HERhealthEQ, a social-enterprise nonprofit dedicated to improving the health and well-being of women, recently announced an expansion of its partnership with Lutech Industries, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of innovative patient monitoring solutions including colposcopes, which detect cervical cancer.
The partnership will include a donation of 100 Lutech Medical colposcope devices, which HERhealthEQ will deploy to medical clinics and hospitals in 10 different regions, including: Costa Rica, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Lebanon, Mexico, Romania, South Africa, and Zambia, among other countries. Lutech Medical’s groundbreaking colposcopy technology and digital video colposcope systems are used in the diagnosis of cervical cancer and will allow local healthcare organizations to expand access to live-saving cervical cancer screening.
HERhealthEQ partners with leading medical device manufacturers and hospitals to secure donations of new or refurbished equipment and deploys them directly to local hospitals, clinics, doctors, and NGOs on the ground in lower-resource settings around the world. In addition to equipment, HERhealthEQ solutions include training, service of the equipment, accountability, and long-term relationships with local healthcare providers to sustain lasting health improvement for women in their communities.
“HERhealthEQ’s partnership with Lutech Medical is a powerful symbol of the potential that can be achieved when women empower women,” said Marissa Fayer, the founder and CEO of HERhealthEQ. “As women-led organizations, we share a deep commitment to improving the well-being and health outcomes of women worldwide. And together with the support of Hologic, we are making a significant investment in women’s health in Costa Rica – by building our capacity to reduce female mortality in developing regions.”
According to the World Health Organization, cervical cancer is the fourth most frequent cancer in women worldwide, and about 90% of cervical cancer diagnoses occur in low- and middle-income countries. However, with commonly used advanced medical technologies, such as Lutech Medical’s colposcopes, it is one of the most successfully treatable forms of the disease, especially when detected early.
The program will have an impact of more than 450,000 women each year when fully deployed. HERhealthEQ and Lutech Medical first partnered in 2017 to bring life-saving medical equipment to Savanna-la-Mar General Public Hospital in Savanna La Mar, Jamaica. The partnership impacted the lives of thousands of women in Western Jamaica through more regular screening for cervical cancer.
“We are thrilled to continue our partnership with HERhealthEQ,” said Jennifer Fink, VP of Sales Lutech Industries, Inc. “With the success of our program in Western Jamaica, we know we can improve the health outcomes of women in other parts of the world, especially in countries that lack the resources for modern medical devices and innovations. We are proud to continue our collaboration with HERhealthEQ to expand healthcare access to women.”
In addition, HERhealthEQ will receive funding from Hologic, Inc. (Nasdaq: HOLX), a medical technology innovator primarily focused on improving women’s health and well-being through early detection and treatment, as a part of this initiative. The funding from the Hologic Charitable Foundation will support the launch deployment of this program in Costa Rica.
Nearly a decade ago, HERhealthEQ was formed when Fayer, then working at Hologic, learned that the number of mammograms performed at Hospital Tony Facio Castro in Limón, Costa Rica, declined sharply, from 2,600 to just 685 annually. The decline in screenings for breast cancer was attributed to old machinery frequently going out of service. As a result, over a 14-month period, she created a series of partnerships to secure the donation of mammography equipment from Hologic, along with a multiyear service contract to ensure that the technology would be maintained. This served as the business model that inspired the idea for HERhealthEQ.
“We believe that investment in women’s health, particularly in diagnosing and treating non-communicable diseases, is essential, because when we give women in underserved geographies the tools they need to survive and thrive, the benefits clearly extend to their children, families, and their communities as a whole,” said Fayer. “We are grateful for the support of partners such as Lutech Medical and Hologic, which allow us to implement our model, distribute medical equipment in more countries, and help improve the lives of women around the world.”
For more information on this partnership, contact Lutech today.