The $1 Trillion Shift: Why Women Will Define the Future of Health
Redefining the Future of Health: Innovation, Identity, and the Infrastructure Women Build
The future of health has been unfolding for the past decade. What began as an overlooked, underfunded corner of the industry quickly became an emerging market and today it stands as a billion, or trillion, dollar opportunity. Women are at the center of it. Through the rise of digital-first care and the lived experiences of the women leading this transformation, one message is clear: we are no longer talking about women’s health as a niche.
We are talking about the future of health itself.
The shift in healthcare priorities is mirrored in the individual journeys of women founders who are pushing the industry forward despite, and often in defiance of, the imposter narratives that have followed us for decades. The paradigm is changing in healthcare, in technology and in business because we understand our own value.
Reflections from the road, lessons learned building my own company, and helping others scale have revealed a few interconnected shifts.
Healthcare Is Shifting Outside the System
Having documented the healthcare market for decades, the shift is clear. Care is migrating outside traditional medical environments. A wide range of products and services are now available directly to individuals. This includes everything from at-home testing for urine, hormones, and other diagnostics, plus full body MRI scans and numerous tracking tools and wearable data.
The shift in the healthcare paradigm into the individual’s hands empowers us to have autonomy over our health, but this also brings unprecedented visibility and exposes inequalities of access and affordability.
Shifting the Definition and Purpose of AI
An emerging theme in the news about the AI bubble deserves attention. The question is not whether there is an AI bubble - it is whether AI is being used and represented for the most value. AI is not a product or an innovation. It is the infrastructure. Whether in healthcare or any other industry, the conversation around AI is more valuable when we shift from AI as the power, to AI-powered. This perspective forces companies to ask what their product or service does first, and then ask how (or whether) AI can be used to enhance it.
Companies using AI to improve value are those that seek to humanize care, reduce burden on providers and users, accelerate accurate diagnosis, fill gaps in preventative services, and interpret the massive volumes of data we now generate to create a coherent story of health.
AI will not replace the healthcare ecosystem, although it is becoming the connective tissue of a system that will be designed for individuals and not around system constraints.
What this Means for Shifting from Women’s Health
It means something bigger is happening. We have reached the point where recognizing the power of women’s health is the blueprint for what the future of healthcare is.
Here’s why:
- Women are 51% of the population.
- Women create 100% of the population.
- Women make 80% of healthcare decisions.
- Women get diseases differently based on biology.
The future of women’s health is not limited to reproductive care. It is cradle-to-grave health equity.
And yet: women are disproportionately affected by conditions that have long been researched, diagnosed, and treated using male-centric data sets. Cardiovascular disease is among the clearest examples. We have known for decades that the disease manifests differently in women as a microvascular condition with different symptoms than men, yet the diagnostic and treatment pathways rarely reflect that reality. Even with two decades of data, women are still diagnosed and treated as a macrovascular condition. Different presentations mean women die more often from heart conditions because they are not treated correctly, not because they have more serious disease.
This is not just a clinical gap; it is a data gap and a trillion-dollar economic opportunity. When we disaggregate data by gender, we uncover new patterns, new treatment pathways, and new markets across autoimmune disorders, Alzheimer’s, diabetes, hormonal health, and more.
Shifting the Internal Narrative
Perhaps the most personal and universal thread connecting the future of health with the future of women founders is the internal narrative shift.
The “I’m not worthy” voice is being silenced. It is being reframed. It is being replaced. When articles headline the New York Times with “Did Women Ruin the Workplace?” it deserves a round thrashing in response. Feeding the narrative that women being women somehow creates a negative impact ignores the data:
- Women founded startups are 63% more successful than their male counterparts.
- Women are 48% of the workforce, with slow but meaningful representation across roles.
- Two years after appointing a female CEO, companies were viewed as less risky with stronger stock price momentum.
- Companies with higher representation of women in leadership are more likely to be higher financial performers with higher employee satisfaction.
Our success is not accidental.
As women leading in innovation, we often credit our successes to luck, timing, or the people around us. In reality, it is our voices, insights, and lived experiences that fuel true innovation, strengthen collaboration, and form the foundation of empathetic leadership. Leading differently, opting out of systems that don’t serve us, and recognizing our value as innovators, experts, and leaders is the future of health and business.
A New Leadership Paradigm Shifted by Women
We are in a moment of profound transformation:
- Care is becoming individually-owned.
- AI is becoming connective tissue despite the buzz.
- Data is becoming personal.
The health of women is becoming foundational to a broader health paradigm. Women are leading the transformation in the healthcare industry. The changes in health are in turn the building blocks in technology, innovation, and a range of connected businesses. The shift in health is in essence, redefining the economy.
More about Lisa
