S2 #E9 Dr Tessa Copp: Is women’s health tech empowerment or exploitation?

Tessa is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the University of Sydney School of Public Health. Her research focuses on the psychosocial impacts of disease labels, overdiagnosis and evidence-based reproductive healthcare for women. Her PhD research examined the benefits and harms of a polycystic ovary syndrome diagnosis, and this research has been published in high impact journals in the field. In this episode Tessa explains what women’s health tech and Femtech are, and ideally how they should be developed, with a basis on evidence-based medicine. Health tech companies probably have two aims – to improve health and to make money but maybe along the way, they get hijacked by making money. There is a saying that health tech fakes it until they can make it. Which is what happened with Elizabeth Holmes, founder of Theranos, who is now in prison for fraud. Tessa explains that regulation of tech is inadequate, and it may confirm that a test is testing what it says it is, but it does not mean that the test is of any use to the public. With social media and celebrities endorsing health tech, it makes it difficult for people to know what will be valid. But does it matter – surely health tech does no harm, except on the wallet? Tessa explains that it can do harm, using the example of Anti Mullerian Hormone (AMH) testing. Tessa discusses her recent paper titled Marketing empowerment: how corporations co-opt feminist narratives to promote non-evidence based health interventions. We also discuss period tracker apps, IVF add-ons and menopause. Will anyone take any notice of research such as Tessa’s, or will marketing take over allowing unproven health tech to thrive?

Transcription link: www.joyceharper.com/podcasts

Date of episode recording: 2024-04-11T00:00:00Z
Duration: 00.56.49
Presenter: Joyce Harper
Guests: Dr Tessa Copp
Producer: Joyce Harper