By Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden, clinician at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, academic at King’s College London, and chief medical officer of MEGI Health.

A woman gives birth. A few days later she goes home, often with a bag of medication for her blood pressure, and then, very often, very little structured follow-up for her heart (cardiovascular) health.

In my clinical work, and through our collaboration with Action on Pre-eclampsia, I see and hear about this postnatal cliff edge again and again, and it still shocks me.

We invest a lot of medical care and attention whilst a woman or birthing individual is pregnant, then, at the very moment emerging evidence suggests we have a window of opportunity to modify long-term health, the support falls away.

That cliff edge is a symptom of a deeper issue: we have come to treat “women’s health” as a synonym for reproductive health. Pregnancy, periods and fertility, important as they are, have crowded out everything else.

Yet the conditions that do most to shorten and limit women’s lives are not reproductive at all.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in women worldwide, and it is still too readily thought of as a man’s problem.

Heart disease in women is more likely to be missed and under-treated, in part because for decades women were under-represented in the research that built our knowledge.

Pregnancy makes this vivid.

Conditions such as pre-eclampsia are not only risks to be managed for nine months; they are early warnings about a woman’s future, markers that she is more likely to develop heart disease and high blood pressure in the years to come.

We have the knowledge to act on that. What we mostly do instead is discharge her and look away.

This is exactly the kind of problem better tools should help us solve: spotting risk earlier, supporting women and their clinicians through the vulnerable postnatal window, and providing continuity where the system currently provides a drop due to lack of capacity.

Artificial intelligence and digital health have real potential here; in risk prediction, in monitoring blood pressure at home, and in helping stretched clinicians know who needs attention and when.

And yet this is not where most of the energy is going.

It is far easier to build, fund and scale an app that tracks a cycle than a tool that changes the trajectory of a woman’s heart.

So, innovation clusters at the lighter, lower-risk end of innovation, while the conditions that actually kill and disable women, and moments like the postnatal cliff, stay under-served.

Closing the women’s health gap could add at least a trillion dollars to the global economy each year, the World Economic Forum estimates, but the bigger prize is women living longer, healthier lives.

None of this means technology is a cure in itself. It is a tool, and a tool built carelessly can do harm.

Because women have been under-represented in medical data, systems trained on that data can quietly carry the same blind spots forward, deepening inequalities rather than closing them.

Responsible innovation, with clinical-grade evidence, privacy and equity designed in from the start, and tools built around real clinical pathways rather than bolted on afterwards, is not a brake on progress.

It is the only version of progress worth having.

I am optimistic, because a serious community is forming around exactly these questions and the appetite to get it right is real.

It is why, at MEGI, we are bringing clinicians, researchers, founders, regulators and investors together for our AI × Women’s Health summit on 25 June.

If we keep our focus on the conditions that matter most to women’s lives, and build the tools to meet them responsibly, the postnatal cliff edge could become something else entirely: the moment the system finally catches her and delivers preventative healthcare.

AI × Women’s Health: Innovation, Challenges and Opportunities summit is taking place on Thursday 25 June 2026 at the London Institute for Healthcare Engineering. The event is free and is fully booked and operating a waiting list. Join the waiting list here.

About Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden

Dr Fran Conti-Ramsden is a UK Obstetrics and Gynaecology registrar and Chadburn Clinical Lecturer at KCL passionate about transforming women’s health through technology and innovation.

Combining NHS clinical experience with an MRC-funded PhD, recent NHS Clinical AI fellowship and commercial role as Chief Medical Officer at Megi health, she works at the intersection of clinical medicine, data science, technology and AI.

Her current programme of research focuses on the intersection of healthcare and technology; leveraging advances such as smartphone based vital signs capture and large language models to drive forward scalable innovation in maternal cardiovascular care.

She has published over 20 peer-reviewed manuscripts (See gScholar, h-index 12), including award-winning work recognized by Hypertension Journal.

She was awarded an AI visionary award in 2025 by Health Innovation KSS was the recipient of the 2024 International Society for the Study of Hypertension in Pregnancy Zuspan prize.

The HPV vaccine has cut the risk of dying from cervical cancer before age 30 to almost zero among those vaccinated at 12 or 13, research suggests.

The first study of its kind found that deaths have fallen sharply since school-age girls began being offered the jab in 2008, with around 200 lives saved in England so far.

Between 2020 and 2024, no cervical cancer deaths were recorded among women aged 20 to 24, the first time this had happened over a five-year period.

Without vaccination, around 23 deaths would have been expected.

Professor Peter Sasieni, lead researcher at Queen Mary University of London, said: “It’s incredible to think that a single jab can almost eliminate a particular type of cancer.”

Around 3,300 people are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year in the UK, making it the 14th most common cancer among women.

Human papillomavirus, or HPV, is thought to cause 99 per cent of cervical cancer cases. The virus is spread through close skin-to-skin contact.

Most HPV infections clear up without causing problems, but some can cause abnormal cell changes that may lead to cancer years later.

The study’s authors expect deaths from cervical cancer to continue falling as more people receive the jab and vaccinated generations grow older.

Cancer Research UK, which funded the research, called the findings an “incredible milestone” but warned that vaccination rates in England remained below recommended levels.

Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, said: “We know the HPV vaccine is extremely effective at stopping cervical cancer before it starts and for the first time these findings show it is saving lives.”

Professor Sasieni, who specialises in cancer epidemiology at Queen Mary University of London, described the reduction in deaths since the vaccine was introduced as the “tip of the iceberg”.

