Today we met Dr. Ilana Kwartin, founder of Levana. Like so many FemTech-focused innovators, the drive to develop solutions was born from a personal problem which Ilana shared during the session. She says that founders are compelled to start companies when they realize that their little problem is actually a phenomenon. In this case, it was a diagnosis of ADHD and the treatment she received that was never properly dosed for women and never took into account hormonal shifts due to menstruation.
That made her dig into the problem and she discovered that clinical trials of meds and proper dosing regimens were based on… men, not women (neither was there a crash test dummy of a female body until recently…). Correcting for these enormous omissions is the broadest and simplest definition of FemTech, Ilana says.
Innovation is not a linear path. Ilana’s first thought was to invent a coffee maker that would spit out the right-dosed meds based on user input in the moment. What emerged is a digital companion for self-reporting of symptoms as a means to titrate medication in sync with hormonal cycles. It is a digital companion that puts every woman at the center of her own care. And you’d think this was a big enough ambition…but watch the video to see where Levana is heading.
What’s ahead? Starting focus groups and partnering with an Israeli healthcare organization that would like to adopt this after it’s been validated. And finding investors.
Make sure to visit Levana.