Innovators’ response to the Women’s Health Strategy
Innovators welcome the Women’s Health Strategy update – with a clear call for delivery.
The government’s updated Women’s Health Strategy has been welcomed by health innovators, who see it as a meaningful step in recognising longstanding gaps in care.
Across the community, the response is measured: strong support for the direction of travel, coupled with a clear focus on what needs to happen next.
Samantha Jackman, Co-Founder & Managing Director of Boost, highlighted the importance of putting women at the centre of care design:
“As a company committed to co-design, listening and action, I’m delighted to see that the new Women’s Health Strategy is appearing to move towards a plan that puts women at the centre of decision making. Delivering increased education on health issues that might empower better self advocacy is a vital step, and the news of increased funding to transform women’s healthcare will be useful to those of us already pushing for change. Many women we have worked with have learnt to ‘make do’ within the parameters of a health care system that has not always worked for them, and I strongly welcome plans to change that.”
Andrew Darby-Smith, Founder of Upskill.Health adds:
“It’s really encouraging to see women’s health recognised as a national priority. Whilst Upskill is focused on improving maternity safety, this is bigger than maternity care alone; it’s about confronting the inequalities, unmet needs and missed opportunities that affect women across their lives.”
There was also optimism around the strategy’s focus on innovation and new approaches to care.
Dr Emilé Radyté, CEO of Samphire Neuroscience, said:
“For too long, women with menstrual conditions have had limited options beyond painkillers or hormones. This strategy, particularly the Femtech challenge fund and the focus on redesigning clinical pathways for periods and perimenopause, signals that the NHS is serious about making room for the kind of novel, evidence-based innovations that can genuinely transform care.”
Alex Fisher, Co-Founder of the WID-easy test emphasised the need to maintain momentum:
“I strongly welcome this renewed commitment to improving women’s healthcare across the NHS, which is clearly an urgent and necessary step toward a more equitable system. As an innovator, I support the focus on accelerating adoption of transformative solutions, and urge the Government to sustain and expand investment to position the NHS as a global leader in women’s healthcare.”
Others pointed to the wider economic and societal stakes, with Valentina Milanova, Founder & CEO at Daye saying:
“Women’s health has been chronically underfunded and under-researched for decades. Advocates like Sue Mann and Dame Lesley Regan have fought that with extraordinary persistence, and the rest of us owe them a debt. But let’s be honest about what’s actually at stake: this isn’t just a fairness argument, it’s an economic one. Women now graduate from university at higher rates than men. We out-earn our male peers – right up until our first child. And then the system fails us. Endometriosis costs years of misdiagnosis. Menopause drives women out of the workforce at the peak of their careers. We are not going to build healthy economies on the backs of people told to manage chronic pain with a hot water bottle. If we want productive societies, we need to stop treating half the population as a medical afterthought.”
Reflecting the overall sentiment, our Co-Directors Jack Porter and Mindy Simon said:
“The updated Women’s Health Strategy is a welcome step in addressing long-standing inequalities in care that are both unjust and a major barrier to national productivity and growth. It also reinforces the vital role of innovation in improving outcomes and supporting economic growth. We are keen to see how the investment in women’s health innovation will drive meaningful change.”
