MedTech UCL offers a conference titled Women in MedTech each year, aimed to increase diversity and highlight leaders in the medical technology field. We invite speakers of diverse backgrounds and inspiring achievements to discuss real-world solutions and challenges faced. In addition, we want to promote underrepresented gender, ethnicities and races by giving a platform to allow others to connect, learn and engage with inspiring role models.

The event consists of individual speaker presentations and panels of discussion involving several speakers. The conference lasted a day, reaching nearly 120 number of attendees last year. Speakers range between entrepreneurs, corporates, NHS and academia, covering a range of topics and reaching numerous different companies and organisations.

To name a few, we hosted Hadeel Ayoub, founder and CTO at Brightsign. She created a smart glove to translate any sign language into spoken language. Hadeel detailed her path to success, recounting all the challenges she faced and how solutions were found through determination. Followed by Valentina Milanova, founder of Daye, a Forbes-listed start-up. It is a female health research and development company. Valentina detailed her mission to close the gender pay gap and her efforts to overcome gender biases in medical research and innovation. Also, in the same field, we hosted the founder and CEO at Apricity – Caroline Noublance. Apricity is the world’s first virtual fertility clinic; she succeeded by combining technology and artificial intelligence with personalised care and world-class medical expertise. Each of them radiates passion and dedication; we hope they can inspire the next generation of leaders.

All the speakers hold dear to them a real-world problem and have obtained a solution through hard work and persistence. MedTech provides a platform for people to learn how FORBES-listed start-ups are built and what it takes to run a global health-tech company while breaking barriers to industry diversity.

This year we will bring the conference back to in-person with even stronger enthusiasm inviting more inspiring speakers for them to share their experiences, stories and advice.