Healthcare has long overlooked the unique complexities of the female body. Too often, women’s health is assumed to mean only reproductive health. However, conditions such as autoimmune diseases, many cancer types, and mental health disorders also disproportionately impact women — representing more than half of their overall health burden.
Due to underfunding, a lack of data, and unconscious biases, women face a critical gender health gap. They are often diagnosed four years later than men and are seven times more likely to have a heart condition misdiagnosed. This gap impacts life expectancy, quality of life, and women’s trust in healthcare.
To close the gap, innovative digital health solutions can empower women to take control of their health and make meaningful improvements to their physical and mental well-being.
AI is revolutionising women’s experience of healthcare
With AI, women now have access to trustworthy, personalised information that can help them understand and manage their health more effectively, improving their lived experience.
AI applications are revolutionising areas like fertility tracking, breast cancer prevention, menopause management, and mental health support. From menstrual health apps that personalise recommendations based on symptoms and hormone levels to wearable devices that track real time changes and guide lifestyle adjustments, AI is enabling better digital healthcare across the board.
These innovative services are enabling better care through data-backed insights that inform healthcare decisions and support meaningful conversations with healthcare professionals.
However, sustained behavioural change remains a challenge, highlighting the need for intuitive, user-centred solutions that fit into women’s lives, working around the imbalance of household and childcare duties.
How user-centred design can improve women’s health experiences
Even the best tech-driven idea can fail if it does not meet users’ needs in terms of design. User-centred design (UCD) is instrumental in developing digital health solutions that resonate with women’s needs, resulting in more effective experiences.
There are three core guiding principles that are essential for delivering user-centred solutions:
- User involvement. The end user must be involved in the design process from the start. By understanding lived experiences through user research at each stage of development, designers can better tailor solutions to users’ emotions, experiences, and motivations. This results in solutions built with empathy that focus on known needs rather than assumptions.
- Accessibility. A visually appealing product may not actually meet user needs, especially with diverse abilities and backgrounds. Colours, language, features, and the interface can significantly impact user experience, particularly in healthcare. It should be easy, efficient, and enjoyable — anything less will affect results.
- Iterative design. A product built based on UCD is never ‘finished’. User needs, societal ideals, technology and best practice are constantly evolving, which means experiences can almost always be improved. By continuously refining digital services based on user feedback, providers can ensure they are offering a supportive, empathetic and effective environment.
This design approach in women’s health can improve underwhelming experiences that have historically overlooked gender differences in lifestyle and health. For example, women often bear extra home and childcare responsibilities, so intuitive solutions that seamlessly integrate into their daily lives can make a significant impact.
Creating impactful, individualised digital experiences
Women’s health is diverse and challenging, so digital health solutions need to move beyond generic recommendations to cater to hormonal complexity and lifestyle factors, so that every woman’s care experience is unique.
Women often face delayed medical care due to caregiving responsibilities, financial barriers, lack of insurance coverage and systemic inequalities. We are still only seeing the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how intelligent, user-centred digital solutions can help.
With vast differences between individuals, personalisation through AI can play a critical role in providing and adapting health recommendations based on user inputs, environmental factors and cycle tracking. It can also go further by putting women in control of their health data and empowering them to advocate for themselves, bridging the gap between digital and clinical care. A hybrid approach – digital tools that complement human interaction and expert guidance – will be the gold standard as the FemTech revolution continues, providing better access and experiences in women’s health.