with global femtech network Femtech Across Borders

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Vespexx, the femtech company behind couples preconception health platform Soonr, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Femtech Across Borders, a global femtech network supporting women’s health initiatives across 80 countries.

The agreement was signed on June 30 at Korea Femtech Summit 2026, the first global femtech summit held in Korea, hosted by Vespexx.

Femtech Across Borders is a global femtech community led by founder Rachel Bartholomew, who entered the field after her own battle with cervical cancer.

The organisation connects women’s health innovators, companies, and institutions worldwide, supporting collaboration across borders.

“For Korean femtech to reach the world, connection with the global community matters more than anything,” said Scarlett Joowon Jung, co-CEO of Vespexx.

“Through our collaboration with Femtech Across Borders, we’ll continue to strengthen our role as a bridge between Korea and the global femtech community.”

Through the MOU, the two parties will work to lower the barriers between Korean and global femtech, raising awareness of women’s health, sharing networks, and exploring future opportunities to collaborate.

Vespexx, in particular, intends to serve as a bridge connecting Korean femtech companies with the global community, widening the path for domestic companies to reach international markets.

The agreement builds on Vespexx’s recent global momentum.

On June 30, the company hosted Korea Femtech Summit 2026, bringing together femtech leaders from Korea and abroad, and used the occasion to announce the launch of Femtech Korea, an industry network that brings Korean femtech companies together and connects them with the world.

The partnership with Femtech Across Borders extends that effort outward, linking Korea’s domestic network to the global community.

Learn more about Vespexx at vespexx.com

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Cancer

Postpartum breast cancers may be biologically more aggressive, new study finds

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Breast cancer diagnosed within three years of childbirth, especially the first year, may be biologically more aggressive, a study suggests.

The findings add to evidence that postpartum breast cancer may be a distinct form of the disease.

They also suggest the period of greatest biological risk may occur earlier than previously thought.

The study was led by investigators at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Dr Nimmi Kapoor, associate professor of surgery at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and senior author of the study, said: “We’ve long recognised that breast cancers diagnosed after pregnancy can behave differently, but we haven’t known when that increased risk is biologically strongest.

“Our findings suggest that the first one to three years after childbirth represent an important window when some tumours may have more aggressive characteristics.”

Breast cancer rates among younger women have been rising, and scientists have been investigating whether women having their first child later may help explain some of the trend.

Pregnancy causes major changes in breast tissue. Previous studies have found that cancers diagnosed soon after childbirth are more likely to have aggressive features and worse outcomes.

Researchers have not agreed on how long the period of increased risk lasts. Some studies define postpartum breast cancer as occurring within one or two years of delivery, while others extend the period to five or even 10 years.

To better define the period of risk, the team studied whether tumour biology varied according to the time since a woman’s most recent childbirth.

The study involved 385 women aged 45 or younger with early-stage, hormone receptor-positive and HER2-negative breast cancer who were treated at UCLA between 2011 and 2024.

Hormone receptor-positive cancers grow in response to hormones such as oestrogen or progesterone. HER2-negative cancers do not have unusually high levels of a protein that can promote tumour growth.

Each tumour had been assessed using the Oncotype DX Breast Recurrence Score, a genomic test that measures the activity of 21 genes linked to the risk of cancer returning and the potential benefit of chemotherapy.

Researchers grouped the women according to the time between their last childbirth and breast cancer diagnosis.

They compared women who had never given birth with those diagnosed at different intervals after childbirth.

The team then examined whether recurrence scores and other tumour features differed between the groups and whether any patterns remained after accounting for factors including age and lymph node status.

Women diagnosed within the first year after childbirth had significantly higher recurrence scores than those who had never given birth.

This suggested biological features associated with a higher risk of the cancer returning.

Scores were also higher, but to a lesser extent, among women diagnosed during the second and third years after delivery.

Women diagnosed within three years of childbirth were nearly three times more likely to fall into a higher recurrence score category than women who had never given birth.

They were also more likely to have higher-grade tumours, meaning their cancer cells appeared more abnormal and potentially more aggressive under a microscope.

Women diagnosed more than three years after childbirth did not show the same consistent increase in recurrence scores.

The findings also suggest that standard clinical measures, including tumour size and whether the cancer has reached the lymph nodes, may not fully capture the differences in this group.

Gene expression testing appeared to identify biological risk that was not always reflected in routine examination of tumour tissue.

The researchers said reproductive history could therefore provide additional context when genomic test results are interpreted in younger patients.

Despite the more aggressive genetic features, women diagnosed within three years of childbirth did not have significantly worse short-term outcomes.

After about four years of follow-up, recurrence and survival rates were similar to those among other patients in the study.

Researchers said one possible explanation was that women with higher-risk tumours received more intensive treatment, including chemotherapy, ovarian function suppression and newer targeted therapies.

The findings also suggest that aggressive tumour biology does not necessarily lead to worse short-term outcomes when patients receive effective treatment.

The researchers said larger studies involving several institutions and longer follow-up periods are needed to confirm the findings.

They added that postpartum status may need greater consideration when breast cancer is assessed and treated in younger women.

Kapoor said: “Our findings suggest that the years immediately following childbirth represent a unique biological window for some breast cancers.

“Understanding why these tumours behave differently may help us better identify patients who need closer monitoring or more tailored treatment approaches.”

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