How Can Entrepreneurs Tackle Health Inequities with Tech Solutions?

Tennis icon Serena Williams was vocal about her difficulties as a Black woman who experienced a scary childbirth. Track and field star Allyson Felix also spoke out about the life-threatening complications she faced during her pregnancy.

While these mothers — both wealthy celebrities — had access to financial resources and support to assist them during their pregnancy, many Black women with fewer resources do not.

Healthcare is not distributed equitably across ethnic groups. In Philly, Black women account for 43% of child births — yet 73% of deaths among pregnant mothers. As a doctor who has seen the issue firsthand, Cayaba Care cofounder and CEO Dr. Olan Soremekun wants to change that statistic: With his West Philadelphia-based startup, he approaches entrepreneurship as a way to address gaps in health equity for marginalized populations.

“At Cayaba Care we’re focused on maternity,” he told Technical.ly. “Where the data is now in Philly and other countries, Black or brown mothers are two to three times more likely to die during childbirth and have complications during childbirth.”

In Technical.ly’s first part of this series, we asked experts what policies need to change for communities to attain health equity, aka their “full health potential” regardless of their social circumstances, per the CDC. But can entrepreneurship be used as a means to reaching greater health equity, too?

Read the full article here.

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