Given this growing market segment, you’d expect the industry to focus their attention on women, but it hasn’t happened yet. Let me highlight the urgent need for doing this. According to Wikipedia, Women’s health refers to the health of women, which differs from that of men in many unique ways. Women’s health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” inclusive of women’s reproductive health.
A woman’s health is not influenced just by her biology, but also by other conditions such as poverty, employment, family responsibilities, and much more. A woman’s ability to reproduce and her sensitive sexual health put her at a bit of a disadvantage especially given the general neglect by nations. I have only touched the tip of the iceberg, whereas the issues about a woman’s health are endless and are continuing to grow by the day.
Women contend with substantial risks due to pregnancy and childbirth, resulting in high mortality rates in places that can’t provide adequate care. Besides this, a woman is in danger to contract other non-reproductive diseases such as breast cancer, ovarian/cervical cancers, vaginitis, urinary tract health, polycystic ovary syndrome, menopause, HIV, sexually transmitted infections, pelvic inflammatory disease, and many others. A woman also faces issues that come with birth control, unplanned pregnancy, un-consensual sexual activity and right to abortion. All these challenges can be addressed through the revolutionary technology called ‘IoT.’
Today, a woman needs a solution which will help her sail through her pregnancy cycle seamlessly than ever before. If there is a solution that can help her manage her doctor appointments, remind her to take medicines on time, eat on time, monitor her overall medical condition at any given point in time, motivates her to exercise, etc. Likewise, another major problem of a woman is her monthly blues. During her mensural cycles, a woman goes through changes both physically and mentally. Is there a solution which will monitor her periods, remind her of the due dates, ensure personal and physical hygienes, alert her to take protections to avoid unsafe physical intercourse, etc.
In this dog-eat-dog world, a woman is equally running the rat race and juggling with so many things. She plays complex roles right from being a career woman, mother, caretaker of her family (elderly relatives), family event planner, housekeeper, wife, partner, friend, volunteer, student, and so on. These roles demand excessive burn out of energy both physically and mentally. Balancing these roles could be detrimental to her health and well-being which emphasises the drastic need and exclusive focus on a women’s healthcare in this modern era.
To summarise, we’ve only touched upon the surface of the issues concerning the women’s health. I want the Industry to realise that even though healthcare is one of the Industry’s to focus, know that the biggest vertical or the significant market opportunity to focus is ‘WOMEN.’ There is a dire need to come up with IoT solutions that will help a woman manage and do things efficiently and with ease by ensuring preventive mechanisms and enabling her to be Safe, Secure, Empowered – ‘Smart Women 2.0’.
