Planning A Pregnancy? PreConception CEO Kristy Goodman Shares Nuggets Of Wisdom
Our audience is keen to read about the stories of entrepreneurs creating a difference in the world. Tell us about yourself and your area of work.
My name is Kristy Goodman and I’m the Co-founder & CEO of PreConception, the first and only direct-to-consumer preconception testing platform for women planning a pregnancy. My background is in medicine and I worked as a women’s health PA for several years before starting PreConception. Working in Ob/Gyn I realized how few women were receiving appropriate preconception testing and education before pregnancy and decided to leave clinical practice to start PreConception and bring preconception testing to women across the country through an online platform.
Your story is something many readers would surely relate to. In detail, tell us about your journey behind creating PreConception (www.preconceptiontest.com).
My journey with PreConception actually began several years before I started the company while I was working clinically. I had so many patients over the years who wanted to know what they could do before pregnancy to improve their chances of conceiving, have a healthy pregnancy, and to give their baby the best start in life. Women today realize that prevention is key to a successful pregnancy and they wanted this information before pregnancy. Unfortunately, our healthcare system made this very difficult. Many of their health insurance companies wouldn’t pay for the appropriate testing and out-of-pocket tests were often unaffordable for women, sometimes costing thousands of dollars. Women often had to wait weeks for an appointment and many healthcare providers that they were seeing were not up-to-date on current preconception testing recommendations. On top of that, a lot of offices have a policy to only call patients about test results if they are abnormal, which means that even women who are able to access the appropriate tests are often left in the dark about what their results were and what that means for their future pregnancy.
At the same time, we were seeing a large growth in telemedicine and direct-to-consumer testing in the U.S. and this technology seemed like a natural fit for this market as well. This would give women upfront pricing, easy access to testing on their schedule, when they wanted it, without having to wait weeks for a doctor’s appointment only to find out that their provider is not informed about preconception recommendations or months later to receive a surprise bill in the mail. We’d provide them with personalized, easy-to-understand results that they could interpret without having to play phone tag with their doctor. And best of all, if they did have questions about their results or their preconception journey, we’d be available by phone for a free 30-minute educational call where they’d be paired with an expert in preconception care to help them navigate this journey. That’s 2–3x more time than you’d get during a standard office appointment today.
Once I decided to make this vision a reality, it was just a matter of finding the support I needed. I knew that I wanted these tests to be available nationwide which meant we’d need to use a lab that everyone had access to. Fortunately, we were able to secure a contract with Quest relatively easily and from there it was just a matter of building the company from the ground up. I was fortunate enough to meet my co-founder Sean (the mastermind behind our website and app) shortly afterward and we’ve been working on PreConception together ever since! After a year of hard work, we build this idea into what is now PreConception and launched it at the beginning of this year!
Throw some insight on how your company works?
Using our online platform, you can go to our website, order your test package in just a few clicks, and go to the lab the same day. Within a few days, you’ll receive easy-to-understand, personalized results explaining what each test is, why it’s important to know your results before pregnancy, and what to do next based on those results. You’ll also have the option to schedule a free 30-minute call with one of our PreConception educators to review your results and answer any questions you have about your preconception journey. We’ll even send your results to your doctor if you want!
How does preconception testing help women planning a pregnancy?
Many pregnancy outcomes are determined prior to conception or during the first few weeks of pregnancy, often before a woman even knows she’s pregnant. A woman’s ova (eggs) begin to mature about 90 days before ovulation ever occurs. Babies develop billions of nerve cells in the first trimester. This means a woman’s health before and during the very early stages of pregnancy will have a significant impact on the outcome of the pregnancy for herself and the baby. What you do now can literally affect the health of your child for years to come! In the current system, most women do not have their first prenatal appointment until the end of their first trimester. This means that we’re often not finding out about health problems until months after they’ve conceived, often after the opportunity to make lasting changes has already passed.
By performing those same tests during the preconception period (the 12 months period before a woman conceives), we can identify specific abnormalities that can easily be corrected before pregnancy. This means women can start their pregnancies healthier, giving their babies the best possible start in life.
What are some of the most common myths related to preconception testing? Would you like to share them with our audience?
The most common misinformation that I hear doctors telling women is this — All you need to do before pregnancy is to start a prenatal vitamin. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Prenatal vitamins are one important component of preconception care, but research has been available for decades now that demonstrates the importance of preconception testing as well.
Another myth — Because a woman is “healthy” she doesn’t need to have any tests done. The truth is, most women who have abnormal preconception tests had no idea prior to having their tests done. For many of these tests, there is no way to know that they are abnormal without actually having this evaluation. If any woman’s doctor is telling them that they don’t need any tests before pregnancy, please come to PreConception (and then look for a new doctor!)
What are some of the latest technologies used by your company for preconception testing?
All of our tests are performed by Quest Diagnostics, the leading provider of diagnostic information services. Quest has the most extensive network of patient service centers in the U.S., which means that everyone has the ability to complete their labs at a location and time that’s convenient for them, often on the same day, they order them!
This is a golden age for small teams of developers. With serverless computing, we’re able to build big things with small teams. Everything scales on-demand thus limiting our overhead costs. We’re able to focus on the code that’s required to deliver a great experience instead of maintaining servers, databases, etc.
Using a HIPAA-compliant data store coupled with HIPAA-compliant cloud providers, we’re able to orchestrate everything securely; making sure every customer’s data is safe. We only pay for what we need to meet the customer’s demand, and effectively; we focus on writing code that provides value to the customer, not maintaining infrastructure.
Many parts of our healthcare system are a bit old-school. For example, we still have to send results via fax. While we can’t change this piece, we can make the process easier for patients by doing it electronically and securely through our app.
The parts we can control are much more user-friendly. Everything from ordering your test, scheduling your appointment, to viewing your results, or scheduling a one-on-one call with a preconception expert is all done digitally and conveniently, on your device.
As the CEO of the company, how do you plan to take your company to the next stage?
To me, this is the most exciting part of being a CEO. We have so many ideas on ways that we can expand the services offered to women planning a pregnancy. Our goal is for every woman in the U.S. to have easy access to preconception testing during the pregnancy planning stage and we plan to continue to grow PreConception to ensure that that goal becomes a reality.
How can our audience connect with you?
Your audience can learn more about our tests at www.preconceptiontest.com or go directly to preconception.app to create an account and purchase their test package today! We also encourage everyone to follow us on Instagram and Facebook where we share information on other ways that you can improve your health before pregnancy!
