Bloomer Tech — Breaking the misogynistic dogma of heart disease

Introducing Bloomer Tech

This week we are highlighting our investment in Bloomer Tech. Founded by MIT engineers, Bloomer Tech is helping advance women’s cardiovascular health by creating a smart bra that incorporates cardiovascular monitors into women’s daily wear. Recently, founder Alicia Chong Rodriguez delivered a powerful Ted talk on the importance of data in women’s cardiovascular health and how a smart bra could bridge that gap (published only a week ago and already at 600k+ views, tremendous work Alicia!!).

Bridging the healthcare gap

Women with heart disease are under-diagnosed, under-studied, and under-treated. Studies show that there is a significant gap in self-awareness of the conditions between men and women, and hence a gap in outcomes due to the difference in preventative care available. Even the fact that heart disease is the major cause of death in women over 65 years of age is rarely discussed.

The disparity in heart disease treatment between men and women represents a major failure of how we have been practicing medicine. A study in the Journal of the American Heart Association found that women with heart disease were more likely to report treatment disparities, finding that providers failed to offer them the same care or respect they offered male patients.

Among women from minority racial and ethnic backgrounds, the outcomes are even more extreme. As diverse populations grow within the United States, the burden of cardiovascular disease disproportionately affects minority communities, yet the medical community has traditionally failed to ensure proper representation in clinical trials or an equal standard of care across all communities.

Despite being an equal opportunity disease, the traditional dogma of cardiovascular health has essentially ignored women’s health; Bloomer Tech’s smart bras begin to close the gap providing more women with a better solution to focus on cardiovascular health.

The need for women’s data

Any machine learning algorithm is only as good as the data that is used to train the system. While artificial intelligence promises significant advances in medical treatments and therapies, without representative data sets the gender gap in cardiovascular health will continue to grow. This is the same core belief that is at the heart of another Koa investment — Kinsa Health. Alicia and the team at Bloomer Tech are solving the problem of a lack of data on women’s cardiovascular health by turning the everyday bra into a potentially lifesaving device to continuously and remotely record physiological data. Their wearable technology captures and generates continuous digital biomarkers of cardiovascular health, giving patients the ability to easily keep heart health top of mind and also generate the data required to advance research in women’s cardiovascular health.

Why it matters to us

At Koa Labs we love backing founders who are solving complex problems with innovative and intuitive solutions and Bloomer Tech is a truly unique solution for the complex problem of improving women’s cardiovascular health.Every Bloomer Tech bra won’t just help it’s individual wearer improve their health, the data collected may help thousands of women as we close the gap in the research of cardiovascular diseaseEvery Bloomer Tech bra breaks the dogma of heart disease as a ‘men’s disease’ and empowers women to be in charge of their health. We could not be more proud to support Alicia, Aceil, and the whole team at Bloomer Tech on their incredible journey.