Cercle, an AI San Francisco start-up focused on advancing women’s healthcare, has launched out of stealth.

Cercle says it aims to harmonise and transform “the raw and fragmented” medical data into accurate insights that help improve patient outcomes.

Its tech platform, Cercle Biomedical Graph, claims to be the only one of its kind harnessing and connecting anonymised biomedical and genomics data points drawn from healthcare clinics and research labs around the world.

The company argues that the data insights collected through its platform could have the potential to speed up medical discoveries in the pharmaceutical and research fields, accelerate precision medicine and treatments and help clinics improve the efficiency and effectiveness of medical care.

“We believe a healthy life is a right, not a privilege,” explains Juan Carlos Riveiro, co-founder and CEO of Cercle.

“Instead of continuing to collect cobwebs, the world’s medical data should be leveraged to generate groundbreaking data-driven insights at speed and scale. These insights can catalyse medical breakthroughs and guide practitioners and patients to better healthcare decisions.

“That’s the founding mission behind Cercle, to personalise and contextualise biomedical and genomics information so women can make better, more informed health decisions,” he adds.

“We are starting with the fertility market, and our long-term goal is to radically improve healthcare equity for women across the world.”

Kate Devine, medical director and chief research officer at US Fertility who has partnered with Cercle, says: “USF’s partnership with Cercle has helped us organise unstructured, de-identified clinical data for analysis. This is optimising our research and internal quality assurance capabilities – maximising accuracy, completeness, and efficiency.

“As a field, fertility medicine has dramatically improved and matured to the point of high success over a short time period.

“My hope is that AI tools will help us cross the next threshold of success in terms of patient outcomes, patient experience and optimising efficiency so that we can expand access to fertility care to everyone who needs it.”

Marco Barbierato, managing director of Eurofins Genoma who has also partnered with Cercle, says: “Eurofins Genoma is optimistic about the use of AI in healthcare.

“The technology that Cercle leverages within its biomedical graph allows for efficient insights that clinics Eurofins Genoma serves did not have access to previously.

“This will support the genetics industry to take a step towards contributing to improving overall health outcomes.”

A federally funded non-profit has approved US$80.5m for research tackling the social and clinical care factors that contribute to maternal health inequities.

The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) has awarded the funding to support four comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies focused on the healthcare and social factors that contribute to inequities in maternal morbidity and mortality. The trials are among 30 CER studies and related projects recently approved for PCORI funding.

The four CER studies will focus on populations disproportionately experiencing adverse maternal health outcomes, including Black people, Hispanic and Latin American individuals, those living in rural areas and individuals with lower incomes.

The projects aim to evaluate multicomponent interventions that address both healthcare and social determinants of health.

For each study, dual principal investigators from research institutions and community organisations will co-lead assessments of approaches intended to address the health challenges that impact maternal health in different communities.

“The usual approaches to health research and healthcare have not sufficiently addressed the alarming and worsening national crisis of maternal death and severe illness,” said PCORI executive director Nakela L. Cook.

“Patient-centred comparative clinical effectiveness research that responds to the many challenges concurrently facing pregnant individuals and those who care for them has the capacity to answer questions about which combinations of approaches can best resolve some of these complex maternal healthcare challenges that have for too long defied solutions.”

The studies, Cook said, will be conducted across a broad swath of the United States, including rural and urban areas and states in the Northeast, Midwest, Mid-Atlantic and the South. They will compare a range of practice-level and community- and home-based interventions that address common, frequent challenges facing pregnant individuals and new mothers.

Each of these studies are hoped to generate evidence to inform which approaches work best, for whom and in what circumstances.

Harv Feldman, PCORI deputy executive director for patient-centred research programmes, said: “These funding awards mark an important advancement of PCORI’s longstanding leadership in engaging patients and those who care for them in all aspects of comparative clinical effectiveness research to ensure that results are relevant, useful and impactful.

“We look forward to seeing the impact the studies’ findings will have for maternal health across the United States, particularly among populations that continue to disproportionately experience adverse outcomes.”

The US National Menopause Foundation has launched the Women’s Midlife Health Policy Institute (WMHPI) in an effort to improve research, education and policies related to women’s health in midlife.

In the US almost one and a half million women become menopausal each year. By the year 2025, the number of postmenopausal women worldwide is expected to surpass one billion.

Symptoms, which may include hot flashes, insomnia, anxiety, depression, brain fog, memory loss and genitourinary problems, have a significant impact on women’s quality of life and career growth.

A recent Mayo Clinic study found that 15 per cent of women cut back on hours or missed work entirely due to their symptoms, costing them about US$1.8bn a year in lost wages.

“Despite the prevalence and impact of menopause, there is a lack of research, education and resources dedicated to addressing menopause-related health issues and many women feel underserved and unsupported in navigating this life stage,” said Claire Gill, founder and president of the National Menopause Foundation.

According to the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation (SWAN), which began in 1994, there are racial and ethnic differences with respect to menopausal symptoms and risk for diseases that impact women at a higher rate postmenopausal.

Black women are more likely to report heavy bleeding, have hysterectomies and have higher rates of vasomotor symptoms, known as hot flashes.

Hispanic women develop metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, anxiety, depression and VMS while non-Hispanic Caucasian women have the greatest incident of low bone density.

The WMHPI aims to bring together women’s health advocacy stakeholders, thought leaders and clinicians to “uncover” opportunities for a shared policy agenda and action plan.

The institute is planning to create a white paper sharing focus and need areas to advance women’s health in midlife.

Gill, National Menopause Foundation president, said: “The WMHPI will coordinate a collective policy agenda that amplifies the needs of women at midlife and targets united action among stakeholders to inspire policy that can have a systemic impact on improving women’s health.”