Events
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust ends the “silent era” with CardMedic roll-out
Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has gone live with CardMedic across the organisation, enabling its 6,300-strong workforce to communicate more clearly and confidently with patients who face language or communication barriers.
CardMedic is a digital healthcare communication platform that allows staff and patients to communicate safely and effectively irrespective of language barriers, cognitive impairment or literacy.
The platform provides instant access to live interpreters in 200+ languages via Language Line, alongside thousands of clinically validated scripts in multiple languages and formats, including British Sign Language (BSL), Easy Read, and Read Aloud.
It also supports health literacy for same language patients by explaining information in plain language, clearly and succinctly.
The Trust provides acute and community health services to a population of around 300,000 people across Stockport.
Pam Fearns, Chief Nursing Information Officer at Stockport NHS Foundation Trust, led the project’s implementation.
“CardMedic will enable patients to voice their needs where previously they may have struggled to communicate them,” she said.
“All conversations — such as asking whether someone wants a cup of tea, explaining a procedure, or offering reassurance — play a vital role in ensuring inclusivity.
“CardMedic enables equality across our services.”
With a diverse community, reliance on face-to-face interpreting has led to rapidly increasing annual costs, and communication barriers have increasingly impacted patient experience and safety.
Introducing CardMedic will help address these pressures by providing staff with a single point of access to a suite of clinically designed communication support tools.
The cost-effective, vendor-agnostic platform connects staff to the Trust’s existing language service providers via its Call an Interpreter feature, accessible on any device and any location.
Streamlined access will reduce use of disparate and ad hoc solutions, empowering staff to deliver more efficient and equitable care.
This groundbreaking collaboration will see CardMedic deployed across 455 SPARK Fusion® patient bedside devices on 20 wards at the Trust’s Stepping Hill Hospital.
This integration brings universal communication support directly to the bedside, giving patients and clinicians greater access, privacy, speed, and confidence in every interaction.
The Trust has taken a “big bang” approach to launching CardMedic, introducing it across all its acute and community settings. From day one, it has been available in all inpatient areas to maximise reach and equity of access.
Key areas of engagement include emergency, maternity, and acute medical units, supported by digital nurses, midwives, and clinical champions across the organisation.
The rollout also extends to community staff, including community midwives, school nurses, allied healthcare professionals, Macmillan nurses and district nurses.
The launch is backed by an extensive communications campaign using the slogan ‘the silent era is over’.
This term was coined by Karen Lawrence in the Digital Skills Team following discussions with the Digital Nursing Team about giving a voice to the “silent patient”.
This gave her the idea of silent movies in black and white. Now the introduction of CardMedic is bringing colour back to these patients as they are no longer silenced.
The rollout reflects the Trust’s commitment to its core CARE values of Compassion, Accountability, Respect, and Excellence.
It also aligns with regional efforts to reduce inequalities and national priorities such as the Patient safety healthcare inequalities reduction framework, the Accessible Information Standard, and the Core20PLUS5 Health Inequalities Programme.
The Trust’s passion for equitable care is evident throughout the partnership.
The top five non-English languages spoken in the local area are Farsi, Urdu, Arabic, Kurdish Sorani, and Cantonese. To support the Trust’s community, CardMedic is adding Kurdish Sorani to its platform for the first time.
Dr Rachael Grimaldi, CEO and Co-Founder of CardMedic, said: “Stockport NHS Foundation Trust has demonstrated what equitable care in action looks like.
“No patient will be left without a voice in their care.
“By embedding CardMedic across wards and bedside devices, enabled through our partnership with SPARK TSL, they’re enabling communication that is instant, safe, and scalable.
“The partnership won’t just improve care for patients who face a language barrier. With CardMedic’s Easy Read and Read Aloud formats, it also helps support improved health literacy when language isn’t the main issue.”
Jane Stephenson, CEO at SPARK TSL, added: “This pioneering project demonstrates how technology can strengthen patient-centred care.
“ We’re proud to be working with Stockport NHS Foundation Trust and CardMedic on embedding inclusive communication support in our SPARK Fusion® bedside devices.
