Exploring the impact of AI on stigmatized women’s health conditions
Head of Global Strategic Commercial Intelligence at Bayer Consumer Health
Director of External Affairs and Client Success, Ada Health
That was the provocative opening question to panelists in a recent BioPharma Dive webinar titled "Supporting Patients Through Pharma and Digital Health Partnerships." Featuring speakers from Ada Health ('Ada'), a leader in AI-powered symptom assessment and care navigation, and Bayer Consumer Health, one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies. The 60-minute session explored the intersections of women’s health, health equity, and partnerships between digital health and pharmaceutical companies that aim to narrow access gaps.
Watch the full webinar ➡️ or read the summary below ⬇️
So what’s the answer?
While it seems feasible that a burgeoning market of digital health tools might blur the lines between online and offline care, nothing can replace clinicians, speakers emphasized. The right tools could, however, complement the care they provide — especially for women, who often receive delayed diagnoses but at the same time have a major impact on household decisions and digital health uptake.
"Over the years, we have started to see less of a separation between digital health and healthcare — now it's kind of all healthcare," said Shireen Saxena, Director of External Affairs and Client Success at Ada, in the webinar. "And with that, the question becomes, ‘How do we provide people who are seeking care with safe, accurate information so that they can make appropriate decisions? And how can we apply AI and other technologies in the right context for the right use cases?"
Director of External Affairs and Client Success, Ada Health
In an environment where roughly 6 in 10 consumers want to use more digital health tools to interact with healthcare professionals, these trends create opportunities for manufacturers looking to support patient empowerment, added Rohan Kamath, Head of Global Strategic Commercial Intelligence, Consumer Health, Bayer.
Partnerships with digital health companies like Ada are supporting that shift, he added.
During the event, Rohan and Shireen explored Bayer’s partnership with Ada and what it reveals about the power of healthcare consumers, shifting expectations in patient-driven care, and how digital tools can overcome the barriers of a strained healthcare system.
Here's what they covered...
If pharma and digital health companies are to partner together, what makes that partnership so powerful in the context of women’s health specifically?
Three things, Shireen suggested:
Women are often diagnosed later than men — “and we can't afford to let these conditions go undiagnosed and untreated for women, their families, employers, or the economy,"
Women are often the household decision-makers, accounting for 80% of consumer purchasing decisions in the healthcare industry. They’re not only navigating appointments, medications, and decisions for themselves, but often for their kids, their partners, and their parents too.
Women are more comfortable turning to digital health. They’re 75% more likely to use digital health tools than men, emphasizing the importance of making sure digital health works for these top users.
It’s those same factors that are also redefining what “women’s health” means (or should mean, rather). Although the term covers gynecological and obstetric health, it also captures much more, Shireen explained — from conditions where symptoms present differently between women and men (like cardiac events) to those where women are disproportionally represented (like multiple sclerosis).
Often, a better understanding of prevalent but overlooked conditions (like endometriosis), stigmatized ones (like sexually transmitted diseases), and even caregiver-involved fields (like pediatrics) helps to broaden the view of women’s health, she added.
Rohan explained Bayer's perspective on women's health, which he defined as a cross-category, holistic portfolio that caters to women at all stages of their lives — from adolescence to intimate health, maternal health, menopause, and beyond. Although organizations like Bayer have made strides in supporting those comprehensive patient journeys, they've also encountered challenges, he added.
"While women are often at the center of making a lot of these decisions and also taking care of themselves, there are also a lot of barriers to them gaining the necessary knowledge about the conditions they (or the people they're caring for) are facing," Rohan said.
As consumers seek information online, they're often barraged with, at best, a lack of credible voices and, at worst, dangerous misinformation. That's why Bayer sought a partner they could trust to support one of their biggest consumer brands. A partner with credibility, scientific backing, and scalability that would ensure patient confidentiality so that consumers could learn more from the comfort and privacy of their own homes.
It was that ambition that pushed Rohan's team to explore partnership models with digital health companies — and ultimately what led them to Ada. As well as a collaborative approach, selecting the right technology is essential.
Head of Global Strategic Commercial Intelligence, Consumer Health, Bayer
Ada's AI-driven symptom assessment was deployed for this population so that women could get a comprehensive analysis of their symptoms in a private setting. They can ultimately use the recommendations to access appropriate treatment and, as needed, inform conversations with their providers. In doing so, Bayer saw almost immediate success and Ada's symptom assessment became the biggest driver of traffic to the website.
"We've helped over 400,000 consumers with their intimate health challenges, and we also know that the Canesten website has become the number one source of credible information after the NHS on intimate health," Rohan said, adding that the engagement across that journey was much higher than they'd seen before.
"We saw more time spent on the site, more time spent consuming educational content, and a much higher conversion of people looking to take action."
Rohan and Shireen explored the values of pharma-digital health partnerships through their own anecdotes of working together to support Canesten®, a UK product indicated for symptoms such as bacterial vaginosis and vaginal thrush (a common yeast infection), and one of Bayer's biggest brands. It's a topic not many patients may feel comfortable discussing publicly at the pharmacy counter, making it ideal for digital health support—especially given appointment waitlists that can delay care.
Many health systems around the world are facing immense pressure on services, this pressure is actually limiting women from accessing care and getting a doctor's appointment," Rohan said. “Additionally, in the space of intimate health, there's a lot of stigma and apprehension in discussing these problems with a healthcare professional as well as others."
"In such an environment, the value of digital health platforms that can come in and address these barriers is quite immense," he added.
The success of Bayer and Ada's partnership lay in their approach to collaboration, Shireen shared. When organizations realize their complementing strengths, they can use them to optimize impact. And in a time of increasing interest in pharma-digital health alliances, that’s a lesson any stakeholder should consider, she added.
"Not every player can or should do everything," Shireen said. "We had a very good conversation about branding, trust, steering, user experience, direct-to-consumer engagement, and more. There are things that we can each do and things that we each cannot do. And I think that honest conversation really allows you to have the most effective impact on the user journey."
Find out more: Supporting women's intimate health with Bayer
Together, Ada's AI can help patients better understand their health and access treatment.