Kristen Helton is no stranger to the healthcare needs of patients. After co-founding biosensor company Profusa, she went on to work at Amazon, where she helped found and lead the company\u2019s Amazon Care division in 2019.<\/p>\n
During the next three years, there was a focus on creating a positive experience for patients. And though the company deployed a feedback loop in order to make experiences even better, Helton found that patients would still say they weren\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n
When Amazon Care shut down in 2022<\/a>, Helton decided to find a way to address that dissatisfaction, focusing on a demographic where she felt care was lacking: care for women aged 65 and older.<\/p>\n She founded Herself Health<\/a> last year, touting it as \u201cthe first healthcare company\u201d built just for this population of patients.<\/p>\n \u201cWomen are not feeling heard, and they\u2019re not well served,\u201d Helton told TechCrunch. \u201cIt takes a long time to get an appointment with their doctor, and women are feeling rushed to tell them everything in 10 minutes. As a result, they don\u2019t feel well cared for and pushed to the next step without their doctors having the time to really understand what their needs are. And, these women have very unique issues.\u201d<\/p>\n Even though healthcare is moving toward personalization, senior care is not immune to gender disparities<\/a>. Herself Health conducted its own survey with more than 700 women in this age range regarding primary care and found that women in this age group are more likely to be misdiagnosed than men. They are less likely to receive a chronic heart disease or stroke diagnosis and therefore not proper treatment. Women are also more likely than men to be diagnosed with osteoporosis, autoimmune diseases and Alzheimer\u2019s.<\/p>\n The company currently operates one clinic in St. Paul, Minnesota and provides a \u201cwhole person\u201d approach that includes health, wellness, mobility, mental health and social and behavioral health. Doctors take the time to speak with patients and learn their goals before putting together customized care plans that are female-focused and age-conscious, Helton said.<\/p>\n Image Credits:<\/strong> Herself Health<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Helton declined to go into specifics about revenue, but did say the company is signing up hundreds of patients a month and is a fee-for-service model.<\/p>\n Herself Health joins a group of startups also solving for senior care, including Papa<\/a>, Carewell<\/a>, Devoted Health<\/a>, Heal<\/a> and CarePredict<\/a>, which announced $29 million in new funding last week for its monitoring of daily activity and behaviors of seniors for early signs of health concerns.<\/p>\n![\"Herself](\"https:\/\/techcrunch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/R3__1185.jpg\")
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