Ellyn Winters-Robinson
CEO of the Lyndall Project and AskEllyn, Co-Creator AskEllyn.ai, President & CMO Ignition, Bestselling Author of Flat Please
Canada
My passion for women’s health and for the patient experience was ignited in 2022 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer. Before that diagnosis, I had limited exposure to the healthcare system – other than being briefly hospitalized to have two children. Quite honestly, I was ignorant of the state and quality of women’s health.
What I have learned, and been shocked by over the last two years, is that paternalism and misogyny continue to plague the healthcare system, starting with the way doctors are educated, flowing through to research and patient care.
Only 11% of women worldwide are screened for any type of cancer. Women are still dismissed and gaslit by their doctors. Women diagnosed with female cancers in many parts of the world are considered damaged goods, at higher risk of domestic violence and feel shame and are blamed for their diagnosis. I have personally seen countless photos of women who after breast cancer surgery have been left mutilated and ashamed of their bodies because of surgeons who simply cut out the disease with little compassion for a woman’s self-identity. Female founders of femtech startups are underappreciated and underfunded by male-dominant technology and venture capital communities.. Patient-driven innovation is rare and dismissed by a system that views us not as colleagues, or people, but rather as walking diseases. Even in western nations there is significant disparity in access to care for women, with women in rural populations and women of colour facing significant barriers and issues of bias and inequality.
While I believe women’s health is having a “moment” and is now the topic of broad discussion, the reality is that we have a very long way to go on multiple fronts before we see material improvement.
I am worried that the political wave of far right conversatism in countries around the world including the United States will result in a significant set back in women’s health and female rights including reproductive rights. We’re already seeing this play out with the reversal of Roe vs Wade, the banning of abortion in various US states, and even recent anti-feminist statements by notables such as Mark Zuckerberg, calling for more “masculine energy” in business. We are seeing only the tip of the iceberg now.
There are a few things that could (and will) impact change and address these challenges.
We need to do a better job of educating future doctors and nurses about the unique challenges around women’s health, and more investment in women’s health-centered research
I believe artificial intelligence applied to healthcare will be an absolute game changer in enabling better analysis of root cause data for disease understanding, better, faster and earlier diagnosis of disease, and better more efficient healthcare and patient care on a global level. Technology innovation can also lead to more cost-effective diagnostic capabilities for deployment in low to middle income countries.
We need more women in leadership roles in healthcare, in politics, in policy, in insurance – as long as men remain in charge women’s health will never be priortized.
And finally we need activism. We need women everywhere to get angry about the raw deal women have been dealt with respect to healthcare, and we need collectively raise our voices and be part of the change. We can’t sit on our hands and expect it to happen without us.