“Together, we’re making healthcare more accessible for all.”
By Women’s Health Week
With four weeks to go until Women’s Health Week USA, the excitement is ramping up!
The final early bird pricing closes this Friday, the full speaker lineup is confirmed, and a record number of pitch applications signals the depth of innovation now moving through the sector as we enter the Era of Scale.
Women’s Health Week USA takes place May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, bringing together 600+ senior decision makers spanning investors, founders, multinationals, payers, providers and policymakers around one shared agenda: taking women’s health from growth to scale.
Early bird tickets are available until midnight on Friday, April 17.
Book by then to save up to $600 on your place
The Full Speaker Lineup is Confirmed
The full speaker lineup has finally been confirmed, with 80+ voices spanning investment, innovation, policy, medtech and pharma.
The programme reflects the event’s 2026 theme, The Era of Scale, moving beyond early validation into the harder work of institutionalising women’s health as a category.
Confirmed speakers include Kate Ryder (Maven Clinic), Mallika Mundkur (FDA), Melanie Newman (Planned Parenthood), Nichole Young-Lin (Google), Jill Angelo (OURA), David Stern (Kindbody) and Tammy Sun (Carrot Fertility), alongside representation from the NYSE, ARPA-H, the World Health Organization, Samsung Next, Novo Holdings and more.
170 Pitch Applications and Counting
The Women’s Health Week USA Innovation Showcase received a record 170 applications ahead of its April 10 close, the highest number in the event’s history.
The volume reflects the growing depth of innovation in the sector, but it was the quality of submissions that stood out, with companies across Medical Devices & Therapeutics and Consumer & Tech bringing genuinely differentiated solutions to conditions that have been underserved for decades.
The selected companies will get the chance to pitch on the mainstage at the New York Academy of Medicine in front of the full audience of 600+ investors, corporates, innovators and strategic partners.
Results will be announced next week.
Register your interest to find out who makes the WHW USA Innovator Class of 2026
NYSE Partnership: A Quick Recap
For those who missed our announcement on Femtech World last week, the New York Stock Exchange is the Official Exchange Partner of Women’s Health Week USA 2026.
On the morning of May 13, WHW will feature in the NYSE Market Update, reaching approximately 200 million viewers.
Women’s Health Week will also light up the North Star Billboard in Times Square for a full week around the event, with live and taped interviews distributed across NYSE Live and Taking Stock.
It remains one of the most significant institutional endorsements the women’s health sector has seen.
Early Bird Pricing Closes This Friday
Tickets increase by up to $600 after midnight on Friday, April 17. For anyone with May 13-14 in their calendar, this week is the window to move.
By Women’s Health Week
When the New York Stock Exchange signs on as the Official Exchange Partner of a women’s health event, it’s worth paying attention to.
Women’s Health Week USA, taking place May 13-14 at the New York Academy of Medicine in New York City, has confirmed the NYSE as its Official Exchange Partner for 2026.
It is one of the most significant institutional endorsements the women’s health sector has seen, and it says something meaningful about where global capital markets are directing their attention.
Find out more about WHW USA 2026 here.
What the Partnership Involves
This is not simply a logo on a lanyard.
The NYSE partnership comes with a set of activations that put women’s health in front of audiences well beyond the event itself.
On the morning of May 13, Women’s Health Week will be featured in the NYSE Market Update, reaching an audience of approximately 200 million viewers across outlets including Yahoo Finance and the Financial Times.
For a sector that has historically struggled for mainstream financial visibility, that kind of reach is significant.
Women’s Health Week will also light up the North Star Billboard in Times Square for a full week around the event, placing the brand at the centre of one of the most commercially visible locations in the world.
NYSE will produce live and taped interviews with WHW leadership and keynote speakers, distributed across NYSE Live, Taking Stock, and partner platforms reaching tens of millions of viewers monthly.
A dedicated NYSE content team will be on the ground at the New York Academy of Medicine capturing the conversations and connections taking place across both days.
The NYSE’s Healthcare & Life Sciences team will also take to the stage at Women’s Health Week USA, sharing their perspective on trends shaping the sector from a capital markets standpoint.
