Rachel Bartholomew who is an entrepreneur has started a new startup, HyIvy Health, which creates pelvic rehabilitation device. The journey of Rachel as an entrepreneur began when she was diagnosed with Cervical Cancer. She had undergone surgery and radiotherapy and she spent most of the time in bed.
She disclosed that when she was on the bed her mind was on fire and when she faced any problem she always tried to innovate new ways to solve the problem. The same happened when she was diagnosed with cancer and in bed. The problem which Rachel was facing was that she came to know that the after-effects of her treatment would make her infertile, and severely impact my health for the rest of my life.
Instead of giving up, she tried to find the solution to the problem which was in front of her. After her hysterectomy and lymphadenectomy when she was in bed the idea of HyIvy health came into her mind. That’s the turning point of her life. She discovered that nearly 50,000 women are experiencing the same problem.
Using her own personal experience and her expertise she started to research and made a rough idea of pelvic rehabilitation device to help alleviate pelvic health symptoms. She discovered that the product which is available in the market had been the invention of man in 1938 and had not been updated since. She found out that her product would work more instinctively than the current product on the market.
Rachel disclosed that as she was in the hospital all the time she had the opportunity to pitch her idea to them. She received the authorization from a medical perspective on the actual product and discovered that it wasn’t just a sufferer’s issue but the medical system realized that this was a problem that demanded to be solved as well.
At the same time she discussed her idea with her friend who was PhD in Mechanical Engineering. Rachel disclosed that she and her friend discussed for seven and half hour and came up with the idea how the original product will look like.
She made innovation in her product and decided to develop something that could gather data and assist better understand the sufferer’s experience. Rachel disclosed that their connected, smart device is able to gather actual data through biosensors, and is also linked to an app where sufferers can answer questions about their pain and mental health.
That’s how she innovate a product when she was herself experiencing pelvic cancer. Rachel has been graduated with a Master’s in Business, Entrepreneurship, and Technology from the University of Waterloo in 2014.