Cancer epidemiology examines patterns of cancer and how the disease affects different groups of people.

He said: “As vaccinated generations grow older, we’ll see many more lives saved from cervical cancer.

“New research shows just how vital it is to keep HPV vaccination levels high so more people are protected.”

The UK government has pledged to eliminate cervical cancer as a public health problem by 2040.

However, the latest figures show vaccination rates have fallen below recommended levels.

UK Health Security Agency data shows that 76 per cent of girls in England were vaccinated by the age of 15 in 2024-25, well below the 90 per cent level the World Health Organization says is needed to eliminate cervical cancer.

Mitchell said: “It’s essential that the UK Government and health systems urgently address this with targeted action to reach communities where uptake is the lowest.”

A screen time app that lets friends cut their phone use together has won the £15,000 top prize in a women-led startup competition.

Snitch, led by design engineering MEng graduate Asha Bakhai, took first place at WE Innovate, Imperial College London’s flagship competition for women-led startups.

The team aims to tackle excessive screen use among young people, which some research suggests may have a negative effect on mental and physical health.

The app lets users join accountability groups and set shared limits across their most-used apps.

When one person scrolls, the group’s combined timer counts down. Its founders say this helps build awareness, encourages reflection and supports small changes in behaviour by making screen use a shared responsibility.

Speaking at the WE Innovate Grand Final, Bakhai, co-founder and chief executive of Snitch, said: “Thank you to all the people who have been involved with thinking about what it could look like for young people to not be addicted to their phones.

“Whether that’s our friends who we started this with – exchanging screen time passwords and things like that – or the users along the way who beta tested with us, or our families and our friends who we’ve forced to use our app, even though it failed and bugged out and blocked all their apps. Thank you to all of them – and especially, thank you to WE Innovate for making all of this happen.”

Snitch’s team also includes co-founders Serena Sebastian and Yoshiki Berrecloth.

WE Innovate is a six-month pre-accelerator run by Imperial Enterprise Lab for teams led by female students, recent alumni and early career researchers.

The programme supports 25 women-led teams through masterclasses, business coaching, one-to-one expert support and peer mentoring.

The top five teams competed for a share of a £30,000 prize fund.

Professor Hugh Brady, president of Imperial College London, said: “WE Innovate was born out of the realisation that women founders were grossly underrepresented among our wider founder group across the university – so it was an imperative for Imperial to start such a programme.

“It was just last year that we heard Dame Alison Rose, author of the Rose Review, speak about the untapped economic opportunity and potential of women entrepreneurs in the UK.

“After 12 years, this programme has supported hundreds of women entrepreneurs, leading to exciting ventures across health tech, clean tech and all aspects of deep tech.”

The winning teams were selected by a panel including Kristen McLeod CBE, chief strategy officer at the British Business Bank, and Elizabeth Gooch MBE, founder and former chief executive of EGS plc.

The panel also included Pierre N. Rolin, founder and chief executive of Ankh Impact Ventures, and Professor Mary Ryan, vice-provost for research and enterprise at Imperial.

The final marked the second year of WE Innovate National, a UK-wide programme with separate Grand Final showcases held this month at Queen’s University Belfast, Swansea University and Loughborough University.

Joanna Jensen, founder of skincare brand Childs Farm, gave a keynote address about her experiences as an entrepreneur and co-writing The Rise Report of Female Entrepreneurship.

The report found that the UK economy would be £310bn larger if women started and scaled businesses at the same rate as men.

Jensen said 78 per cent of the founders surveyed reported that human connection had been central to their journey, while one in seven identified loneliness as their biggest challenge as an entrepreneur.

She said: “That is why what Imperial is doing matters so profoundly. Not just here in South Kensington but as WE Innovate goes national.

“Because a founder in Loughborough, Durham or Swansea deserves the same access to networks, mentors, capital and belief as a founder sitting in this room tonight.

“Talent is everywhere. Opportunity, until now, has not been.

“A nationwide network for female founders, being backed by women and men, having doors opened for them by women and men, and then paying that forward: that is how you close a £310 billion gap.

“Not with one programme. With a system of programmes, joined up across the country, and held to account on outcomes.”

Waypoint, led by innovation design engineering MSc student Bana Quronfuleh, received the £7,000 second prize.

The team is developing a video game controller that allows visually impaired players to hear and feel popular games.

AlphaVectors Biotech, led by Imperial alumnus Dr Apanpreet Kaur, received the £5,000 third prize for its lipid nanoparticle platform, which aims to improve the stability of RNA vaccines at room temperature.

Lipid nanoparticles are tiny fat-based particles used to protect and deliver genetic material, including the RNA found in some vaccines.

The other finalists, FluoroCycle and Epile-X, each received £1,500.

PHlora LABS received the Lauren Dennis Award, which was established in memory of a pioneering WE Innovate alumnus, for developing a synbiotic suppository intended to prevent recurrent vaginal infections.

Synbiotics combine beneficial microorganisms called probiotics with substances known as prebiotics, which help them grow.

The award recognises a team demonstrating exceptional entrepreneurial spirit in science, technology, engineering and mathematics and includes a six-month business coaching package.

DisoLens received the Engineers in Business Award, sponsored by the Engineers in Business Fellowship.

The award provides each winner with £1,500 in grant funding, mentorship and a professional CV package for entrepreneurs working across engineering sciences.

The team is developing a self-dissolving biodegradable contact lens intended to remove the need for lenses to be taken out each day.