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MedTech Color's Collaborative Community will host a webinar on May 25, 2023 to address the maternal health crisis and explore how the medtech industry can help.
According to the CDC, maternal mortality rates have steadily increased since 2018, and these deaths affect Black women 3-4 times more than white women. This is especially alarming because more than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable. Moreover, even though women account for about 80% of the healthcare industry’s consumer purchasing, women’s health is considered only a small subsection of healthcare.
This webinar brings together diverse female founders in the maternal health space. The virtual panel discussion will address three core objectives: (1) Showcase diverse female founders and their journeys into Medtech as a women of color, (2) Highlight ways current technologies are being used in the maternal health space and gaps that need to be addressed and/or are addressed by the founders, and (3) Give founders a platform to discuss how their lived experiences as a woman, and as a woman of color, showcases the importance of diversity in clinical research/Medtech.
Lean more about the speakers:
Tracy Dooley is a Partner at Avestria Ventures where she invests in early stage medtech, healthtech, and life science companies focused on women’s health and female founders. Prior to joining Avestria, Tracy was a digital health & innovation consultant for clients including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Novartis, and early stage startups. Previous to that she served as Head of Global Operations at Novartis Diagnostics/Grifols, after leading strategy & innovation efforts. Tracy started her career as a healthcare M&A investment banker. Tracy holds an MD from Stanford and a BS in Biomedical Engineering from the University of Southern California.
Avneet Heer has a deep passion for equitable access to MedTech offerings. Her experience spans supporting diagnostic and biopharma companies with global market access and policy, reimbursement and commercialization strategy, evidence development & value communication. Avneet has deep experience in working on Precision Medicine Commercial Strategy and Market Access issues, as well as at the UK and Ireland headquarters of Johnson & Johnson, and in Healthcare and Life Sciences Investment Banking. In addition to this she has taken on several projects related to intellectual property of drugs. Avneet has an MS from Georgetown University in Biotechnology (BioBusiness Concentration) and a BS in Biochemistry from the University of Leeds, UK.
Ashlee Wisdom is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Health in Her HUE, a digital
health platform with a mission to reduce racial health disparities by leveraging the power of technology, media and community to improve health outcomes for Black women. Wisdom holds over a decade of experience working across top healthcare companies such as NYC Health + Hospitals, Weill Cornell Medicine and Junto Health in leadership roles supporting a range of programmatic and functional areas including program development, recruitment and regulatory activities, and grants management. Ashlee is a passionate public health innovator and a champion for equitable access to quality care for all. She is a Board Member for Peer Health Exchange. In 2022, she was named an Aspen Institute Healthy Communities Fellow and was honored by FemTech Focus with the First in FemTech Award. In 2021, she was named a Top 50 in Digital Health by Rock Health for her health equity advocacy. Ashlee also presented to the TEDx audience in 2020. She holds a Master of Public Health with a focus in Healthcare Policy and Management from New York University’s School of Global Public Health and a Bachelor of Science degree in both Biology and Psychology from Howard University in Washington, D.C. Ashlee lives in New York City and enjoys traveling, going to brunch, and riding her Peloton bike.
Ariana McGee is the Founder and CEO of Navigate Maternity. NM has created a remote patient monitoring system for prenatal and postpartum patients. Mothers are dying and specifically, Black women are dying 3-4x the national average during childbirth and postpartum due to reactive care, data gaps, and bias. Ariana experienced the inequity in perinatal care after almost dying during childbirth with her fourth child. As a healthcare leader in the medical device and biopharmaceutical industries (BD, Biogen, Genzyme, etc.) for the last 11 years, Ariana brings a wealth of knowledge and is uniquely positioned as a mother and healthcare leader to commercialize NM. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her husband, AJ, and their four little ones – Jade (5), Trey (3), Naomi (2), and Aliya (1). “We’re here to save the mamas and the babies.”
Maya Hardigan is the founder and CEO of Mae: a culturally responsive digital first platform connecting Black expectant and new mothers with critical resources to drive positive pregnancy outcomes. Prior to founding Mae, Maya spent 15 years in digital healthcare, most recently at Pfizer, with a primary focus on building and scaling technologies to engage, inform, and optimize care for patients, while also driving financial and operational efficiencies for healthcare payers. Maya holds a Bachelors in Biology and Psychology from Duke University and a MBA from Columbia Business School. She is the proud mama of three little girls, and resides in Brooklyn, NY.
To register for this event, please click here.
About MedTech Color:
MedTech Color is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization aiming to advance the representation of persons of color in the medical device industry; a destination and resource for professional development, thought leadership, and strategies to increase the number of underrepresented executives who enter, stay, and contribute to the industry. For more information, please visit: https://medtechcolor.org