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Women's Health

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Roche Diagnostics is committed to Women’s Health in Australia

Fundamental inequities that exist within health systems can have a detrimental effect on the diagnosis, treatment and care that ALL WOMEN receive. Roche strives for a worldwide transformation of Women’s Health by raising awareness about the gaps that exist and collaborating with stakeholders across the ecosystem to address the barriers that prevent women from receiving the healthcare they need.  

 

Historically, women have often been underrepresented in clinical research, leading to a misunderstanding of their unique health needs. Although participation in clinical trials has improved, more work is needed to systematically analyse and report data through a sex and gender lens. Organisations across the healthcare industry must prioritise these considerations throughout the entire research and development lifecycle to enhance Women's Health outcomes. 

Women have often been underrepresented

Women’s Health should not be viewed narrowly but rather through a holistic lens that considers their complete experiences. Roche believes that a woman-centric approach can empower women to make informed healthcare decisions, leading to improved outcomes and equitable care tailored to their individual needs.

Women account for half of humanity, however:

5%

Share of assets in the current healthcare pipeline are focused on female conditions.1

56%

Proportion of diseases that primarily affect women are being underfunded.2

74%

Of clinical trials do not report outcomes by sex.+3

Women face unmet needs

Women face unmet needs…resulting in them facing worse health outcomes than men.

Around the world women experience their health differently than men. 

21% of women who visited a doctor in the previous two years said a healthcare professional has dismissed their concerns or didn’t believe they were telling the truth, versus only 12% of men.5

Women are less likely to be prescribed painkillers than men even when they are experiencing similar levels of pain.6

Women are 75% more likely to use digital tools for healthcare than men.7

Globally women face worse health outcomes than men.

Women spend 25% more time of their lives in unhealthy conditions versus men.13

Women experience more adverse events than men, and those adverse events are more serious in women.14

Pregnancy increases the risk factor of diseases such as diabetes and in turn Diabetic Retinopathy.15

Women Centric care

Our commitment: With her today. With her for life.

 

Our Women’s Health offering in Diagnostics.

 

Roche Diagnostics provides innovative diagnostic tests and solutions to help assess risk, identify disease, and monitor patients, with specific solutions intended to meet the unique needs of women throughout the different stages of life.

Topic areas include cervical cancer screening, breast health, ovarian cancer, fertility, pregnancy care, non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT), sexual health, as well as other disease areas such as bone health, where women may have different signs, symptoms or incidence rates.

We’ve already tested over 75 million women globally….

Our innovative solutions in Women’s Health give HCPs the ability to provide the right treatment at the right time, offering confidence that only Roche Diagnostics can deliver.

Roche Breast Cancer Icon

Breast cancer: Over 6.5 million women received predictive diagnostics tests to aid in breast cancer treatment decisions  (HER2, ER and PR).

Roche Cancer Support Icon

Cervical cancer: Over 22 million women gained information about risk from Roche’s cervical cancer portfolio for screening and disease management.

Roche Women's Cancer Icon

Ovarian cancer: Ovarian cancer is the 8th overall cause for cancer death in women, representing 5% of all cancer deaths in women.16

Roche Sexual health Icon

Endometrial: Endometrial cancer is the 6th most common cancer in women worldwide.17

Roche Uterus Icon

STI Screening: There are more than one million sexually transmitted infections (STIs) acquired every day worldwide.18

Roche Bone Icon

Bone Health: It is estimated that an osteoporotic fracture occurs every three seconds and more than 200 million women are affected by osteoporosis worldwide.19

Fertility and Pregnancy Care

Roche Foetus Icon

AMH Plus: Over one million women explored factors related to AMH/AMH Plus as an indication of ovarian reserve in the quest to potentially build a family.

Roche Fertility Icon

NIPT: Approximately half a million expectant mothers were given accurate information about their baby.

Roche Baby icon

Preeclampsia: Approximately half a million pregnant women were properly managed with preeclampsia ratio tests.

For our team, focusing on Women’s Health is improving healthcare in conditions that present differently in women or predominantly impact them.

Every woman benefits from tailored and equitable healthcare across all stages of her life.

Every woman benefits from tailored and equitable healthcare across all stages of her life.

With a global team leading Roche's Women's Health strategy, we are taking a more holistic approach to Women's Health and increasingly embedding this focus area across different parts of the business to maximise the impact and difference we can make for women around the world and here in Australia.

Roche Diagnostics will be with her today and with her for life.

