Most advances in healthcare are geared towards men, with only four percent of research in the healthcare sector being specifically for women. This gap leaves women at risk, as symptoms for common diseases and the rate at which they get disease is different from men.
It only makes sense their treatment should be different as well. FemTech AZ’s mission is to connect researchers, clinicians and investors to find solutions explicitly tailored to female biology. The organization is tapping into a $1 trillion economic opportunity in an effort to drive women’s health innovation.
Dr. Mitzi Krockover, co-founder of FemtechAZ and Professor of Practice at ASU’s College of Health Solutions, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss what Femtech AZ is and why closing the research gap is important.
Krockover described the notable differences between sexes regarding both symptoms and the rate of disease.
“If you think about heart disease, number one killer of women and men and but women may have different symptoms. So we manifest that differently, may even be that we have different physiology and anatomy. The second bucket is that those conditions that are predominantly women. So you think about Alzheimer’s. Sixty seven percent of people with Alzheimer’s are women. Eighty percent of people with osteoporosis are women. And autoimmune diseases, women are overrepresented,” Krockover said.
Krockover cited a study to explain the economic gains Arizona could see by investing in women’s health innovation.
“McKinsey did a study that if you do close that gap globally, you can get a one trillion dollar return on investment by 2040 annually and in the United States, two hundred ninety five billion dollars. So wouldn’t Arizona want a little piece of that?” Krockover said.
