Women's Health Meets Digital Tech: HIT Considerations in Femtech Post-Dobbs

Throughout history, individuals identifying as female have been neglected and excluded from the world of modern medicine. Unable to participate in clinical trials until 1993, women have routinely faced gaslighting by the medical industry, with insufficient data to demonstrate how diseases and cures impact women differently than their male counterparts. While the economic burden of women's diseases exceeds $500 billion, investment in women's health remained stagnant until 2016. However, the advent of digital health technology opened the door for women's health solutions to flourish. Known broadly as female health technology, femtech is shining a light on the shadows that often accompany women's health and challenging the taboos and stigma surrounding women's health and wellness.

While the emerging field of femtech has been praised for its empowerment of women, many individuals are unaware of this industry and clinicians are unsure how to use the data produced by these devices. Further, many femtech devices and companies operate in regulatory voids that allow them to collect and sell sensitive health data for profit or employ lax security measures. This presentation, taught by Bethany Corbin, explores the legal and health IT challenges associated with women's health innovation and discusses how this industry can enhance clinical practice outcomes. The topics addressed in this presentation include (1) data inaccuracies and algorithmic bias, (2) data privacy and security, including risks associated with monetization of women's health data, (3) the legal and regulatory frameworks governing health IT for women's health applications and practices, and (4) compliance best practices.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify trends and health IT risks in the emerging femtech industry, including a comprehensive understanding of the clinician-tech founder gap

2. Evaluate data privacy and security risks and solutions associated with health technology that collects, stores, or transmits sensitive health data, including reproductive health data in a post-Dobbs world

3. Develop a comprehensive understanding of the legal and regulatory frameworks governing health IT for women's health applications (including newly proposed federal and state laws)

4. Implement actionable privacy and security best practices for reproductive health data to facilitate risk mitigation