Highlights from the 4th Annual Reproductive Health Innovation Summit – Harvard Law College
Through CHLPI Site
By Ellie Samuels ’24
As a member of the Health Regulation and Coverage Clinic’s Reproductive health group, I experienced the chance to attend the fourth annual Reproductive Health and fitness Innovation Summit in Boston. The convention highlighted a whirlwind of events spotlighting urgent subjects in reproductive wellbeing and championing technological breakthroughs in the area.
A lot of of the panelists and presenters were health-related know-how professionals and charismatic startup founders conversations about enterprise capital, patent protections, and “industry disruption” abounded. As anyone with a history in the legislation and policy facet of reproductive legal rights, I usually felt like a fish out of h2o. At the same time, it was an amazingly educational and fascinating window into an unfamiliar sect of the reproductive health landscape. A person of my favorite activities was a panel entitled The Intersection of Innovation, Legislation and Advocacy in Sexual & Reproductive Wellbeing. The panel assisted bridge the gap involving technological innovation and plan, and served as an important reminder of how laws and regulation are instrumental in encouraging or hindering innovation.
While much of the conference centered on innovation related to fertility and IVF, other situations spotlighted concerns that are far too typically disregarded, like Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), endometriosis, and postpartum despair. I learned chilling facts like that there is an just about total lack of pregnant people today in world medical trials, there are steep racial disparities in fertility treatment, and remedies employed to deal with PCOS target on symptoms rather than straight addressing the underlying induce (which is nevertheless mysterious).
All in all, I was so thrilled to witness so significantly technological innovation centering the desires of pregnant people today. The definitive spotlight for me was the Reproductive Overall health Innovation Showcase. Companies debuted promising new electronic technologies and therapeutic and diagnostic remedies, with a prize awarded by common vote.
In this article are three improvements from the showcase that most caught with me, all of which fulfilled a pressing reproductive wellness want with artistic, empathetic technology alternatives:
- Supporting folks self-control abortions
I was blown away by a nonprofit identified as Vitala, which ended up getting the prize on the to start with day of the showcase (the “digital technologies” working day). Vitala operates a Spanish-language application, Ayo Contigo, geared toward aiding females self-regulate their abortions. Ayo Contigo walks users through their abortion, with abortion doulas available for stay chats. Founder Genevieve Tam defined how the app originated in Venezuela as a reaction to the country’s strict abortion bans, and describes its ongoing launch in the United States, in partnership with Prepared Parenthood. Info privateness is crucial in criminalized lawful landscapes like Venezuela and lots of U.S. states., so the app involves no user login and consists of no exchange of determining information and facts. I was relieved to listen to about this prioritization of person safety, especially following a fertility tracking app was just lately sued for offering person info.
- Employing AI to tackle the reproductive overall health information gap
I was also amazed by Celeste, an AI device established by startup founder Athena Doshi for compiling facts on medicine parts, drug interactions, and clinical demo outcomes to assistance reproductive health and fitness suppliers greater fulfill the wants of patients. I am typically cautious about the use of AI in medicine—it appears especially dystopian in the psychological well being house—but I appreciated how Celeste was intended particularly as an supplier “co-pilot” to assist medical practitioners when they are prescribing medicine, not as a company replacement.
- Creating tampons to strengthen sexual health
My final most loved layout was Daye, a startup started by Valentina Milanova. Daye functions a new kind of tampon—some with CBD for agony reduction, and other folks which exam for and detect sexually transmitted bacterial infections (STIs). In her presentation, Milanova emphasized how minimal improvement there has been in diagnostic gynecological resources, to the place the place the most important instrument for diagnosis, the speculum, is almost similar to its ancient Roman counterpoints (only, as Milanova pointed out, it is now offered in plastic!).
