News
Five female founded mental health start-ups to watch
We list some of the best female-founded mental health apps
As the femtech world and wellness industry start to combine. We explore the mental health apps, startups and female-founded businesses you need to know.
Mental health conditions, especially after two years of pandemic restrictions and lockdowns, are on the rise. It is estimated that 1 in 4 people in England will experience some form of mental health issue such as depression or anxiety each year.
Spiritune
Spiritune combines principles of neuroscience and music therapy to inspire positive mental health outcomes. It aims to help reduce stress while increasing emotional regulation, productivity and performance through the music-based app.
The app was created by Jamie Pabst after she struggled with her own stress levels while working in the finance industry in New York. She realised the lack of accessible resources and wanted to create something impactful. The company highlights that headphones can become health tools allowing people to support their emotional health and perform better.
Jamie wrote: “Music is one of the most powerful stimuli that addresses the brain networks that underlie stress, emotions, motivation and reward. My vision to combine the effectiveness of music therapy and the accessibility of audio to help people better manage stress drove the creation of Spiritune.
Appreciating the role our auditory system plays in our health through my mom’s hearing loss, and understanding the significance of music in neurological function through my sister’s pursuits in music therapy, I am dedicated to bringing the vast benefits of music to people and organizations globally to create better health outcomes.”
It also offers a workplace setting that can help employers to boost productivity and employee well-being.
Thymia
Thymia is a health tech company with a difference founded by CEO Emilia Molimpakis.
Thymia researchers developed a game based on neuropsychology combined with facial micro-expression analysis and speech pattern analysis to make faster mental health assessments. Its’s system allows clinicians a fun and engaging way to monitor their patient’s health. The game records subtle differences that doctors may miss and it also offers a way to monitor patients from home.
The app may have increased benefits for women in that it is also being developed to search for early signs of Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons’ Disease. Although both diseases affect both sexes, studies show Alzheimer’s is more prevalent in women. This is reversed when it comes to Parkinson’s Disease as men are 1.5 times more likely to develop the condition. However, women have a higher mortality rate and faster progression of the disease.
Speaking with Health Tech World, Emilia said: “In the patient’s view, they are just interacting with beautifully animated screens. However, what we are doing on the backside is where we are looking for specific patterns of behaviour because depression is associated with differences in cognitive function, psychological and behavioural patterns. Put all of those together and you get a signature for depression, Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s.”
Thymia secured €920k at the end of June 2021 from investors to help grow the company.
Moody Month
While practising good mental can be essential for every day of the month, there are times when it may be a little more difficult than others.
Pre-menstrual stress (PMS) can cause mood swings, tension, anxiety or depression. It can also cause social withdrawal and irritability. Although people with periods will recognise the start of their period, it can be tricky to know what is PMS or what may be depression or anxiety.
Moody Month, founded by Amy Thomson, helps users to receive a forecast of information on what is happening in their bodies each day. Amy was inspired to create the app after her periods stopped due to stress, travel and burn-out while working in event management in London. She began searching for answers but was shocked to find a severe lack of information available for women. She also felt that period tracking apps stopped short at providing long term care for the entire cycle.
The app can help users to optimise their well-being by changing their mood, food and following fitness advice. It also tracks your hormonal cycle to better understand your moods and symptoms making it easier to recognise when it may be PMS. The more information input to Moody Month, the better the app is able to track and deliver information.
The best part?
The app is free unless you purchase something when using it.
Heart it out
Femtech products or solutions are often designed after founders become frustrated by a gap not addressed in women’s healthcare. When it comes to mental health start-up, Heart It Out, that’s exactly what happened.
Nithya J Rao became concerned by the lack of psychologists practising in India which led to the creation of the platform. The result was a data-driven platform that can help to train psychologists for 16 weeks before they meet a patient. It also offers therapy to address issues such as depression and anxiety.
The startup also launched a free helpline called Briefly during lockdown which aimed to provide access to a network of 27 volunteers psychologists. They went on to help more than 600 patients with trauma and anxiety.
Patients can self-refer themselves through the platform for a number of different therapies including couple, family and child services. It also offers a ‘supervision’ service where professionals can join two or more psychology professionals in a continuous, collaborative, and supportive process. It aims to facilitate the exploration, monitoring and enhancement of professional functioning.
The website states: “Heart It Out began humbly as a ‘Room on the Roof’ in a quaint neighbourhood, providing a safe space for people to talk their hearts out. Today, it is a tech platform poised to provide confidential and non-judgemental access to mental healthcare, to 1.5 billion people by 2030.”
Altopax
Altopax combines care with community by offering a virtual group therapy platform aimed at connecting mental healthcare providers with patients who need care.
