Favor Teams Up With Imaware To Offer Discrete At-Home STI Tests To Women And People Who Menstruate

ForbesWomen Favor Teams Up With Imaware To Offer Discrete At-Home STI Tests To Women And People Who Menstruate Marija Butkovic Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about health tech, women’s health and female entrepreneurship. Following New! Follow this author to stay notified about their latest stories.

Got it! Sep 14, 2022, 05:25am EDT | New! Click on the conversation bubble to join the conversation Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin This custom, one-of-a-kind test kit goes beyond existing at-home STI tests on the market to provide . . .

[+] women and people who menstruate with a more comprehensive and accurate picture of their reproductive health Favor/imaware Digital health solutions company imaware and Favor (formerly The Pill Club), a leading digital healthcare platform, partnered to offer at-home sexually transmitted infections (STI) testing for its more than 220K patients across the country. This custom, one-of-a-kind test kit goes beyond existing at-home STI tests on the market to provide women and people who menstruate with a more comprehensive and accurate picture of their reproductive health. The STI test, and customer experience, leverage the advanced capabilities of imaware, a leader in testing technology and digital health.

STIs impact 1 in 5 Americans and are on the rise. The COVID-19 pandemic further exacerbated the prevalence of STIs in the United States, with the CDC reporting that the rates of gonorrhea, syphilis and congenital syphilis surpassed 2019 levels . Moreover, the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found that the pandemic had adverse effects on sexual health screening, causing significant declines in testing .

imaware is on a mission to make proactive screening a fundamental part of everyone’s health care journey through convenient, precise, and accessible at-home testing – ultimately arming them with data that can prevent disease and lead to longer, healthier lives. The company formulated its first at-home STI test to be accessible, convenient, and accurate. The test measures eight key biomarkers to screen for STIs like gonorrhea, chlamydia, trichomoniasis, mycoplasma genitalium (MG), ureaplasma urealyticum, syphilis, and herpes (two biomarkers).

The key difference between imaware and other diagnostics platforms is that imaware has built a technical solution that allows the company to guide the patient each step of the way, from the initial testing to follow-up care. By recognizing that patients need to see more than a test result on screen, and need to know how to treat those testing outputs, the company has dedicated much of its efforts to ensuring its tests can be white-labeled and integrated into its partner companies where their specialists can provide personalized care and a better patient outcome. Paul Owen, CEO of imaware Imaware MORE FOR YOU Spring Health Notches A $190 Million Series C At A $2 Billion Valuation, Making CEO April Koh The Youngest Woman To Run A Unicorn A Year After Unleashing War Crimes Against Indigenous Armenians, Azerbaijan’s Threats And Violations Continue The Secret To Being The Wildly Popular Mayor Of Miami? Surround Yourself With Amazing Latina Women The company also serves as the connective tissue for brands across the health, wellness, and fitness space by offering deeply personalized, white-labeled testing kits at scale.

“We’ve already partnered with companies like Carrot Fertility, Favor, and Elo Health to give these companies access to the top labs across the country, powering tests that are more comprehensive and accurate than others on the market. So far, we have tested over 250k+ patients, forged 20+ B2B partnerships, and helped communities from every corner of the U. S.

access preventative care that prioritizes preventative health,” Paul Owen, CEO of imaware, shares with me. On the other hand, what sets Favor apart from others in this space is that they have nationwide insurance coverage, including Medicaid in select states. “Telehealth that ignores the reality of insurance—especially for women’s reproductive care—is leaving behind thousands of people who need access to affordable reproductive care.

Cash-only systems simply aren’t a product built for a scale, and often cater to only those with the means to afford it,” shares Liz Meyerdirk, CEO of Favor. Favor’S CEO Liz Meyerdirk Favor “Our patients have a diverse set of needs when it comes to their reproductive care and we want to empower them by offering the tools they need to live healthy, happy lives,” adds Meyerdirk. “imaware has been a trusted partner throughout this process — from building a customized STI test kit to creating a seamless back-end experience so that our patients can easily view their results and next steps.

This test will be instrumental in enabling our patients to detect STIs earlier from the comfort of their home. ” Favor patients will be eligible to purchase the STI test immediately through Favor’s digital platform. All imaware testing kits are fully HIPAA compliant and work with labs that are certified by Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) and accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP).

Millions of women and people who menstruate in the United States aren’t adequately served by brick-and-mortar pharmacies and health clinics alone. In fact, more than 19 million women in the U. S.

live in contraceptive deserts . “Through our platform, we’ve been able to serve patients in 99% of contraceptive deserts. Add the reversal of Roe into the mix , and barriers to reproductive care go up dramatically, disproportionately impacting people of color and those who live in rural communities where pharmacies and health clinics are few and far between.

We believe that Favor plays a critical role in helping serve these people by offering reliable, convenient, and affordable care without bias or judgment,” concludes Meyerdirk. The United States is the nation most dissatisfied with its healthcare system. The reasons are clear – lack of coordinated care, treatment plans that aren’t personalized, and poor clinical outcomes – yet they remain largely unresolved in our industry.

Solutions like this test directly solve these problems by removing the barriers to preventative, holistic care that, at the same time, empower providers to focus on their strengths. Equally, this comprehensive ecosystem, with healthcare and health tech companies working alongside each other, provides a more holistic system that makes the future of personalized healthcare a reality. Follow me on Twitter or LinkedIn .

Check out my website . Marija Butkovic Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.