Empowering Women's Healthcare With Data Science And AI
By Bob Marshall, Chief Editor, Med Device Online
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services published statistics on U.S. personal healthcare spending by age and gender in 2012. Overall per capita health spending for females was 23 percent greater than spending for males. But, ladies, to borrow from the L'Oréal commercials of the 1990s – It’s because you’re worth it! You really are. The key difference driving these numbers for women between the ages of 19 and 44 is the cost of maternity care. If you choose to, and are able, your bodies can provide the miracle of life.
Ava Science, Inc. is a company focused on supporting women in this space, as well as capitalizing on this market opportunity. I initially connected with Ava last year and had a delightful conversation with Peter Stein, VP of R&D and co-founder of the women’s health start-up, which has operations in Zurich and San Francisco. More recently, I had an opportunity to speak with Lea von Bidder, president and co-founder of Ava Science, Inc., and she explained the evolution within the company.
“We started Ava as a device to help couples try to conceive and understand the timing of the menstrual cycle. From there, the more we did research on the whole topic and found out in our clinical studies, we realized Ava has the potential to be so much more than just fertility. We really think it is a platform [on which] we can build so many things,” said von Bidder. “The long-term vision… is we want to be a device for the life of a woman for 20, 30, or 40 years. We want to make sure we have services attached to all of those times, so we will be valuable over all of those years we will be with our customers, and those resources need to be born out of medical research and data science.”
In talking with von Bidder, I got the sense of a startup beginning to get its footing. Many startup companies begin with a rather narrow focus, a new technology, and little funding. If they survive the initial challenges and get some follow-on funding, they get a chance to lift up their heads and see the broader possibilities for their product. But, with those possibilities come new challenges, as von Bidder explained:
“We had a post on our site a couple weeks ago where a woman went to her OB/GYN and she showed the doctor her Ava data, and the OB/GYN dismissed it. I cannot blame the doctor; it can be confusing if you see it for the first time and you only have five minutes with the patient. This user posted the group [on the Ava website] asking if there were any other Ava users in her area with a doctor willing, able, and happy to read her Ava chart,” von Bidder said. “To me, this just emphasizes the point that it is our responsibility to educate doctors. It’s not the doctor’s responsibility to keep up with everything happening. We have to educate them the best way we can. At the same time, we are a small startup and are under tremendous resource constraints. We are not like a bigger company with a large sales force to assist with the education.”
Getting A Better Indication Of Ovulation
Ava recently announced a new device feature that enables women who may not be ovulating during their cycle to seek fertility treatment sooner. According to a statement from the company, “Ava will automatically assess user data to detect a biphasic shift in physiological parameters during a woman’s cycle. In a biphasic pattern, some of the physiological parameters including skin temperature and pulse rate increase in response to the increase in progesterone after ovulation. This is important, because most women with ovulatory cycles exhibit a biphasic parameters pattern on their charts, and a key factor in getting pregnant is for ovulation to occur. However, up to 12 percent of women actually have anovulatory cycles, i.e., cycles without an ovulation.”
Study To Detect Infections During Pregnancy
Additionally, Ava has begun a clinical trial at the University Hospital of Zurich, studying its device’s potential use to detect the onset of infection during pregnancy. The study seeks to identify clinically significant changes in the physiological parameters measured by the bracelet, and aims to develop an algorithm allowing Ava to identify the onset of an infection during pregnancy.
These infections can be life-threatening for mother and baby, and can lead to premature delivery. Early recognition of such infections via a change in physiological parameters, as measured by Ava, would ultimately enable earlier and better therapy and reduce user health risks.
Strengthening The Leadership Team
As the Ava device’s capabilities continue to unfold through data science and clinical investigation, the need for leadership, vision, and guidance increases. The team at Ava Science recently welcomed, as chief medical officer, Maureen Cronin MD, PhD, formerly of Bayer Schering Pharma (a leader in contraception products, including Mirena and Yasmin/Yaz).
“Joining Ava gives me an incredible opportunity to continue my passion for and advocacy for innovation in women’s reproductive and sexual health with a company I truly believe in,” explained Cronin. “What Ava is doing with data, AI and sensor technology truly has the ability to empower women in so many ways, starting with helping them get pregnant and down the line for many other applications including contraception and beyond. We will continue to provide credible evidence on the benefit/risk profiles of our growing portfolio with several large interventional studies over the next several years.”
All of the developments at Ava are exciting and hold the promise to advance health care for women around fertility, pregnancy, and beyond…because they’re worth it!