DxD HealthTech

"We might start to see companies that are not really that committed to DEI deemphasize it further, but those champions out there will continue—I believe, very strongly—to talk about equity in their internal policies and their legal compliance."

Interesting thoughts on the role of the equity piece of diversity, equity and inclusion, as some companies shift focus:

https://hrexecutive.com/how-important-is-the-word-equity-to-corporate-dei-efforts/

How important is the word 'equity' to corporate DEI efforts? Company policies focusing on equity are coming under increasing scrutiny. Here are issues to consider around the future of corporate DEI.

🚨 The 2025 Pathways in Health Technology application is now open! 🚨

DxD's popular healthtech internship preparation program is for Bay Area community college students who are underrepresented in the field, specifically women and minorities.

Please share this opportunity with your networks, and learn more: https://diversitybydoing.org/pathways-health-technology/

Fogarty Innovation Stanford Biodesign AdvaMed

"Femtech ... is the key to solving the biggest issues caused by the hormone gap, and other gender-specific conditions" that cause women to live 25% of their lives in poor health, says Mira CEO Sylvia Kang.

Read more: https://femtechinsider.com/health-gender-inequality-sylvia-kang/

Women’s lives are being shortened by gender inequality – is there a solution? The following guest post was written by Sylvia Kang, CEO of Mira. A biomedical engineer with passion for entrepreunership, Sylvia founded Mira to help women and people with ovaries take control over their hormonal health and fertility...

is just two weeks away! The event was profoundly impactful for DxD students last year, and we're excited to once again share the experience with two students aspiring to careers in health technology.

We look forward to reconnecting with many of colleagues, and meeting new people on Sept. 10 in Menlo Park.

Register to attend in person or virtually: https://medtechwomen.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/medtechwomen/event.jsp?event=345&

Because they often provide healthcare to underserved populations, health centers can help diversify medical research, reducing health disparities. Read more in this Q&A with Dr. Kyu Rhee president and CEO of National Association of Community Health Centers:

Can Community Health Centers Improve Research Diversity 7 questions for Dr. Kyu Rhee, president of the National Association of Community Health Centers.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering an incentive to innovators to help make endometriosis diagnosis more accessible to all, including underserved populations. About 10% of women experience endometriosis, and it can take up to a decade to get a proper diagnosis.
https://www.med-technews.com/news/Medtech-Diagnostics-news/nih-launches-3-million-prize-competition-to-modernise-diagno/

NIH launches $3 million prize competition to modernise diagnosis of endometriosis The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is offering up to $3 million in cash prizes to accelerate development of non-invasive technologies to improve diagnosis of endometriosis—a common and often debilitating gynaecological disease.

In many industries, the ‘great resignation’ never stopped. And women, particularly in senior roles, are still at greater risk for burnout and attrition.

The new Women's Work/Life Wellness Accelerator, a cohort-based program from Mom's Hierarchy of Needs, aims to help women navigate career growth, fulfillment, and wellbeing.

The early bird rate is available until 8/29. Program details are here. Learn more or enroll: https://momshierarchyofneeds.lpages.co/wellness-accelerator/

"Founders in the women’s health sector play a crucial role in educating the public about women’s health issues and shifting the conversation around these areas." Read more tips for aspiring founders in Fast Company:
https://www.fastcompany.com/91166219/expanding-impact-scaling-innovations-in-womens-health

Expanding impact: Scaling innovations in women’s health As the femtech sector continues to expand, its capacity to transform women's healthcare is profound. Here's what leaders need to know.

"Being loud, I am often heard, but I rarely feel seen to the degree that these women made me feel with such brief interactions," says Angela Rivelli, a mechanical engineering student and summer medtech intern at Myra Vision.

