Women’s Health Technology Summit 2026

The Women’s Health Technology Summit 2026 will bring together leaders from healthcare, research, technology, investment, academia, policy, and industry to examine the persistent inequality in women’s health outcomes as one of the defining healthcare and social justice challenges of our time, and the role of digital technology in tackling it.

The Summit is inspired by the renewed Women’s Health Strategy for England (2026), which acknowledged the NHS’s “appalling culture of medical misogyny” and recognised that many women experience healthcare systems that dismiss, minimise, or fail to respond adequately to their symptoms and lived experiences. Despite living longer than men, women spend significantly more years in poor health. Delays in diagnosis, unequal treatment pathways, lack of sex-specific research, and gaps in women’s health data continue to reinforce systemic inequalities across healthcare.

Co-hosted by Diversity UK and the University of Manchester’s Greater Manchester Connected Health Ecosystem, the Summit will explore how medical misogyny, underinvestment in women’s health innovation, and bias in emerging technologies can be addressed to improve health outcomes for women and girls across the UK and globally. It will provide a platform for evidence-led debate, cross-sector collaboration, and practical action to accelerate progress towards a fairer, more inclusive, and innovation-driven healthcare system for women and girls.

The event is structured around three interconnected themes:

Theme 1: Tackling Medical Misogyny This theme will examine how women’s symptoms are too often dismissed or normalised, leading to delayed diagnosis, undertreatment, and avoidable suffering. Discussions will explore the wider gender health gap, including inequalities in cardiovascular care, reproductive health, chronic pain, menopause care, and access to treatment.

Theme 2: Investing in Women’s Health Innovations This theme will explore how to increase investment in women’s health research and development, improve access to capital for women-led HealthTech and FemTech ventures, and strengthen pathways from research to scalable innovation. A key ambition of the Summit is to help “shift the dial” on women’s health by increasing the pace of progress, sustaining momentum, and advocating for women’s health R&D investment to move into double digit percentages across healthcare innovation and venture funding.

Theme 3: Feminist AI This theme will examine how AI systems can either reinforce or challenge existing inequalities. Discussions will focus on inclusive design, ethical governance, intersectionality, transparency, accountability, and ensuring women are involved in the design and deployment of AI systems shaping healthcare and society. The Summit will feature keynote speeches, expert panel discussions, roundtable debates, startup showcases, networking opportunities, and the annual Pankhurst Lecture (TBC), creating a unique platform for collaboration between healthcare leaders, clinicians, researchers, founders, investors, policymakers, charities, and technologists.

Agenda for the Day

Outline Programme 12.00pm – 1.00pm

Registration, networking lunch, technology showcases and demo judging 1.00pm – 1.15pm

Welcome and opening remarks 1.15pm – 1.45pm

Opening keynote 1.45pm – 2.30pm

Panel Debate 1: Tackling Medical Misogyny 2.30pm – 3.15pm

Panel Debate 2: Investing in Women’s Health Innovations 3.15pm – 3.45pm

Tea break, networking, technology showcases and demo judging 3.45pm – 4.30pm

Panel Debate 3: Feminist AI 4.30pm – 5.00pm

Closing reflections and next steps

Proudly partnered with: Fawcett Society | We Are PoWEr | Health Innovation Manchester | The University of Manchester | She Inspires | The Christabel Pankhurst Institute | Healthier Futures | Health + AI Insiders | Digital Futures at The University of Manchester