A Chat with Fernanda Dobal, CEO at One-Stop Menopause Platform: BiaCare

The biggest challenge women face in their menopause is accessing good care, and affording good care. Bia Care is the one-stop menopause platform delivering evidence-based care that is accessible and affordable to all.

Our platform rethinks traditional Women’s Health models, with a novel virtual group consultation model that is proven to provide therapeutic benefit in addition to the doctor’s treatment plan. Additionally, by connecting patients to doctors in small groups, we’re able to increase availability of clinicians and avoid the long waiting lists that are common with other providers of menopause care, both public and private.

Bia’s affordable private clinic launched in January 2022 and our NHS services are launching in key sites in England this Spring.
 
 

 

What made you decide to start Bia Care?

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

Inequalities in women’s health are widespread, stemming largely from lack of data and lack of health research conducted with women. In early 2020, my co-founder, Dr David Huang, and I decided we needed to do something about this.

He’s a clinician with an interest in women’s health and I have a background in digitising real world pathways. It was clear to us that the coming revolution in women’s health would require leveraging technology in order to scale access to care, so we could deliver better care, more affordably.
 

What can we hope to see from Bia Care in the future?

 
Bia Care is the first menopause provider to partner with the NHS to deliver menopause care to patients and we’re thrilled this partnership will allow us to reach more women. Bia is also partnering with Imperial College London to produce more research that the entire industry can benefit from.

We’re planning a Randomised Control Trial later this year focussed specifically on tackling health inequalities. This research will bring together the work of national thought leaders on menopause inequalities, and builds on the work of social campaigners and grassroot organisations.