Founder Friday with Rachel Bartholomew of Hyivy Health
Hyivy Health is an Ontario-based FemTech company founded by Rachel Bartholomew. Addressing the issues she experienced personally after recovering from cervical cancer, Rachel developed Hyivy to revolutionize outdated and inadequate pelvic health solutions. Hyivy has created the first intelligent and holistic pelvic rehabilitation device for women experiencing symptoms of a wide range of gynecological conditions. The multi-therapy pelvic rehab system allows patients to be proactive with their recovery, receive real-time progress updates, and clinicians can evaluate the effectiveness of their treatment.
We caught up with Rachel to hear what’s new for Hyivy, what’s coming up next, insights into what’s happening in the industry, and advice she would give to her past self and up-and-coming women founders.
What’s New
Before jumping into what’s new, it’s helpful to understand some of the backstory of Hyivy (pronounced Hi-ivy).
Rachel founded the medical device company after her recent fight with cervical cancer and seeing the profound need there was for patients who have chronic pelvic pain caused by a too tight, collapsed, or damaged pelvic floor.
Today, Hyivy Health is working on a pelvic rehabilitation system for people dealing with pelvic floor issues caused by a diagnosis such as endometriosis, pelvic-based cancers, menopause, post-partum, and painful sex. Rachel and the team are working to deliver a system consisting of a multitherapy vaginal wand performing hot and cold therapy, self-lubrication, and auto dilation used in combination with biosensors, which are collecting the first ever data set on the pelvic floor.
The collected data is tracked using Hyivy’s patient mobile application and remote patient monitoring, as well as the clinician software portal for professionals, OBGYNs, and Pelvic Floor Therapists.
The Hyivy team spent its first three years dedicating their efforts to the manufacturability of the device, safety testing, ISO 13485 certification, and regulatory approvals for the FDA and Health Canada as a Class 2 Device. They are working to complete an upcoming clinical trial with McMaster University to further explore the device’s use for pelvic pain with endometriosis patients, as well as a difficulty for colorectal and gynecological cancer care recovery post-radiation.
And now, Hyivy is going global. They recently opened offices in Chicago, USA, and a subsidiary company in the UK. With these newly established roots, Rachel and team are exploring clinical trials across the US and with the National Health Service (NHS).
Rachel emphasizes how she couldn’t be more proud and grateful for the team of engineers, clinicians, patients, and cheerleaders supporting Hyivy along the way.
What’s Next
1 in 3 women are dealing with non-curable, pelvic health related conditions, and there are over millions of women struggling globally with a diagnosis that impacts their pelvic health at any age. These women live with multiple symptoms—directly impacting their quality of life, day to day activities, and overall well being.
There are currently two standards of care options to help with their symptoms, including:
Pelvic floor therapy, which can cost an average of $4,000 out of pocket per patient
Ineffective and painful static dilators that were created almost 84 years ago
Clinicians are seeing a 35% increase in demand for pelvic treatments and lack the concrete data needed to aid in their aftercare and pelvic health follow ups, which is leading to permanent, non-curable symptoms costing the healthcare system over $90B in North America.
So, in response to these facts and figures, Rachel and the Hyivy team are excited to bring their pelvic health rehab system to BOTH patients and clinicians to provide better, more effective care.
What’s Going On in the Industry
Rachel shares how FemTech is an incredibly exciting space right now, with countless companies working on solutions and tech set to dramatically improve the lives of over half the world's population.
FemTech has transformed from being called "niche" to some estimates putting it at $4.8T by 2025... and yet, there are still people who haven't tapped into its potential.
For the Hyivy team, it's been encouraging for them to see the FemTech ecosystem diversify from software and apps to more hardware and medical devices. Clinical trials, regulatory approval, data-driven solutions—all these things take time and money to develop.
A trend Rachel would love to see is more investors and stakeholders realizing the potential beyond what's currently available (we absolutely agree!).
Advice to Your Past Self & Other Women Founders
“Have the audacity,” Rachel says. “There are forces out there that will prefer if you minimize yourself, your vision, your voice, but if it were easy to be you, everyone would do it.”
Despite challenges that inevitably arise for founders, it’s so important to defy the pressures to shrink yourself, whether in aspirations, perspectives, or expressions.
Remember to stay true to yourself on this journey. An endless amount of factors and excuses will attempt to dull your light and uniqueness. So embrace your authentic self by being courageous, resilient, bold, and determined—especially if your goals don’t exactly align with societal norms or expectations.
The51 is proud to partner with the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) in telling founder stories to accelerate the representation of women within Canada’s innovation economy.