Rebecca Steer RDA Women's Health Team
Rebecca Steer

National Sales Manager Molecular Laboratory

Yu Wooi Ching RDA Women's Health Team
Yu Wooi Ching

National Sales Manager Pathology Laboratory

Martin Leonard RDA Women's Health Team
Martin Leonard

National Sales Manager Core Lab

Dr Lauren Harper RDA Women's Health Team
Dr Lauren Harper

Medical Affairs Lead

Maegan Kerr RDA Women's Health Team
Maegan Kerr 

Reagent Sales & Applications Specialist

Janet Thomson RDA Women's Health Team
Janet Thomson

Solutions Manager Tissue Diagnostics

Nina Clifford RDA Women's Health Team
Nina Clifford

Solutions Manager Tissue Diagnostics 

Hiren Sheth RDA Women's Health Team
Hiren Sheth

Solutions Manager

Victoria Kirby  RDA Women's Health Team
Victoria Kirby

Disease Area Lead

Dr Lauren Harper RDA Women's Health Team
Shona Reynolds

Disease Area Lead

 

Get in touch to find out more about our commitment to Women's Health

This page is provided as a contact service and does not replace the advice of a physician. Roche cannot respond to questions about general medical information or questions regarding your personal medical condition. Medications and diagnostics products can not be directly ordered through this website. Please note that we do not respond to form letters or e-mail campaigns.

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+Of studies researching female-prevalent disorders, only 56% of those reported gender-specific results, and of those only 12% included female animal model4

  1. Lucy Pérez et al. “Bridging the women’s health gap,” McKinsey Health Institute,2024.  https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/our-insights/the-state-of-us-womens-heart-health-a-path-to-improved-health-and-financial-outcomes#/  Accessed October 2024.
  2. Mirin AA. Gender Disparity in the Funding of Diseases by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. J Womens Health (Larchmt). 2021 Jul 12; 30(7): 956–963.
  3. Geller SE, Koch AR, Roesch P, Filut A, Hallgren E, Carnes M. The More Things Change, the More They Stay the Same: A Study to Evaluate Compliance With Inclusion and Assessment of Women and Minorities in Randomized Controlled Trials. Acad Med. 2018
  4. Gagos et al. 2019 Yoon DY, Mansukhani NA, Stubbs VC, Helenowski IB, Woodruff TK, Kibbe MR. Sex bias exists in basic science and translational surgical research. Surgery. 2014
  5. Kaiser Family Foundation. Women’s health care utilization and costs: Findings From the 2020 KFF Women’s Health Survey. Published April 21, 2021
  6. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, here: Sex bias in pain management decisions. https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2401331121 Accessed October 2024.
  7. Frost & Sullivan, 2018 https://www.frost.com/growth-opportunity-news/femtechtime-digital-revolution-womens-health-market/ Accessed October 2024.
  8. Newman-Toker DE, Moy E, Valente E, Coffey R, Hines AL. Missed diagnosis of stroke in the emergency department: a cross-sectional analysis of a large population-based sample. Diagnosis (Berl). 2014
  9. Wu J, Gale CP, Hall M, Dondo TB, Metcalfe E, Oliver G, Batin PD, Hemingway H, Timmis A, West RM. Editor's Choice - Impact of initial hospital diagnosis on mortality for acute myocardial infarction: A national cohort study. Eur Heart J Acute Cardiovasc Care. 2018
  10. European Society of Cardiology  https://www.escardio.org/The-ESC/Press-Office/Press-releases/Women-more-likely-to-die-after-heart-attack-than-men Accessed October 2024.
  11. American Autoimmune Related Disease Association. Tips for getting a proper diagnosis of an autoimmune disease https://autoimmune.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/tips_for_auto_diagnosis.pdf Accessed October 2024.
  12. APPG on Endometriosis, 2020- All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Endometriosis. Endometriosis in the UK: time for change. 2020. https://www.endometriosis-uk.org/sites/default/files/files/Endometriosis%20APPG%20Report%20Oct%202020.pdf Accessed October 2024.
  13. Women's health gap: 6 conditions that highlight gender inequality in healthcare.  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2024/10/women-health-gap-healthcare-gender Accessed October 2024.
  14. Soldin OP, Mattison DR. Sex differences in pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. Clin Pharmacokinet. 2009
  15. Relph S, Patel T, Delaney L, Sobhy S, Thangaratinam S. Adverse pregnancy outcomes in women with diabetes-related microvascular disease and risks of disease progression in pregnancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS Med. 2021 Nov. 22
  16. International Agency for Research on Cancer. World Health Organisation. https://gco.iarc.who.int/media/globocan/factsheets/cancers/25-ovary-fact-sheet.pdf  Accessed October 2024.
  17. World Health Organization. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs). https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/06-06-2019-more-than-1-million-new-curable-sexually-transmitted-infections-every-day  . Accessed October 2024.
  18. World Cancer Research Fund International.Endometrial cancer statistics.  https://www.wcrf.org/cancer-trends/endometrial-cancer-statistics/  Accessed October 2024
  19. Modi, A., Sajjan, S., & Gandhi, S. (2014). Challenges in implementing and maintaining osteoporosis therapy. International journal of women’s health 6, 759.

AMH: Anti-müllerian hormone

CALD: Culturally and linguistically diverse

ER: Estrogen receptor

HCP: Health Care Professional

HER2: Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 

NIPT: Noninvasive prenatal testing 

PR: Progesterone receptor

STI: Sexually transmitted infections