Katie’s Notebook: April 24, 2025
Greetings, friends.
It’s been a minute since I sent out my last issue. Despite being a person who constantly thinks I can do it all, I realized there are actual limits to my time and attention (two of them are ages 5 and 8.) Katie’s Notebook is a fun creative outlet for me and means to connect with others, which is why I try to keep up with a regular bi-weekly cadence. But the last month was chock-full of vacation, wrapping up two client projects at breakneck speed, kicking off a new client, unplanned car shopping, and prepping for a big birthday bash. There were a lot of late nights working and not a lot of space for the extras. I am proud of what I accomplished but I am also very relieved to have better work-life balance as of April 21st. I constantly remind myself that everyone is out here just trying our best — and that includes me too!
Let’s jump into the five:
Findings: Pregnancy’s lasting effects on different parts of the body revealed. This study’s findings are fascinating. A researcher in Israel collected blood samples from more than 160,000 pregnant woman between 20 weeks of pregnancy through 18 months postpartum. These 76 biomarkers, “varied widely from pre-conception levels during pregnancy, before either gradually returning to pre-pregnancy levels or overshooting the other way before settling back to the pre-pregnancy baseline.” One of the standout findings was that it can take 6-12 months after birth for iron levels to return to normal level. After my second child was born, I was so exhausted and could barely concentrate enough to write an email. For a while I chalked it up to normal newborn fatigue, but eventually had my iron tested and I was anemic! If you’ve ever been pregnant, work in women’s health, or are thinking about getting pregnant this is a must read!
Funding: I wrote and read a few interesting articles about the economics of Q1 2025. Crunchbase reported, “North America’s startup investment hit $82 billion in the first quarter, driven by continued enthusiasm around generative AI. The Q1 tally represented the highest quarterly funding level in three years.” The rub — almost 50% of that number was for a single OpenAI deal. There is some good news for women’s health, funding hit an all time high of $2.6 billion in 2024. I’m hoping we continue to see that number go up!
Federal News: How DOGE Cuts Will Change Women’s Health. If you’ve been following the news, you probably know that there have been huge staffing cuts within the Department of Health and Human Services, maternal and child health program cuts, and the PRAMS program which monitors pregnancy risk data was shuttered. The DOGE article provides a great deep dive into what this means for the provision and understanding of women’s health — both now and in the near future. It’s been proven time and again that investing in women’s health leads to economic benefits — and yet the Trump Administration seems determined to treat the health of 51% of the population as a special interest.
Female Health: FDA Approves First New UTI Antibiotic Class in 30 Years! This is great news for women and girls. A new antibiotic gives hope to those who don’t respond to traditional antibiotics and have recurring infections, and also helps to address antibiotic resistance. The efficacy isn’t perfect, but the study notes, “In clinical trials with 3,000 participants, Blujepa successfully treated 50-58% of infections compared to 43-47% with the antibiotic nitrofurantoin.” We’ll take any and all improvement!
Follow the money: I’ve been following the digital therapeutics market for close to ten years now. I deeply care about evidence-based interventions when it comes to health tech (aka does it actually work?) Digital therapeutics are the gold standard when it comes to health tech apps —- they are supposed to work as well or better than traditional clinical therapeutics, like a medication. It’s a tall order, but really essential for the validity of the industry and reimbursement. As of Jan 1, 2025, “The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) now covers DMHTs under Medicare, adding three new healthcare common procedure coding system (HCPCS) codes for billing for certain DMHT devices.” This thoughtful piece interviewed some industry people I admire, on what this might mean for adoption by clinicians and patients. (Also, Digital Therapeutics Alliance was acquired by ATA Action, the advocacy arm of the American Telemedicine Association. ) In other DTx news, there is a newly approved migraine product! Something is in the water!
What I’ve Been Writing
A Spotlight on 2025 Q1 healthcare IPOs, Digital Health Insights
A public-facing report for a client!
A whole new website for a client!
Fun Finds
Meghan Markle wore this dress in her recent Netflix series and I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I ordered it and I can endorse that it is very cute and can be dressed up or down! I got the Ecru but was really close to getting the Deep Blue!
I rarely wear mascara anymore, but when I reached for an old tube and it clearly needed to be thrown out I realized I needed a replacement. I got this one and WOW, I think it doubled the length of my eyelashes. Give it a try!
One of my reading goals for the year was to try out new genres. I started reading Artemis by Andy Weir and am about halfway through. It’s science fiction — definitely not my typical genre — about a city on the moon that exists 50 years from now. I’m really enjoying the story. There are lots of fun science references that make my nerdy heart sing, and the main character is a badass woman who’s had a rocky path and decides to fight injustice she discovers in the city. I’ll report back once I finish it.
I celebrateda milestone birthday last weekend! This is one of my favorite party pictures. Ari Hest gave a private concert at my house. We had a good giggle over the size ratio of him to me and the guitar to ukulele.
That’s a wrap on this issue.
Be well,
Katie
Note: As a solopreneur I use affiliate links for some of the products I believe in as a means of diversifying my income. When you buy something I have linked to, I may receive a small commission from that company at no cost to you.
