Ovom Care, a pioneering German startup in the fertility sector, recently closed €4.8 million ($5.1 million) in seed funding to expand its services across Europe, according to Tech Funding News. Led by an all-female founding team, Ovom Care is at the forefront of integrating empathetic reproductive healthcare by using a combination of generative AI and computer vision. This investment round, led by Alpha Intelligence Capital and supported by Ananda Impact Ventures and Merantix, makes the company’s total funding €6.1 million ($6.5 million). The startup is set to open its first clinic in Portugal by late 2024,
People of color are more likely to work irregular and prolonged hours, contributing to long-term health issues, according to a new study by Wen-Jui Han, a professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. Even among Black professionals and other minorities in office jobs, Han tells Fortune, there’s a pressure to work longer hours to succeed. Long, irregular work hours Han’s study utilized data from the 1979 National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, which tracked over 7,000 U.S. workers from age 22 to 50. She found that employees, especially people of color,
Digital health startup Acclinate has partnered with Quilt.AI to enhance its Black maternal health initiatives through AI and cultural understanding. Increasing Culturally Competent Healthcare Professionals Black women in the U.S. are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. Acclinate is a digital health startup focused on improving health equity through technology and community engagement, particularly within communities of color. Thanks to Acclinate’s NOWINCLUDED community platform, significant strides have been made in understanding the healthcare needs of Black mothers over the past year. Data from the Mommy Listening
Research has shown that Black adults experience higher rates of sleep disorders, such as sleep apnea, insomnia, and irregular sleep patterns, more frequently than other demographic groups. Dr. Ivor Horn, Google’s Chief Health Equity Officer, is at the forefront of addressing these health disparities using AI. Her role mainly involves bridging healthcare gaps by using technology to enhance healthcare equity, particularly for marginalized communities. Sleep Disorders With Black People Factors contributing to less sleep among Black individuals include location, environmental noise, light pollution, and broader socio-economic issues such as stress and racial discrimination.
Frontline Doulas has launched the California Black Doula Directory, a resource designed to connect Black families across Los Angeles County with culturally aligned doula services at no cost. Founded in 2019 by Dr. Sayida Peprah-Wilson and Khefri Riley, community-based doulas and champions for Black maternal health, Frontline Doulas is at the forefront of preventative perinatal care in Southern California. “We want to ensure all birthing families find the care they need and deserve, with mutual respect and cultural alignment,” Riley said, according to Black Voice News. The California Black Doula Directory The introduction of this directory comes at
A 14-year-old passionate about technology, Sophie has developed an innovative AI chatbot focused on mental health. Mental Health meets AI Unlike the usual narratives surrounding AI, such as privacy invasion and fake news, Sophie’s AI chatbot offers hope to users. Her mother, Samantha, in a TikTok video, revealed how Sophie’s creation counters negative self-talk and mental health issues with positive affirmations and exercises in self-awareness and boundary setting. This chatbot’s introduction goes, “Humans often struggle on focusing on the present … and comparing each other to other people who we think are better, when really we should focus
A recent study has revealed that Black patients may be less likely than their white counterparts to receive responses from doctors to their online queries. The study in JAMA Network Open is based on examining medical advice request messages sent in 2021 to Boston Medical Center, a major safety-net provider. As the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with substantial growth in patient portal messaging, the researchers scrutinized over 39,000 messages from primary care patients during this time. Black Patients Less Likely To Get A Response Of the patients included in the sample, 2006 were Asian, 21600
AI’s inability to detect signs of depression in social media posts by Black Americans was revealed in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). This disparity raises concerns about the implications of using AI in healthcare, especially when these models lack data from diverse racial and ethnic groups. The Study The study, conducted by researchers from Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine and its School of Engineering and Applied Science, employed an “off the shelf” AI tool to analyze language in posts from 868 volunteers. These participants, comprising equal
Black-owned Diabetes Digital has launched its innovative virtual nutrition counseling service, expanding access to 23 states. Meet The Founders Jessica Jones and Wendy Lopez founded Diabetes Digital as an online platform for virtual nutrition counseling dedicated to diabetes and prediabetes. CEO Jones and COO Lopez are nationally recognized Registered Dietitian Nutritionists and Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialists. The pair also co-founded Food Heaven – an online platform and podcast offering resources on cooking, intuitive eating, and body respect. The Diabetes Digital team comprises Registered Dietitians and Certified Diabetes Educators, bringing extensive expertise to users. “Diabetes Digital
Postpartum difficulties and a gap in the wellness industry led LaDonna Welch to create a mental health app, Ebony Notes, designed to affirm the Black community. Meet LaDonna Welch Welch advocates for diversity, equity, representation, personal growth, and inclusion. After giving birth to her second child in 2012, she learned she had postpartum and seasonal depression when she went to a doctor to discuss her symptoms. “They suggested that I speak to someone, and I was in my 30s. At this point, I had never even considered talking to anyone,”
