Insight
Bridging the gap: How can design research drive better healthcare outcomes for women?
By Hollie Johnston, Principal – Human Factors & Research at PDD, a global product and experience consultancy
It can no longer be argued that there is a data gap in women’s healthcare – with most available data historically biased towards men.
The underrepresentation of women in clinical research, often due to complexities of hormonal cycles has led to a lack of knowledge about drug impact on women.
Minimal research into support solutions for those suffering from endometriosis — which affects roughly 10 per cent (190 million) of reproductive-age women and girls globally — or the lack of consideration for physiological differences in load-bearing that lead to higher failure rates of certain hip implants in women than men, are just a few examples of how healthcare systems, shaped by incomplete data, have failed to address women’s specific needs, with consistent negative impacts on healthcare outcomes.
This data gap has huge implications for developing healthcare products, systems, and services.
It reinforces everyday experiences of bias and leads to unconscious bias when relying on Big Data. As AI technologies that emulate human intelligence and problem-solving capabilities advance, the risk of perpetuating inequality through incomplete and inaccurate datasets grows.
Designing better for women
As Caroline Criado Perez beautifully puts it in her book Invisible Women, “When designing, we need a woman in the room”.
From a design research perspective, this means considering the abilities, actions, and opinions of the intended user profile throughout the development process.
Even with the best of intentions, we cannot live another person’s experiences nor physically put ourselves in their shoes. If we tried, our conclusions would naturally be based on our experiences and understanding (inherent experience bias).
Including those with lived experience is a priority when planning research, not least when it comes to designing for women.
Consider a chronic condition such as endometriosis, which has a significant impact on the lives of sufferers.
Symptoms can vary from painful menstrual cramps and heavy menstrual bleeding, through to fatigue, and inability to get pregnant.
Symptoms can vary in type and severity over time – both during a monthly cycle, and over life stages.
Only by immersing ourselves in the lives and experiences of these women over an extended period can researchers and designers hope to understand the complexity of their needs, and therefore develop innovative and practical solutions that truly address them.
The woman in the room: Participant identification
As practitioners, delivering inclusive, user-driven solutions is at the heart of what we do.
A key component of development is identifying the correct stakeholders, identifying their needs and validating potential solutions with them.
This is where it becomes tricky.
On paper, proportional representation (where the proportion of participants recruited reflects the current real-world status) might seem like a valid method when recruiting.
In reality, in areas currently male-dominated, such as when researching ergonomics for cardiac surgeons, the needs and requirements of a much smaller female cohort would be significantly diluted, with potentially negative consequences in terms of device, system and service usability for women.
Therefore, participants should be selected on a case-by-case basis, using proportional representation as a starting point rather than a standard.
Building the stage: Study Setup
There are many ways to conduct design research and the method chosen should be relevant to the investigation topic. For example, evaluating a surgical tool might be best done in a surgical setting (or simulation lab).
Similarly, the setup of the evaluation should consider who is being evaluated.
Alzheimer’s, for example, is a disease that can be exacerbated by stress or change – such as the introduction of new people, activities, or equipment, all factors which are relevant to a research study.
When it comes to gender and sex, cultural and social factors might also be at play.
It may be inappropriate in some cultures, for example, for a woman to attend a solo face-to-face session or to speak to strangers about intimate health matters.
Study methodology is, therefore, critical to success.
When designing study methodology, it is important to consider not only technical objectives but also user profiles to ensure all demographics are adequately represented and evaluation methods do not negatively impact participation or study results.
Questioning your Insights: Translation & Analysis
Gathering the data is only one part of the puzzle; just as important is how we translate it and incorporate it into the development cycle to create actionable insights and form parameters for idea generation and selection.
At this stage it is all-too easy to fall back on assumptions and internal ‘knowledge’.
Instead, we should assess all ideas against the findings of our research to ensure they are grounded in actual user needs.
We must interrogate those ideas to understand what need they are meeting and why they are valuable.
We should also conduct an analysis to understand whether there are differences – or alignments – between cohorts and sub-cohorts.
Even within women’s health there may not be a ‘one size fits all’ solution. Take pregnancy tests, for example.
It can be safely assumed that taking a pregnancy test is an emotive time for most women; the result received, however, can be very polarising dependent on whether the user is actively trying to conceive, or not.
How do we ensure women are supported during this process – before, during and after test taking – when the response to the result can be so different?
The role of design research in shaping a more equitable healthcare future
The data gap in women’s healthcare is real. Not only is our physiology different, but so are our behaviours, attitudes, motivations, and cognition.
Passively relying on existing data or engaging the wrong stakeholders perpetuates the problem and misses opportunities for innovation.