Pharmaceutical and health investor Narmeen Azad created the platform to help others connect with a group of peers who are also experiencing the same mental health condition or chronic illness. Healthcare providers can also connect with other professionals to discuss personalised, integrated care.
A new ovarian cancer drug has been approved for NHS use in England, offering hundreds of women with hard-to-treat disease a life-prolonging treatment.
Elahere is the first new drug for chemotherapy-resistant ovarian cancer to be approved by the NHS for more than 20 years.
Ovarian cancer is the 18th most common type of cancer globally, affecting more than 300,000 women a year.
More than three-quarters of patients are diagnosed at an advanced stage, making the disease harder to treat.
Prof Ruth Plummer, national clinical lead for cancer drugs at NHS England, said: “This represents the most significant breakthrough in NHS treatment for these hard-to-treat ovarian cancers in over two decades – and we’re delighted it will now offer hundreds of women much-needed hope of precious extra time with their loved ones.”
Standard treatment for ovarian cancer usually involves surgery and chemotherapy, but about 80 per cent of patients with advanced disease relapse and most eventually develop resistance to chemotherapy.
According to the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, patients with folate receptor-alpha-positive platinum-resistant epithelial cancers have until now had limited options when their tumours stop responding to standard chemotherapy.
Now NICE has approved mirvetuximab soravtansine, also known as Elahere, for patients with epithelial ovarian, peritoneal or fallopian tube cancer that has become resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy and whose tumours contain the FRα protein that the drug targets.
FRα is a protein found on the surface of some cancer cells.
NHS England said up to 400 women a year in England could benefit, in what it described as a major milestone for treatment.
Mirvetuximab soravtansine is given through a drip once every three weeks.
A global clinical trial involving eight NHS hospitals found that the treatment delayed cancer progression and prolonged survival by an average of four months, compared with chemotherapy alone, with more manageable side-effects.
Cancer progression means the disease is growing, spreading or worsening.
In 37 per cent of patients, tumours shrank by at least 30 per cent, compared with 16 per cent of those given chemotherapy.
The drug, made by AbbVie, combines a “homing” antibody, which seeks out the FRα protein on the surface of cancer cells, with a cancer-killing molecule that destroys the cell from within.
Experts said the decision was a seminal moment and could significantly improve the quality of life of affected patients.
Rachel Downing, head of policy and external affairs at Target Ovarian Cancer, said: “This is a hugely important moment for women with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer and their families, who have faced limited effective treatment options for far too long. Today’s announcement offers real hope of improved quality of life.”
Victoria Clare, chief executive of the charity Ovacome, said: “Today marks a landmark moment. Being told that platinum-based chemotherapy is no longer working can bring anxiety and uncertainty, particularly when the disease is at an advanced stage, where time and options are limited.
“This recommendation is the first in over 20 years to offer the ovarian cancer community an additional choice at a critical stage, with the potential to make a real difference to patients and their families.”
Helen Knight, director of medicines evaluation at NICE, said: “We heard clearly from patients and clinicians about the very limited options available at this stage of the disease and the substantial burden that chemotherapy places on women’s lives.
“We are pleased that, following a robust process and a new commercial arrangement with AbbVie, we are now able to recommend this treatment for NHS use.”
Female sex may not raise stroke risk across all atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, with higher risk mainly seen in women aged 75 and older, a study suggests.
Researchers said stroke prevention for women with the condition should be more personalised, especially for patients under 75.
Dr Amitabh C Pandey, director of cardiovascular translational research at Tulane University School of Medicine, said: “For years, female sex has been included as a risk factor along with other factors such as high blood pressure and diabetes, meaning women were more likely to be prescribed anticoagulants.
“Our study shows younger women may not have as much added stroke risk as previously thought, while older women, particularly those over 75, appear to have a higher risk that deserves close attention.”
The new Tulane University study challenges a long-standing assumption in heart care that being female automatically increases stroke risk for patients with atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation, often called AF, is a common heart rhythm disorder that causes the heart to beat irregularly.
It is associated with a higher risk of stroke and is often treated with anticoagulants, also known as blood thinners.
The study found that stroke risk did not increase equally across all female patients with AF.
Instead, researchers said being female may act more as a risk modifier, with increased stroke risk seen primarily among women aged 75 and older or those with a greater burden of other health conditions.
Clinicians often use a scoring system to decide whether people with AF should be prescribed blood thinners.
The system gives points for factors including age, heart failure, diabetes, previous stroke, vascular disease and high blood pressure.
Women also receive one point for sex alone.
