Nabta Recognized as a Femtech Innovator

Nabta Health’s co-founder and CSO, Saba Alzabin, joins fellow digital innovator Eirini Rapti to speak to MobiHealthNews about how women’s health technology has evolved beyond fertility tracking apps.

Saba introduces Nabta’s hybrid system as the first of its kind in the Middle East and aims to provide a “personalised healthcare journey” which takes into consideration factors such as the user’s nutrition, exercise, sleep, hormone levels, blood glucose levels, and medical test results.

Saba co-founded Nabta in 2017 after being shocked to discover the lack of research into the female body while embarking on her PhD in molecular oncology and immunology at New York University.

This health discrepancy, she says, is particularly prevalent in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

“On this topic, the Middle East is way behind when it comes to being leaders in scientific advances and research, mostly due to bureaucracy and a lack of a supportive infrastructure and resources,” says Alzabin, who hails from Kuwait, but is now based in the UK.

Additionally, she says that women in the MENA are often held responsible for fertility issues, despite research suggesting growing infertility rates in men.

“There are also cultural stresses that prevent women in the region from addressing their health properly, such a lack of support or awareness on sexual health, and the importance of cervical and breast screening,” she explains.

Nabta is available in Arabic and includes access to more than 2,000 educational articles and tips on women’s health. It is also culturally sensitive and features the Hijri calendar, which is followed by Muslim countries.

“At Nabta, we allow a woman to address manage her health at the comfort and privacy of her home, providing added value in a culture where some medical issues are not comfortably addressed or supported in a clinical setting,” Alzabin says.

Read the full article here.

MobiHealthNews is the publication of record for digital health, providing news, analysis, and data to innovators at provider groups, payers, pharma companies, tech, and venture capital firms as well as startups. For nearly 10 years, MobiHealthNews has identified and contextualized the emerging trends in digital health helping its readers shape what’s next in healthcare.