In recent years, the rise of Femtech has opened the possibility to eventually close the data gap with wearable devices and companion apps to address the unmet health needs of women granting passive and active data collection for female-specific conditions (e.g. menopause, fertility, etc.).
But robust processes during product and service design, development, and evaluation remain crucial to ensure women’s distinct requirements are met.
Beyond product development, there is also scope to use design research and, more broadly, Human-Centred Design principles to drive change on a larger scale, influencing education, awareness, and policy.
A focus on organisational ergonomics, for example, applying HFE tools to organisational behaviour, can ensure that women’s needs are considered from the outset.
Crucially, addressing the data gap in women’s healthcare can set the scene to tackle further inequalities across genders, socio-economic groups and cultures.
Only by being aware of data limitations and actively collecting data to counteract them can we ensure we are designing for the right people in the right way and achieve healthcare equity for all.
Women face a hidden burden navigating healthcare, with many repeatedly retelling their medical history, a national study suggests.
The findings indicate that Canadian women are taking on cognitive, emotional and administrative work alongside managing their health, including coordinating providers and advocating for care.
More than half of women surveyed, 53 per cent, reported a past or current chronic condition, while 64 per cent said there were health topics they struggled to raise with their doctor.
Sarah Hoffman, president and CEO of Pacific Blue Cross, said: “These findings challenge us to think differently about women’s healthcare and highlight the hidden work required to navigate the system.
“For many women, managing their health has also come to mean managing the healthcare system itself.
“They are acting as project managers of their own care, shouldering the invisible labour of coordinating between providers, retelling their medical history and advocating to be heard.
“The gap between men and women is meaningful and raises important questions about why younger women report lower levels of confidence and support.
“It also challenges us to consider whether we are actually making progress in women’s care, and whether the next generation is being equipped with the confidence and voice to advocate for their health.”
Overall, 71 per cent of Canadians described their doctors as supportive and 88 per cent expected their appointments to go well.
Among women living with chronic conditions, 71 per cent reported having to repeat their complete health history multiple times a year.
Younger women were particularly likely to report difficulties discussing their health. The study found 81 per cent of Gen Z women aged 18 to 30 and 73 per cent of Millennial women aged 31 to 45 had health topics they struggled to raise with their doctor.
Among Gen Z women with chronic illness, 92 per cent reported having to repeat their complete health history.
The study also found differences between young women and men. While 95 per cent of Gen Z men expected a doctor’s appointment to go well, the figure was 82 per cent among Gen Z women.
Similarly, 82 per cent of Gen Z men said they felt supported by their family doctor, compared with 66 per cent of Gen Z women.
Reasons for holding back health concerns varied between generations.
Among Gen Z women, 30 per cent cited fear of dismissal and 29 per cent fear of judgement.
Embarrassment was the most common barrier among Millennial, Gen X and Boomer women, reported by 29 per cent, 27 per cent and 35 per cent respectively.
Women who felt they needed to prove themselves to be taken seriously said they adapted how they approached appointments.
Strategies included researching medical information, repeatedly describing or justifying symptoms, bringing written notes or documentation, tracking symptom timelines, making repeat visits and emphasising how symptoms affected their daily lives.
The study also found an association between feeling supported by a doctor and expecting appointments to go well.
Canadians who described their physician as supportive were nearly four times more likely to expect appointments to go well than those who felt unsupported, at 98 per cent compared with 25 per cent.
Overall, 66 per cent of Canadians said they described their symptoms accurately. This fell to 48 per cent among those who said they felt unsupported by their doctor.
The 2026 Blue Cross Women’s Health Study surveyed 2,045 adult Canadians online in March 2026 through independent research company Research + Knowledge = Insights.
The survey had a reported margin of error of plus or minus 2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
A French court has linked cosmic radiation to a former flight attendant’s breast cancer for the first time.
Sophie Lainault, 59, had sought to have her cancer recognised as an occupational disease linked to her working conditions.
The court in Bayonne ruled that cosmic radiation was one of three carcinogenic, or cancer-causing, hazards arising from her profession, alongside passive smoking and prolonged night work.
Smoking was authorised on Air France flights until 2000.
The ruling means Lainault, who is in remission, can take early retirement and have any further treatment fully reimbursed by the French health system.
Lawyers said the decision has also cleared the way for similar claims by recognising breast cancer as an occupational risk for flight crews.
Lainault said: “My dearest wish is that the decision encourages other women who up until now have not had the courage to take this step.”
Lainault worked as a stewardess and later a purser on Air France aircraft, recording 12,600 flight hours between 1989 and 2019. More than half of those hours were at night.
Many of her long-distance, high-altitude flights from Paris would have taken her near the North Pole, where exposure to cosmic radiation is most intense.