Researchers said this can mean women with AF become eligible for blood thinners earlier or more often than men with otherwise similar risk profiles.
While blood thinners can help prevent clot-related strokes, they can also increase the risk of bruising, prolonged bleeding, gastrointestinal bleeding and other serious complications.
The researchers analysed approximately 950,000 patients with AF using TriNetX, a large anonymised electronic health record database.
They compared stroke outcomes between male and female patients across three age groups: younger than 65, 65 to 74, and 75 and older.
Male and female patients were matched based on age, other health problems and whether they had been prescribed anticoagulation medicine.
Among patients younger than 75, the study found no significant difference in one-year stroke risk between men and women.
However, among patients aged 75 and older, women had a modest but statistically significant increase in stroke risk compared with men.
In patients aged 75 and older with no additional risk factors beyond age, women had about one additional stroke per 629 patients compared with their male counterparts.
The findings support growing interest in a newer AF risk score, known as CHA2DS2-VA, which removes sex as a standalone risk factor.
However, researchers said more studies are needed and medical guidance remains inconsistent.
Han Feng, assistant professor at Tulane University School of Medicine, said: “This general approach came from women being underrepresented in AFib trials and studies comprising only about one-third of study populations.
“Our study shows not all women with AFib have the same risk profile, and these decisions should be individualised.
Pandey said: “These findings highlight the need for modern tools and approaches that can personalise risk profiles to individuals.
“The goal is not to undertreat patients who need stroke prevention, but to better identify who is most likely to benefit from anticoagulation and who may be exposed to unnecessary risk.”
AI may help speed breast cancer diagnosis for high-risk women after abnormal mammograms, a study suggests.
Women with abnormal mammograms often wait weeks to learn whether they have breast cancer.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley said an AI-guided workflow could help reduce that wait by quickly identifying those most likely to have the disease. Some women could move from imaging to evaluation, and sometimes biopsy, in a single day.
Dr Maggie Chung, first author of the study, said: “This is a really an exciting time.
“This moves us closer to personalised care, where we can tailor a plan so that each patient gets the right intervention at the right time.”
The study used an open-source AI model called Mirai.
The model was trained on hundreds of thousands of mammograms linked to patients’ cancer outcomes.
A mammogram is an X-ray scan of the breast used to look for signs of cancer. A biopsy involves taking a small tissue sample to test for disease.
The AI tool is designed to detect subtle patterns in screening mammograms and predict a woman’s cancer risk.
Researchers at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley applied the model to more than 4,100 screening mammograms at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital and Trauma Center.
Mirai identified 525 women, about 12.7 per cent of screened patients, as high risk.
Those patients could receive an interpretation of their mammograms immediately after the scan and have additional diagnostic imaging for suspicious areas on the same day.
Some women who needed biopsies were also able to have them on the same day.
The researchers said Mirai reduced the wait time for diagnostic evaluation from several weeks to about an hour.
For women who were ultimately diagnosed with breast cancer, it reduced the average wait for biopsy from more than two months to fewer than 10 days.
The researchers stressed that Mirai does not replace radiologists or make diagnoses on its own.
Instead, it acts as a triage tool to help physicians identify the patients who can benefit most from accelerated care.
The team analysed more than 114,000 archival mammograms before launching the programme, to ensure the model would capture enough high-risk patients without overloading the clinic with too many expedited evaluations.
The researchers said they hope AI will support a more personalised approach to breast cancer screening tailored to each patient’s breast cancer risk.
Chung said: “Right now, many women follow the same screening schedule but their individual risk can be very different.
“AI risk assessment gives us the chance to identify the women most likely to benefit from expedited care and get them what they need.”
Adam Yala, senior author of the study and a data scientist at UC Berkeley, said: “This is a powerful example of how AI can be a collaborative partner for physicians.
“It shows how we can improve care when we bring clinicians and data scientists together to design these systems.”
Menopause1 week agoPerimenopause misinformation ‘putting women at risk’
News4 weeks agoNIH Grant terminations disproportionately impact minority scientists, research finds
Adolescent health4 weeks agoWUKA brings Period-Positive Pool Party to London Aquatics Centre to keep girls swimming through puberty
Insight3 weeks agoPCOS renamed after decade-long campaign to end ‘cyst’ misconception
Hormonal health2 weeks agoNHS urged to update website following renaming of PCOS
Mental health4 weeks agoCBT shows promise for menopause insomnia and hot flashes
News7 days agoThree menopause innovators shortlisted for Femtech World Award
Entrepreneur1 week agoWomen’s Health Innovation Summit opens submissions for 2026 Innovation Showcase
1 Comment