She wrote about her non-traditional educational path and the leaders including Dr Aisha White and Ingrid Ellerbe who left an impression on her during the Healthtech Exploration Workshop last month. Read more from Angela: https://diversitybydoing.org/2024/08/12/summer-medtech-intern/

"Our diversity program, DxD, empowers young people from underrepresented groups with agency, a network, and tools that can help them achieve their future goals." — Andrew Cleeland, CEO Fogarty Innovation

Read more: https://mailchi.mp/c5f52047311a/n3mtx72sqh-6412888?e=16568fb6fc

🚨The FDA invites comments on its discussion paper about how to advance health equity for medical devices🚨

Read the white paper and submit feedback:
https://www.fda.gov/about-fda/cdrh-strategic-priorities-and-updates/discussion-paper-health-equity-medical-devices

"If you want to do biodesign, follow a career path you are passionate about, find that thing that inspires you and makes you feel excited: you can be an engineer, a molecular biologist, an attorney, or anything you decide. In this space, your unique skill set is what makes you a great innovator." —Josh Makower, Director of Stanford Biodesign

The World Health Organization has rolled out an open access database with comprehensive info on more than 2,300 medical devices, with more to be added over time. MeDevIS will help government regulators, patients and, hopefully, innovators in the ecosystem. Check it out: https://medevis.who-healthtechnologies.org/

MEDEVIS

In healthcare, the effects of AI bias can be life-altering. Algorithmic biases in might lead to "entire communities being systematically underserved or misdiagnosed."

https://www.forbes.com/sites/corneliawalther/2024/07/29/why-ai-inclusion-is-a-matter-of-life-and-death/

Why AI Inclusion Is A Matter Of Life And Death As we embrace this powerful technology, we face one critical issue: the lack of representation in AI systems. Changing this involves a change in choices, and mindsets.

Summer Intern Andrea Rodriguez-Cruz, who participated in the Healthtech Exploration Workshop earlier this month, shares her top 3 ✨aha moments✨ from : https://diversitybydoing.org/2024/07/29/top-three-speed-mentoring-takeaways/

Summer Healthtech Intern Shares the Top 3 Lessons She Learned from Speed Mentors Andrea Rodriguez-Cruz participated in the DxD Healthtech Exploration Workshop, July 8-9, 2024, through her summer internship. Here, she shares the biggest insights she gained from the experienced healthtech professionals she met through the Speed Mentorship

We love to see summer interns at work!

Lefteroff Intern Ramya Palani, a rising junior at Johns Hopkins University majoring in biomedical engineering, worked outside under the canopy today making various sizes of Ultraflex gel donuts (not jelly donuts) for Fogarty company-in-residence Eclipse Regenesis. The company is developing a mechanical, repeatable treatment for pediatric short bowel syndrome. Ultraflex is a stretchable, flexible, water-clear rubber compound that comes in a granule form and can be melted in an electric pan or other device.

Congratulations to the team behind the My Journey app, on their efforts to close the mental health care gap for LGBTQ+ youth!

My Journey: Making Mental Health Support Accessible to LGBTQ+ Teens The My Journey digital app is intended to provide personalized cognitive behavioral therapy to address the mental health-related conditions experienced by q***r teens.

"To truly mitigate this bias, we must first understand and acknowledge its existence and assume that all data is biased and that people’s unconscious bias plays a role."

https://venturebeat.com/ai/theres-a-simple-answer-to-address-the-conundrum-of-ai-bias-more-diversity/

There’s a shockingly simple answer to the AI bias conundrum: More diversity How can we proactively mitigate AI bias and create less harmful models if the data we train them on is inherently biased?

DxD is proud to be a MedtechWomen and Partner! The
MedtechVISION Annual Conference brings leading voices in
together each year to discuss real-world solutions in . Join
industry leaders in person or virtually on September 10, 2024 for an insightful discussion about The Power of We and how medical device companies are leveraging new and emerging partnerships to move medtech forward.
Register today at https://medtechwomen.app.neoncrm.com/np/clients/medtechwomen/event.jsp?event=345&

These summer interns impressed us throughout the HealthTech Exploration Workshop with their engagement, enthusiasm and open-mindedness. Over two days, they built community, networked with potential mentors, sampled the Biodesign process, and embraced the call to action to diversify the medtech ecosystem. We are excited to see your successes — not just this summer, but for years to come.

"Such a cool experience. I am genuinely so thankful to have been part of this conference. I learned so much, and feel like I gained so many tools for my career," said Imperative Care intern Ruthie McCall. "This is definitely a 'must attend.'"

Thank you to Allay Therapeutics, Fogarty Innovation, Imperative Care, Longitude Capital, Neptune Medical, Pulmonx, Shifamed, The Foundry, Triple Ring Technologies, Shockwave Medical and Stanford Biodesign for sponsoring your summer interns' participation in this program.

