A conversation with Fernanda Dobal, CEO of the One-Stop Menopause Platform: BiaCare

The biggest challenge for women going through menopause is accessing and providing good care. Bia Care is the one stop menopause platform providing evidence based care that is accessible and affordable for all.

Our platform rethinks traditional women’s health models with a novel virtual group counseling model that has been shown to provide therapeutic benefits on top of the physician’s treatment plan. Additionally, by connecting patients with physicians in small groups, we can increase physician availability and avoid the long waiting lists common to other public and private providers of menopause care.

Bia’s affordable private clinic opened in January 2022 and our NHS services will be rolled out in key locations across England this spring.

What made you decide to found Bia Care?

All women go through menopause, but it remains taboo in most places. This means that most women silently suffer from a lack of access to evidence-based care and advice that can help them thrive through menopause and beyond.

Inequalities in women’s health are widespread, largely due to a lack of data and a lack of health research involving women. In early 2020, my co-founder, Dr. David Huang and I that we need to do something about it.

He is a clinician with an interest in women’s health and I have a background in digitizing care pathways in the real world. We knew that the coming revolution in women’s health would require the use of technology to scale access to care so we could provide better and more affordable care.

What can we expect from Bia Care in the future?

Bia Care is the first menopause provider to partner with the NHS to provide menopause care to patients and we are delighted that this partnership will enable us to reach more women. Bia is also working with Imperial College London to produce more research that can benefit the wider industry.

We are planning a randomized controlled trial later this year specifically focused on tackling health inequalities. This research will bring together the work of national thought leaders on menopausal inequalities and builds on the work of social activists and grassroots organisations.