According to Tech Target, only about 30% of the technology workforce is made up of women.
This is shifting, and we couldn’t be more excited to see women advancing technology and equality in the workplace.
Healthjump's Director of Product Delivery, Laura Stewart, sat down with two women visionaries in healthcare technology to learn more about their experiences.
Nicole is the founder and CEO of Elaborate, a health delivery platform that specializes in simplifying and optimizing lab results to give patients the power to understand and use their results. Learn more about Nicole and Elaborate here.
Joy is the host of the HIT Like a Girl podcast — which celebrates the contributions of women in health IT — and the CEO of Chirpy Bird Health IT Consulting, a company that guides practices and organizations through complicated health policies and programs.
Read on to learn more about these two incredible women and their roles in the health technology space.
Finding Courage to Solve Problems in Healthcare
Innovators in technology trade in the currency of big ideas. But those big ideas require some real moxie, innovation, and entrepreneurialism to get off the ground.
Joy and Nicole explain that taking a risk and investing in yourself is what it takes to solve a problem and start a business in health technology.
Begin with small steps to bring you towards the bigger picture. Additionally, Joy and Nicole love to pick other people's brains.
What do you know about this issue and what do other people know? How does your idea fill a gap?
“If you’re not an expert in something, find someone who is. See what they think and how they might approach the obstacle you’re facing.”
Biggest Obstacles in Health Tech
According to the World Economic Forum, only 15% of CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are women.
Nicole describes feeling as though she had to include being a female CEO as part of her pitch when first starting her business. She wasn’t confident that her experience and expertise were 'enough'. This illustrates a struggle that many women face.
Exuding authority and credibility is vital to leading and inspiring early adoption of new technology.
Joy explained the inherent struggle in encouraging providers and healthcare organizations to adapt to new technology. Throughout her career, she has guided providers through adjusting their routines and habits toward a more technology-based practice.
2022 Trends in Health IT
In 2022, Joy is looking forward to seeing technology that is more tuned into the issues specific to certain cohorts of patients, specifically female patients. In healthcare, women are often excluded from tests and thought of as smaller versions of men.
Technology unlocks the possibility to better measure and analyze female health, including the bodily functions and health needs that are different from men. Better data, generated from female health research, will enable medical professionals to provide better care.
‘Femtech’ health technology has seen a recent boom. Unfortunately, according to McKinsey, femtech companies only receive about 3% of all digital health funding. This is the reality in a market sized between $500 million and $1 billion.
Following Strong Female Voices in Tech
There are so many incredible women working in health technology. During the panel, Joy and Nicole listed a few that they really admired, including Holly Varnell, Amy Divaraniya, and Michelle Davey.
They discussed that female leaders bring a different perspective to health informatics. They also explained that it’s important to consider the perspectives and backgrounds of other diverse people groups as well. This is how we can begin to make healthcare technology truly inclusive.
Be sure to listen to HIT Like a Girl to learn more about female-led innovations happening in health technology.
Make it Happen With Healthjump
Have a vision? Starting out can be overwhelming. Like Joy and Nicole explained, it takes a lot of small steps to iron out the kinks and gain traction. One main struggle that health tech entrepreneurs face is learning how to make their idea reality.
We partner with health technology companies, like Elaborate, to extract and deliver data from multiple EHR systems.
EHR data can be incredibly confusing to navigate. Healthjump allows you to focus on creating a quality product that will improve healthcare.
At any stage, at any level, Healthjump is here to help. If you’re curious if our platform could accelerate your progress, reach out now.
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