One week ago, we officially celebrated DxD HealthTech's 5th anniversary. 🎉 Friends, founders, and longtime supporters of our mission came together with students in our summer program to reflect on the seeds that were planted for DxD in 2019, and to celebrate its growth.

DxD co-founders Paul Yock, Maria Sainz and Mike Regan addressed the crowd gathered at Fogarty Innovation to speak about how they came to see the urgent need to diversify the medtech industry, and to create programs through DxD that would help meet that need.

DxD Executive Director Ingrid Ellerbe and advisory board member Rebecca Lai spoke about the program's impact on hundreds of students and early-career professionals, expressing gratitude for all the volunteers and supporters who have helped advance the mission.

DxD alum, healthtech professional, and advisory board member Daniela Perdomo summed up the gratitude of the evening:

"Thank you Diversity by Doing for all the work you do, for driving a positive change and making this field more accessible and equitable for everyone. Thank you, Fogarty Innovation and Stanford Biodesign for supporting programs like DXD, and for helping enhance diversity in the MedTech innovation ecosystem. Thank you to all of you for believing and embracing DxD's mission to improve health outcomes for ALL people."

If you'd like to learn more about DxD and how you can get involved in supporting our mission, visit https://diversitybydoing.org/sponsors-affiliates/.

Yes to mentorship! 👏🏿 👏🏼 👏🏾

"The one factor that stands out in the corporate success stories supporting women's rise to leadership is access to mentors."

Read more about findings of a study that increases representation of women ... and bear in mind that many of the same factors will contribute to representation of people of color, as well.

Healthtech professionals of all levels are always welcome to sign for DxD's online speed mentoring here ➡️ https://diversitybydoing.org/speed-mentoring/

https://phys.org/news/2024-07-qa-explores-opportunities-representation-women.html

Q&A: Study explores opportunities to increase representation of women in leadership Since the early 1970s, there has been a worldwide promise to support women in achieving positions of authority in U.S. corporations. However, the business world has not necessarily met that promise.

That’s a wrap! DxD's two-day HealthTech Exploration workshop concluded at Fogarty Innovation with a packed afternoon of personal stories and medtech case studies. A panel moderated by DxD executive director Ingrid Ellerbe explored the diversity of career paths in the field, featuring Dr Aisha White, Joyce Nortey, Dr. Willieford Moses, and Juan-Pablo Mas. Then, we took a deep dive into two medtech case studies -- hearing from Autumn Ehnow of nonprofit pharma organization Medicines360 and Eric Chehab's startup Novonate, which was acquired by Laborie.

"Thank you for creating this space and workshop," wrote one of the interns. "I feel so grateful to have been given access to all of this information and all of these incredible people."

Summer interns participating in DxD’s Healthtech Exploration Workshop got a peek into the power of the Biodesign process this morning. Led by Juliana Perl, the students practiced creating need statements and brainstormed solutions in lively small group discussions coached by Kay Hung, Allie Knauer, Patrick Lo, Ravi Pamnani, Stephanie Toney, Vic McCray, and Stacie Arechavala.

A huge thank you to the Stanford Biodesign team, Fogarty Innovation for hosting, and the students for their energetic engagement in the process!

Day 1 of the HealthTech Exploration Workshop continued with a panel discussion, branding session, personal development workshops, speed mentoring and an inspirational closing by Fred St. Goar, MD.

The importance of perseverance and growth mindset were themes throughout the afternoon. “Perseverance and aspiration are so very important. You’ve got to figure out your 'why' in order to get up and solve these hard problems every day,” said Shena Park.

A huge thank you to all of the generous speed mentors, and the featured speakers who shared their wisdom!

“Congratulations for taking a step in the direction of your dreams today,” Nena Anguiano told the 62 interns participating in the HealthTech Exploration Workshop this morning at Innovation .

Day 1 kicked off with enthusiasm and excitement, as Paul Yock, founder of Stanford Biodesign and co-founder of DxD, offered students an overview of healthtech, and reminding summer interns, “There’s no more satisfying thing than helping patients.”

We're looking forward to what unfolds with the rest of the sessions!

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📷 credit: Stacey Paris McCutcheon

Wishing you good health and happiness this Independence Day! We're throwing it back to 19th century Swiss philosopher Henri Frederic Amiel, whose statement still rings true today: "In health there is freedom. Health is the first of all liberties."