Laura Tantum, Associate Director at Incisive Health, considers the role of technology in supporting women to better understand, and make decisions about, their health
The Labour Government has made the “shift from analogue to digital” a cornerstone of its plan to reform the NHS, pledging to transform the NHS App so that patients are in control of their own health, always know the options and choices available to them, and are placed at the heart of every medical decision.
This concept of informed decision-making is critical for women’s health.
Yet, all too often, the evidence suggests that accurate, accessible information is lacking when women need it most.
The Advisory Group on Contraception (AGC), supported by Incisive Health, recently published a new report exploring inequalities in access to contraception. Informed by a survey of over 1,000 women, the report highlights that fewer than 30% of women have all contraceptive options discussed with them by a healthcare professional before choosing a method – going against NICE guidelines on contraception. The consequences of this are greatest for marginalised women who may already face a knowledge gap. For example, 50% of women from Gypsy, Roma or Traveller communities who responded to the survey had not heard of any listed methods of contraception.
This is not a challenge unique to contraception. In 2021, a national survey launched to inform the first-ever Women’s Health Strategy for England, revealed that provision of information was sorely lacking on topics including gynaecological conditions and cancers, support for female genital mutilation and sexual assault, and menopause.
The resulting strategy’s focus on improving information and awareness so that women’s health issues “are no longer taboo subjects anywhere in society”, and women can make informed decisions about their healthcare throughout their lives, was welcome. However, although the strategy has supported increased awareness of previously little-known conditions such as adenomyosis, there is clearly still work to do.
Digital channels have an important role in filling this gap
The NHS App is an obvious solution to making more information about women’s health available at women’s fingertips. Indeed, this was a headline recommendation of the AGC’s report, which calls for both the NHS App and NHS website to include easily accessible, accurate and engaging information on the full range of contraceptive methods.
But we also need to look beyond this, and utilise a wider range of tools to reach more women. As Professor Dame Lesley Regan, the government’s Women’s Health Ambassador, has recently argued, the NHS must “get with it” and embrace social media as a channel for delivering health information to younger women. Women are increasingly exposed to misinformation on social media on topics including hormonal contraception, fertility and endometriosis. Yet, groups including younger women and black women report greater reliance on social media for health information than the NHS. The need for social media to host trusted information from qualified health professionals – that is not censored or subject to “shadow banning” – is therefore clear.
A group making up 51% of the population will have hugely diverse needs, and we also need to consider how we can provide more personalised information and support. Here, the FemTech revolution could lead the charge. FemTech is already helping women to better understand their cardiovascular risk and navigate challenges during menopause and the post-partum period, and research demonstrates appetite for better technology across a much broader range of women’s health topics – from allowing self-examination of the vagina and cervix to improving understanding of how to treat pelvic pain and heavy periods. These may seem simple in theory, but would be revolutionary in practice for many women.
However, today’s innovation landscape is slowing the pace of progress. Challenges in adopting and scaling new innovations in the NHS have long been recognised, but FemTech innovators often face even more of an uphill battle throughout the innovation pathway, facing barriers from investor bias to pervasive stigma and misunderstanding surrounding women’s health needs.
Finding the right balance
In the quest to increase patients’ autonomy over their health, we cannot forget the role of healthcare professionals, who must have sufficient time and resource to provide robust counselling. If technology’s role is not to replace, but to augment, it has a clear role here: by improved signposting to trusted digital resources ahead of an appointment, women can come with an enhanced baseline knowledge about the choices they have, facilitating a more fruitful discussion on the day.
The specific needs of underserved and marginalised women must also be fully considered. In certain ethnic minority communities, for example, there is “no word for menopause”. It is therefore critical that the focus is not just about making the information available, but making sure it lands appropriately. Digital channels can play a part here, as demonstrated by Dr Nighat Arif’s TikTok videos, created in Punjabi and Urdu, to provide culturally-sensitive information on the menopause. Here, Dr Arif’s position as a trusted community champion has been key.
Where do we go next?
Having pledged pre-election to “prioritise women’s health”, the Government must now strengthen the provision of women’s health information as it seeks to put more power in patients’ hands.
The shift from analogue to digital can support the delivery of this ambition. For many women, digital channels are an increasingly go-to source for health information and the NHS is well-placed to tap into this, utilising digital methods including the NHS App and national social media campaigns to improve women’s health literacy.
However, the NHS cannot reverse decades of stigmatisation and of women’s health on its own. To maximise impact, the Government must also look to the huge amount of innovation that is already underway. Often female-founded, FemTech has unique insight in pinpointing where women’s needs are not being met, and understanding where digital provision of additional information and support is needed.
The Government must now seek to integrate FemTech solutions into NHS pathways. The first step is to nurture an innovation landscape that is more accessible to female innovators, and that incentivises development in historically overlooked health topics – for example through launching a funding and innovation challenge dedicated to women’s health literacy, co-created with a steering group of experts in women’s health.
To find out more about Incisive Health’s knowledge of women’s health policy in the UK and beyond, or how we can support your organisation to help transform women’s health, contact our team of experts at womenshealth@incisivehealth.com.