Why It Matters
The partnership is a signal as much as it is a sponsorship.
Women’s health has spent years making the case that it is a commercially serious category.
The NYSE’s involvement makes that case in a language the broader financial world understands.
Women’s Health Week USA 2026 is themed around The Era of Scale, a deliberate framing around the idea that the sector has moved beyond early validation into the harder work of institutionalisation.
Capital is moving. M&A activity is increasing. Generalist investors are entering a space that was once left to specialists. The NYSE partnership fits neatly into that narrative.
With 600+ senior decision makers confirmed across investors, founders, multinationals, payers and policymakers, the event is already one of the most commercially concentrated gatherings in the women’s health calendar.
The NYSE’s reach extends that concentration well beyond the walls of the New York Academy of Medicine.
Find out for yourself why this partnership is so perfect and join Women’s Health Week USA. Secure your ticket here.
The Pitch Sessions
For founders and early-stage companies, Women’s Health Week USA also hosts a mainstage Pitch Session across two categories: Medical Devices & Therapeutics and Consumer & Tech. Fifteen companies will be selected to pitch in front of the full audience.
Applications close April 10.
They are free to submit, and any company working on a condition that affects women exclusively, differently, or disproportionately is eligible.
Entrepreneur
Women’s HealthX brings together leading pharma innovators advancing the future of women’s healthcare
Women’s HealthX is convening a powerful lineup of pharmaceutical and biotech leaders, uniting global organisations including AstraZeneca, Bayer, Gilead, Chiesi, Eli Lilly, Alexion, and Daré Bioscience alongside 750+ senior clinicians, hospital leaders, insurers, and policy makers shaping the future of women’s health.
As the women’s health market continues to evolve, the event provides a unique platform for pharma leaders to share how they are leveraging clinical trial data, real world evidence, and digital innovation to reduce regulatory risk, improve representation in research, and unlock new opportunities for partnership and pipeline growth.
Across seven dedicated stages covering the full lifecycle of care, attendees will gain direct insight into how industry leaders are driving measurable change in outcomes, access, and equity.
Confirmed sessions and trailblazers include:
Maternity & Maternal Care
- Empowering Mothers, Advancing Equity, and Improving Outcomes in Premature Care
Erica Smith, Vice President, Value & Market Access, US, Chiesi
Evidence, Data & Innovation
- Addressing Design Barriers: Paving the Way for Sex Specific Data Clarity
Julieta Jimenez, Executive Director, Program Management Clinical Operations, V&I, AstraZeneca
- Design Trials That Generate Clinically Meaningful Evidence for Women
Luba Soskin, Global Clinical Lead, Women’s Health, Bayer
Chronic Disease Management
- Improving Outcomes in Obesity Through Evidence Based Person Centred Care
Tracy Sims, Executive Director, Corporate Affairs, Cardiometabolic Health, Eli Lilly
- Tackling Sex Based Health Inequities by Breaking Down Barriers and Bias
Adrian Kielhorn, Senior Director, Global Head HEOR Neurology, Alexion
Sexual Health & Wellness
- The Clinical Impact of Internal Stigma in Sexual Health
Kesha O’Reilly, Director Medical Affairs, HIV Franchise, Gilead
- Explore Innovative Product Manufacturing Pathways Beyond Conventional Regulatory Models
David Friend, Chief Science Officer, Daré Bioscience
We have also just announced Endometriosis Advocate Padma Lakshmi as a keynote speaker, bringing one of the most influential voices in women’s health advocacy to the stage.
See full list of confirmed trailblazers here
Together, these leaders represent the organisations driving innovation across research, development, and commercialisation, offering practical insight into how to bring safer, more effective solutions to women worldwide.
The program moves beyond discussion into delivery, equipping attendees with the latest clinical evidence, regulatory strategies, and innovation frameworks needed to accelerate impact across the healthcare ecosystem.
With senior decision makers from across pharma, biotech, and healthcare in attendance, women’s healthX is where partnerships are formed, strategies are shaped, and the future of women’s health is defined.
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