WoW Woman in Health Tech I Elizabeth (Lyz) Swanton, COO at Qured
Elizabeth (Lyz) Swanton is the COO of Qured, a healthech company offering comprehensive preventative health screening to teams. Prior to joining Qured, Lyz worked in public health, on projects aimed at treating and preventing HIV in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Lyz also co-founded the health food startup, Feedr, and holds an MBA from the London Business School.
Alongside her work with Qured, Lyz is also closely involved in the wider startup landscape and the use of tech for good. She’s passionate about tech and companies that are working to transform the health, nutrition and food industries to improve people’s lives.
Qured is a healthtech company enabling employers to offer comprehensive preventative health screening to staff. They are pioneering the use of a personalised health engagement app and an at-home device that offers painless at-home blood tests, conveniently testing everything from heart health and diabetes to bowel cancer.
By giving workers a holistic view of their health through preventative screening, Qured is empowering people to take back control of their health, spot and prevent health issues early, and get the support they need.
Tell us a bit about your background and your projects so far.
I’m Lyz Swanton, currently COO of Qured, a healthtech company enabling employers to offer comprehensive preventative health screening to staff.
I cut my teeth working in consultancy, advising governments and global companies on expansion planning, public policy, and operational improvement. However, I realised I wanted to do something more meaningful, so I moved into public health, working on projects aimed at treating and preventing HIV in the Kingdom of Eswatini.
After my MBA at London Business School, I decided that if I was ever going to found my own business and get into tech startups, now was the time. I co-founded a company called Feedr, which we then went on to sell after 4 years at Series A. After continuing on at Feedr through the transition period with the acquirers and seeing the company successfully through Covid, I realised I was keen to return to the health space. My time in public health taught me how important preventive healthcare is, and how the private and public systems can work together to drive systematic change.
Early screening is a key part of prevention because it can help people act earlier to stop health issues from developing. The majority of today’s traditional healthcare, in the UK particularly, is reactive and treats existing health issues instead of focusing on keeping people healthy. So when I met the Qured team and saw their vision for a new preventative health platform, I couldn’t wait to be involved in building and scaling a new product that’s widening access to preventative healthcare.
How did you get into this industry? Has it been an easy industry to get into or have you had many challenges?
In 2011, I joined the Clinton Health Access Initiative and began working on public health projects in emerging markets. I worked my way up from the bottom because I didn't previously have any healthcare or public health experience. This was a great opportunity because it gave me a solid grounding in a lot of aspects of healthcare, health systems, and behaviour change.
When I joined Qured in 2022 and made the switch to healthtech, I was able to combine that early public health experience with my experience of running a tech company. This made it relatively easy to pivot from healthcare to healthtech. However, I still had the challenge of needing to network, meet people, and learn about the healthtech industry, but I think that's normal in any career switch.
How long did it take you to be where you are now? What was the biggest obstacle?
Overall, I am honestly very privileged and lucky to have been given a lot of opportunities to succeed. I come from a middle-class family in Canada, I was able to go to a great university, and have managed to find great mentors and supporters throughout my career. So, while I have faced obstacles, as anyone does, I’ve had the freedom to take risks in my career.
Nonetheless, one obstacle that I (and most female founders and leaders face) is that there is still an underrepresentation of women at the top. This is a society-wide problem, but it’s particularly prevalent in the tech industry. Despite increasing awareness of the need for more female leaders across the board, we’re still lagging behind and having to fight for a place at the table. Just this year, Verdict reported that over 95% of the UK's fastest-growing tech companies are led by men. Until women have equity in the tech industry, I think female leaders like myself will continue to face more obstacles than white, straight men in the space.
What are your biggest achievements to date?
One of my biggest personal achievements was selling my startup Feedr at series A.
Whilst at Qured, my biggest achievement has been successfully evolving our proposition and rolling it out to market. We now offer tests for everything from vitamin levels and diabetes to early cancer screening. In doing so, we’re able to support individuals with a range of health needs, give users a more holistic picture of their own health, and empower them to take action now to prevent critical illness later in life. Being a part of building this product from scratch is something I’m really proud of.
What are the projects you are currently working on?
