Health Equity Spotlight
Springboard Enterprises, in collaboration with Accenture, has created the “2024 State of Women’s Health" report. This in-depth publication dives into the current state of women’s health, highlighting key areas where innovation and funding are urgently needed.
This report aims to raise awareness, spark action, and promote positive change in funding, research, and innovation by shining a spotlight on the complex world of women’s health. For too long, women’s health has been underfunded, under-researched, and misunderstood. While female founders and women’s health advocates are aware of these challenges, women’s health issues face a lack of public understanding and action.
Deanna Angello, Biopharma Commercial Executive and Executive in Residence at Springboard Enterprises, has spent over two decades managing and launching drugs at Pfizer, Genentech, Kite Pharma, and Johnson & Johnson.
Angello shared, "When I started in the pharmaceutical industry two decades ago, women's health was defined as birth control pills. The reality is women's health isn't only about our phases of development and what our bodies go through at each, but also diseases and conditions that predominantly impact women and how medications uniquely affect our bodies. This report provides a holistic view at why women's health has been underfunded, under-researched, and misunderstood for too long."
Angello continued, "The most shocking fact for me, especially because I've been working in the biopharmaceutical industry for over 20 years, was that the NIH Revitalization Act mandated inclusion of women and minorities in clinical trials in 1993. That means it's only been 30 years since these populations were routinely included in clinical trials. We still have tremendous work to do, but with increased awareness and education, we are mobilizing to drive positive change."
Springboard's mission is to accelerate the growth of women-led companies through access to essential resources and a global network of entrepreneurs, advisors, and investors dedicated to building high-growth companies led by women in technology and life sciences. To date, the organization has accelerated the growth of 920+ women-led companies who have generated $39B in value. Springboard's Women’s Health Innovation Accelerator Program serves as a collective voice to drive women’s health innovation, investment, and research. The Program gathers key industry leaders to promote gender-specific health data transparency and spur investment in women’s health innovation to produce better health outcomes for all.
Deanna Angello was a featured speaker on Roivant Social Ventures' September 19th panel, "Increasing Impact: Leveraging Data to Drive Healthcare Access and Advancement." You can read more about the session and access a recording of the event below.
Increasing Impact: Leveraging Data to Drive Healthcare Access and Advancement
In September Roivant Social Ventures (RSV) presented "Increasing Impact: Leveraging Data to Drive Healthcare Access and Advancement." During this event we explored the power that data and representation hold in driving forward healthcare access and advancement.
The integration of data analytics and AI modeling is revolutionizing healthcare, offering the potential to boldly transform how we learn about and treat patients. Data analytics empower the healthcare industry to advance medical research, accelerate drug development, improve public health monitoring, and deliver better patient care. As technology evolves, the potential of data analytics in biomedical informatics will continue to expand, encouraging a future where data-driven insights lead to healthier societies.
While data analytics hold great promise for improving the healthcare industry, they also present a significant challenge-- if the data we collect and have access to is incomplete, the story the data represents is detached from a true depiction of the patients impacted by an illness and their resulting medical treatments. Gaps in understanding, and their resulting biases, lead to arduous healthcare journeys for underserved patient groups, including women. To advance health equity, we must improve our data, especially our health equity data.
Our esteemed panel of experts included:
Deanna Angello, Biotech, Women's Healthcare & HealthTech Commercialization Expert, Executive in Residence for Healthcare and Technology at Springboard Enterprises
Yaw Bediako, PhD, Increasing Diversity of Data for Cancer Treatment Advancements Expert, CEO and Co-Founder of Yemaachi Biotech
William Fitzsimmons, Clinical Trials Expert, Co-Founder of the Catalyzing Access to Research and Equity Representation (CARER) Group and Founder of Tutela Pharmaceuticals Inc
Guramrit LeBron, Maternal Health Expert, COO and Co-Founder of the Bridge Directory
Amanda Waldhauser, Panel Moderator, Executive Director of Roivant Social Ventures
Deanna Angello brings a unique blend of commercialization and scientific prowess to our panel of experts, as a Life Science Executive, Healthcare and Technology Startup CEO advisor, and early-stage Investor. Her 20 years of professional experience spans biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, therapeutic platforms, and digital health across Pfizer, Genentech/Roche, Kite/Gilead, and Johnson & Johnson in Commercial leadership roles. Click here to read more in-depth about Deanna's impressive background.
Yaw Bediako, PhD, is a Ghanaian immunologist and biotech entrepreneur. Convinced that private biotech is crucial to the establishment of a sustainable R&D ecosystem, in June 2020 Yaw co-founded Yemaachi to leverage Africa’s unrivalled genetic diversity to develop novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets for cancer that work uniformly well irrespective of genetic background. Click here to read more about Yaw's trailblazing work in a recent feature written on him by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
William "Bill" Fitzsimmons has over 29 years of pharmaceutical expertise, including roles with Fujisawa Pharmaceuticals and Astellas Pharma that spanned business development, project management, regulatory affairs, and quality assurance. In 2022 Bill co-founded the CARER group to shine a light on the inequities in healthcare experienced by women and people of color in the United States. The group's current focus is on addressing the lack of diversity and representation in clinical trials. Click here to read more about Bill's work spearheading CARER's clinical trial score cards.
Guramrit LeBron is co-founder and COO of the Bridge Directory, an organization that seeks to heal the disparities that families of color face in the healthcare system, through connecting them to supportive and culturally competent medical providers and professionals. Click here to read more about Guramrit's work as a birth and postpartum doula and Certified Lactation Counselor.
Amanda Waldhauser is the Executive Director of Roivant Social Ventures. She is passionate about leveraging technology and data to drive impact in the healthcare industry. In 2023 Amanda graduated from the Harvard Business Analytics Program, a joint venture between Harvard Business School and Harvard's John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, with a focus on quantitative methods, emerging technologies, business and financial statistics, and informatics. Click here to read more in-depth about Amanda's professional background.