DeepLook Medical’s Marissa Fayer discusses improving the representation of women in medical research.

Marissa Fayer is the CEO of DeepLook Medical, a health-tech company that focuses on imaging and radiology tech, primarily for the visualisation of soft-tumour lesions in dense tissue. She is an author and the founder of global nonprofit HerHealthEQ, and regularly speaks at key industry events in the medical space. 

But she never actually planned for a career in healthcare. Fayer told SiliconRepublic.com, “I never intended to be in women’s health, but I luckily fell into it.”

Initially, she believed she would join the aerospace industry and started off her professional life as an engineer. However, before too long, she was recruited into healthcare at a time when very little was understood about women’s health, giving her more room to innovate and advocate for other women, be they professionals or patients.  

“I was always a supporter of STEM, being a woman in a STEM role. Four to five years into my career, I was lucky enough to join one of the largest women’s health companies and everything took off from there for me,” she said. 

“I was innovating women’s health technologies, I was travelling and moving around the world, I was working in the M&A space for women’s health and at that point, I was hooked.”

Equal representation

For Fayer, women’s health has reached exciting new heights, as it is finally being recognised as a crucial industry; however, there are improvements to be made.   

“The funding and infrastructure to support it isn’t necessarily there yet. So it’s an exciting time and a huge opportunity zone right now for the healthcare industry and for the world at large,” she said. 

“It’s most exciting that we are moving past awareness and advocacy into capacity building and growth mode. That is when real infrastructure and focus really starts to grow and amplify the space.”

This evolution of the space is evident in how people are becoming more comfortable with discussing female topics often considered taboo, such as menopause, period pain, mental health and maternal health.  

She added, “I am also excited about the ‘smaller’ areas of women’s health becoming part of our nomenclature, such as endometriosis, PMOS and uterine fibroids.

“None of those are small areas of focus, but when we speak about them loudly, when celebrities start speaking about it publicly, the previous perceived ‘niche’ is no longer relevant. That’s personally exciting for me because movements start when the conversations continue and move into action.”

Critical investment

For Fayer, including more women in medical research is a movement that was a long time coming, and there remains significant ground to make up. She explained that it was only in 1993 that it became policy in the US that women would have to be included in clinical research, via new National Institutes of Health regulations. 

Up until then, it was accepted that women would be excluded for a number of reasons, including the risk of exposing women of child-bearing age to dangerous drugs during the test period, as well as a general disregard for female health issues. 

“Most of the research that has happened in the past has been on men. In fact, women were only allowed to be included in research since 1993 and they still only make up less than 40pc of all research study participants,” said Fayer. 

“For a group of people who make up 51pc of the population and have disproportionately not been included in the past, that gap has a long while to close. And that research gap leads to slower innovation and less innovation in the women’s health space.”

So how are these gaps overcome? For Fayer, it is all about the level of investment – and not just into the research but into innovation, policies and the changes needed to ensure equity and equality for women and women’s health. 

She added, “It doesn’t always have to be investment capital, but that significantly helps. It is time, multiple types of capital sources, and changes in mindsets – both personal and societal – that start to overcome the gaps.”

That is not to say, however, that it is solely on women to change their environment. As noted by Fayer, it is not the responsibility of any one gender to ensure that all clinical research being conducted is of a high standard. 

She said inclusion isn’t an act of charity or goodwill, but rather a commitment to higher quality research that aids society and overall prosperity. 

“Women have the responsibility to be part of the solution, but this is for all of us to bear the full responsibility of change – and especially of taking the action to make change. We won’t accomplish anything by simply talking, we need to act and do.

“Infrastructure building in women’s health is not only a woman’s responsibility. It’s for everyone to recognise, change and innovate to make these changes.”

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