We’re currently working on some really exciting new launches for Qured including a Male Fertility Profile. Fertility is often seen as a female issue. It’s not. 1 in 6 individuals experience fertility struggles worldwide, and problems are roughly equally split between men and women. But the male fertility taboo means many men don’t know where to start when it comes to getting support, or even know that this may be something they need to be concerned about. Our male fertility profile checks will include semen analysis and test testosterone levels, to give men greater understanding and control over their own reproductive health.
We are also developing our in-app health journey to give users more personalised test recommendations and educational content. Information and understanding is power. Giving users a greater understanding of their own health through testing and personalised guidance means we can empower people to make informed choices about their health, spot or even prevent health issues, and get the support they need.
Is the #WomenInTech movement important to you and if yes, why?
Yes, absolutely. Whilst pay inequality between men and women is becoming more topical and is more widely spoken about than say five or ten years ago, there are still deep-rooted issues we have to tackle.
For the most part, women are still paid less than men, and, alarmingly, in 2022, SRG Talent’s STEM Salary Survey revealed a 28% difference in the gender pay gap in the UK, a 17% gender pay gap in Europe, and a 17.5% gender pay gap in North America.
This kind of disparity doesn’t just start and end with pay, it starts from how girls are treated at school during subjects like mathematics and science, and what degree they choose to study. It’s present in whether companies offer maternity & paternity leave and whether they promote women in their companies. It’s also present in leadership positions and in boardrooms around the world. As a female leader in the tech industry, it’s imperative for me to support and champion women, not just in my company but women industry-wide.
What will be the key trends in your industry in the next five years and where do you see them heading?
Recently, we’ve seen a growing trend for health anxiety amongst Gen Z and Millennials, in part because the pandemic forced younger generations to confront their health. In many ways, their fears are also being fed by the reality that a rising number of younger people are being diagnosed with diseases like cancer. These younger, more health-conscious generations are keen to understand and proactively protect their health at an earlier age than previous generations were.
We’ve already seen the health industry begin to respond to this shift. In the last few years, there's been a rise in the number of companies offering direct-to-consumer, proactive healthcare services like fertility testing and mental healthcare. And as more Gen Z reach working age and become health consumers, the market for preventive healthcare services will only grow. There also continues to be an expansion in the number of things we’re able to test for easily and affordably as testing technology improves, becomes lower cost, and moves out of healthcare settings into the home and community.
Additionally, I think the health space will become even more tech-dominated, and digital health will account for a larger proportion of the sector. Gen Z and Millennials are digital-first consumers. They prefer the convenience of accessing services from the comfort of their own home and feel greater trust in digital tools, whether that’s ordering a takeaway or taking a blood test. So over the next five years, companies will seek to harness the power of technology in new ways, to make healthcare more accessible and available at home to answer the demand.
What is the most important piece of advice you could give to anyone who wants to start a career in this industry?
I think within any industry, it’s important to build both your professional and support networks. Professional networks might be peers or mentors, but they’re people you can turn to when you don’t have an answer to how to address a new challenge. One of the problems in a startup is that there’s rarely someone else within the business who knows how to do what you’re trying to do - so build your networks more broadly.
Secondly, having a support system is really important. Whether that’s friends, family, or a mentor, you need someone who is there to help you rally when things get hard. There are lots of ups and downs when evolving throughout your career or starting a business, and everyone needs support to keep going.
Whatever you do, stay resilient - I believe one of the most important factors in success, whether personal or professional, is resilience and grit. So, be tenacious and confident in yourself to overcome the challenges that you’ll undoubtedly face.
Who are three inspirational women in your respective industry that you admire?
I think ideas and sparks of inspiration can come from anywhere, and I’m constantly inspired by talented women working across various different industries. That being said, in the health space specifically, I’m really inspired by…
Dr Sara Gottfried. She’s an MD and bestselling author who practices integrated personalised medicine and advocates for women's health.
Dame Deborah James. The BowelBabe. She’s a journalist, charity campaigner and bowel cancer advocate.
Kate Ryder. She’s the founder of the Maven clinic and an advocate for improving and personalising women’s and family healthcare.
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This interview was conducted by Marija Butkovic, Digital Marketing and PR strategist, founder, and CEO of Women of Wearables. She regularly writes and speaks on topics of wearable tech, fashion tech, IoT, entrepreneurship, and diversity. Follow Marija on Twitter @MarijaButkovic and read her stories for Forbes here.