Driving A Paradigm Shift In Women’s Health Care

When it comes to interactions with the health care system, women are often on the receiving end of particularly fraught circumstances, contributing to significant disparities in care and health outcomes. For example, while heart disease is the number one killer of women, women are still misdiagnosed at a higher rate than men when presenting with symptoms of a heart attack. And according to a 2021 analysis, research funding continues to lag for conditions that primarily impact women. Women are still not equitably represented in medical research, and often find their health concerns and pain overlooked or minimized by providers.

Women make up about half of the U.S. population and workforce today. While there have been meaningful strides in innovation and investment in women’s health, we still have far to go. Two other stats are meaningful with respect to the funding environment. In 2022, startups focused on women’s health earned 13.26% of health tech funding, according to Pitchbook. While this has nearly doubled since 2020, it does raise questions regarding what is getting attention. And a 2019 analysis from Rock Health found that women made up only 12.6% of partners at venture funds active in digital health, showing how far we need to go with respect to decision-making authority.

One of our objectives at Morgan Health is to invest in health care companies that are driving improvement in health outcomes and care quality. Our Ventures team evaluates hundreds of promising organizations, and women’s health is one of the areas of great interest for employees and for us as strategic investors driving innovation in employer markets.

In our work, we aim to find and help scale companies that recognize the intersection between women’s health and the resiliency of a strong, diverse workforce. Currently, there is an impressive number of promising companies covering many facets of women’s health. Some, like Tia and Parsley Health, focus broadly on whole health. Oula, Wildflower, Maven and others are working to improve the standard of maternity care. And companies like Vira, Lisa Health, and Evernow seek to improve menopause care. Fertility care and care navigation is also a very active segment. We see employers increasingly adopting fertility benefits, which was one factor driving our recent investment in Kindbody, a leading fertility clinic network and global family-building benefits provider tailored to employers and employees.

Kindbody’s clinical model – which is focused on bringing the full scope of clinical management for pre-conception, postpartum, and even menopause under one roof in their 30-plus clinics – represents a paradigm shift in fertility care and women’s health. Rather than requiring patients and partners to navigate the fragmented and disconnected network of specialists, clinicians and pharmacies on their own, Kindbody’s care team serves as a “go-to” provider for patients during one of their most important – and often, most stressful – life milestones.

Morgan Health chose to invest in the fertility space because we know that the path to parenthood will look different for each person, and as a result, support for the range of family-building considerations (including male infertility) is a key need for employers and employees. The WHO estimates that 1 in 6 people experience infertility, yet many Americans, including those with employer-sponsored insurance, are often unable to access or afford these services. Kindbody is on a path to change that status quo.

As we look at how we can continue to support the next wave of innovation in women’s health, forward-thinking employers can serve as a driving force in identifying and informing meaningful solutions that will empower women and all employees at work. This work is paramount to our vision of improving employer-sponsored healthcare, and welcome broad partnership in making this happen.