Cosmic radiation consists of particles originating from the sun and other stars.
A study this month at Harvard Medical School in the US involving more than 500 professions found that flight attendants and pilots had the highest proportions of radiation-related cancer deaths.
About 6.9 per cent of deaths among flight attendants and 6.7 per cent among pilots were from radiation-related cancers, according to the analysis.
The proportions were higher than in other professions, including nuclear technologists, who are routinely exposed to radiation from non-cosmic sources and ranked 12th in the analysis.
It has long been known that high-altitude air travel exposes people to cosmic radiation, although the dose received by most travellers is regarded as statistically insignificant. Exposure is higher at the poles because elsewhere the Earth’s magnetic field acts as a shield.
Lainault’s lawyer Elisabeth Leroux said: “In France the link between breast cancer and certain hazards has been established for a number of professions, such as nurses … but this is the first time for an air-hostess.”
Air France said it had not been involved in Lainault’s legal case and had not seen the reasoning behind the court’s decision.
“The health and security of our staff is an absolute imperative,” the airline said. “Every employee has a medical accompaniment that goes well beyond the regulatory minimum.”
A study is examining where delays occur in diagnosing endometriosis – a condition that can take seven to twelve years to diagnose.
Endometriosis affects an estimated 1.5 million women and people in the UK, but there is currently no consistent way of measuring where and why diagnostic delays happen.
The research aims to develop the first standardised framework for understanding the diagnostic journey and identifying points where interventions could improve care.
The international project involves researchers from the University of Sheffield, University of Liverpool, University of Oxford, Aarhus University in Denmark and the University of Edinburgh, alongside Endometriosis UK.
Dr Rebecca Mawson, NIHR clinical lecturer in primary care at the University of Sheffield, is part of the research team.
She said: “Our project asks: where exactly are people getting lost or let down on their journey to diagnosis, and how can we map those points in a systematic way to identify where interventions could make a real difference.”
The project is led by Dr Babu Karavadra, NIHR academic clinical fellow in general practice at the University of Liverpool, who has been awarded a World Endometriosis Society Early Career Investigator Award as lead principal investigator at the University of Liverpool.
Researchers will review existing evidence, gather experiences from people living with endometriosis and bring together an international panel to map the diagnostic pathway and agree common definitions for key points along the journey.
The work will focus particularly on people whose experiences are often missing from research, including Black women, people living in rural or deprived areas, LGBTQ+ communities and disabled people.
Primary care will also be central to the research because it is often where people first seek help with symptoms.
Mawson said: “Primary care needs to be at the heart of this work. Primary care is often where people first seek help with their symptoms, so it has a crucial role in understanding diagnostic delay.
“If we only look at what happens once someone reaches specialist gynaecology, we risk missing some of the barriers that shape the journey long before that point.”
Unlike cancer research, where internationally recognised standards exist for studying diagnostic delays, endometriosis research has been more fragmented, with studies measuring different parts of the diagnostic journey in different ways.
The researchers hope to create an ‘Endometriosis Diagnostic Pathway Framework’ to help identify where people are falling through the gaps and where healthcare could be improved.
They will also develop a ‘Snakes and Ladders’ style visual representation showing how systemic barriers, chance and individual experiences can influence whether someone reaches a diagnosis.
The project forms part of the PEARL network, Primary care Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Research and Learning, an international collaboration of primary care and community researchers and clinicians.
Mawson said: “Endometriosis diagnostic delay isn’t inevitable. If we can understand where and why people are experiencing barriers, we have a much better chance of designing interventions that actually make a difference.
“The scale of the problem demands that we look at the whole journey, listen to the people experiencing it and build an evidence base that can lead to real change.”
The framework could provide the foundations for future research, clinical guideline development, healthcare professional training and NHS service improvements, with potential applications to related conditions such as adenomyosis and chronic pelvic pain.
Hormonal health2 weeks agoMajor UK study could be a ‘game-changer’ for heavy periods and endometriosis
Entrepreneur1 week agoKOVE Medical raises €1.7 million to improve safety of foetal surgery
Fertility2 weeks agoOne week left to apply: W Accelerate with Merck KGaA and M Ventures
Pregnancy1 week agoUK study aims to transform maternity care for high-risk pregnancies
Mental health2 weeks agoPMDD after SSRIs or hormones: Why the brain may be the missing treatment target
Diagnosis2 weeks agoArk Surgical secures further institutional backing to accelerate US expansion
Menopause5 days agoMenopause hormone treatment may ease brain fog, study suggests
Motherhood2 weeks agoThousands of UK women develop undiagnosed PTSD after childbirth each year – study