Amissa, a startup backed by the National Institutes of Health, launched on Wednesday to improve menopause care with its AI-powered platform.
The Charlotte, North Carolina-based company is a recipient of the NIH’s Small Business Innovation Research grant. Amissa uses data from multiple sources to generate insights that help clinicians track changes in menopause symptoms over time and make more informed care decisions. It uses three main pillars of data, according to Samantha Smith, co-founder and CEO of Amissa:
- The Menopause Rating Scale: a questionnaire that assesses the severity of common menopausal symptoms like hot flashes, sleep issues and mood changes. This is included in patient onboarding and pre-appointment intake.
- Symptom tracking: women are asked to consistently self-track their symptoms.
- Wearable data: Amissa has integrations with wearables like the Apple Watch, Oura, Garmin and Whoop. This provides insights into sleep, fatigue and more.
This information is aggregated into a single, reviewable clinical record in the provider’s EHR. It allows providers to understand a patient’s symptoms before, during and between visits and make changes to their care if needed. For patients, it makes it easier for them to track and share symptoms and reduces the burden on them to remember details during appointments.
The company’s services are necessary because women can enter perimenopause — the transition period leading up to menopause — as early as their mid-30s, and there are dozens of symptoms that aren’t always obvious. People often associate menopause with hot flashes, but those typically occur much later, Smith said. Instead, early symptoms are more likely to include anxiety, mood swings or other “things that you might not even associate with a hormone change,” she stated.
“You can experience symptoms for up to 10 years through this whole journey. … If you look at studies that exist about EHRs, they don’t even have the fields available to track these symptoms over time, and that’s necessary to understand exactly what’s going on with that patient to be able to assist. So really, the solution, whenever I’m pitching investors, it’s not very sexy, but its simplicity is what makes it so great. It’s just organizing data in a way that can enable clinicians to act more intelligently,” Smith declared.
The company is already working with 10 clinical practices across the U.S, including Helia Health. Providers pay a per-clinician fee for Amissa’s platform, according to Smith.
“Menopause symptoms don’t move in a straight line,” said Dr. Ariel Haddad, OB-GYN and founder of Helia Health, in a statement. “When I can see what’s improving, what’s worsening, and what’s staying the same between visits, I can adjust care with confidence and show patients that their experience is being taken seriously.”
Menopause and perimenopause are receiving growing attention across the healthcare industry, as more companies emerge and gain traction in the space. This includes virtual menopause providers Midi Health, Evernow and Gennev. However, Amissa is the “only platform focused on that connectivity piece for clinicians,” Smith claimed.
“We’re B2B. We’re not a wearable. We’re not a supplement. We don’t provide medicine, or we don’t provide actual advice. So we are really playing in what I like to call a safe space when it comes to regulation, but also providing maximum value for the data available,” she added.
Ultimately, the company aims to “redefine” menopausal care.
“My big goal is to make sure that we support clinicians in a way that not only improves care for the women who are in these situations now, but for women in the future like myself, hopefully creating a better future, just in general, where we can change the tide around menopause,” Smith said.
Photo: Amissa
