NHS must “keep pace” with femtech innovations to tackle gender health gap

As women increasingly turn to technology to plug the gender health gap, NHS leaders have highlighted the importance of “keeping pace” with innovation in the femtech sector.

Earlier this month, the Women and Equalities Select Committee continued an ongoing inquiry into women’s reproductive health conditions which began under the previous Conservative government.

Samantha Niblett, Labour MP for South Derbyshire and founder of Labour Women in Tech, led a discussion on how the NHS can leverage femtech to improve treatment and care, highlighting the increasing prevalence of apps for women’s health, such as menstrual cycle tracking, birth control, fertility and pregnancy and menopause.

The number of UK femtech companies has grown considerably over the last decade, from just nine in 2013 to 58 in 2023, according to some figures —an increase of more than 500%. In 2021, over half of women aged between 18 and 24 reported using a women’s digital health platform at least once a month, a statistic which is likely to be significantly higher today.

Dr Sue Mann, NHS England’s first national clinical director for women’s health, told the committee that the public sector must “understand the [femtech] space better” to help people navigate it in a way which is helpful for their health. 

“There is an explosion of femtech apps and I think that it’s our job to help people navigate through them,” she said.

But the NHS must focus on improving its own digital solutions too. 

“We need to get better at producing our own digital information,” Mann added.

“We need to get out into the space to really understand that a little bit better.”

The need for innovation in women’s health 

Women’s health and the inequalities women face in access to healthcare present a complex challenge for the public health sector, with women spending a significantly greater proportion of their lives in ill health and disability when compared with men. Last week the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists called for urgent government funding for women’s health and care in the UK, as research shows gynaecology waiting lists have doubled since 2020, with three quarters of a million women now waiting for treatment.

Following the publications of the Women’s Health Strategy for England, The Scottish Women’s Health Plan, and the Women’s Health in Wales discovery report, which have all outlined strong evidence of the need for a greater focus on women’s health, femtech companies have been encouraged to come forward and help address these challenges.

The UK’s Small Business Research Initiative (SBRI) Healthcare launched its funding call, Competition 25 in July 2024, offering selected femtech companies the opportunity to develop and roll out new technologies within the NHS. 

The scheme is said to have received around 200 applications for early-stage innovators and breakthrough technologies to address three priority areas of Gynaecological Conditions and Hormonal Health, Mental Health and Chronic Conditions and Long-term Health.

Phase 1 contracts are set to begin in January 2025 for up to six months and will provide funding and support to carry out technical and commercial feasibility testing worth up to £100,000. If successful, these projects will be entitled to apply for a 12 month Phase 2 contract, worth up to £800,000 for prototype development and collection of early clinical evidence.

The committee also heard how as part of NHS England’s transformation directorate, work is ongoing to understand the femtech landscape, including what innovations are in the pipeline and where the gaps may be.

There are now 15 Health innovation networks across the UK, bringing together NHS, industry, academic, third sector and local organisations, with more than 1,200 technologies in the pipeline to address health and care challenges. The introduction of early value assessments has also enabled NICE to fast-track the assessment of digital products such as menopause apps, allowing for technologies that address unmet needs to be rolled out quicker.

Striking the right balance 

However, the NHS must strike the right balance between supporting innovation, whilst maintaining objectivity and avoiding conflicts of interest.

Niblet highlighted a culture in the NHS of discouraging doctors and clinical experts from being “entrepreneurial”. 

Meanwhile, there are some legitimate concerns about the intentions of companies in the femtech space. Period tracker apps, for example, have previously attracted attention from regulators in relation to their collection and use of intimate health data.

Dame Lesley Regan, women’s health ambassador for England and Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Imperial College suggested that the NHS needs a system in place to “sort through” femtech companies and only commission those which are “altruistic” and “actually want to improve lives”.

But Mann cautioned against “putting off” innovators.

“There’s some amazing apps, and there’s some lower quality apps, and trying to keep pace with that is really difficult,” she added.

“It’s really important to be balanced and look at things objectively. To make sure that the decisions that get taken are purely on the basis of improving health and care information.”