Lydia Graflund, with the company Estercare, is nominated for the Digital Rising Star of the Year award at the Consid Awards 2024. The award recognizes an individual or initiative that has come to mean a lot for the digital development going forward. In a podcast series in the Digital Influencer podcast, all nominees are interviewed and the winners are revealed sporadically.

Together with her sister, Helena Graflund Lagercrantz, she started Lydia Graflund healthtech company EstercareThe company has two business lines: one is healthcare where they offer both physical and digital care to women in Sweden, the other is their preventive health platform which targets workplaces.

– It was a lot about the fact that we thought it was “low-hanging fruit” to increase access to specialist doctors in gynecology for women. Up north, there can be a waiting time of up to two years to see a specialist doctor in gynecology and in the south, there can be a waiting time of one year, says Lydia Graflund in Digital influencer podcast.

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The sisters easily found the motivation behind the company in the statistics.

– Many of the patients who come to us have been sick for so many years. Women are just over 80 percent sicker than men, according to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. And it has been the same since 1994 until today.

She continues:

– All these 80 percent of our female population cannot get to the gynecologists, we don't have enough care appointments for that, so we have to divide the health journey. So we started by developing our preventive health screening, which is the first part when you enter our health portal.

Through the annual health screening, they can detect any complaints or abnormalities that are important to investigate further. Given the answers from the screening tool, it is created a personalized health plan for women, using AI. All parts of the health plan are originally developed by a cross-functional team where a holistic perspective has been taken into account. Weaving in more areas than just medical treatments is something Lydia feels is missing in healthcare. Lifestyle changes and self-care are something that has a major impact on women's well-being, and scientifically based information and advice is in great demand.

– It is very common that people do not understand that problems with women's health actually have to do with women's healthMany women who go through menopause think it has to do with depression, when in fact they have hormonal fluctuations that can be treatedThat's the kind of journey that we can help with and take them to the right healthcare provider.

Streamlining healthcare

In the future, Lydia Graflund sees great opportunities for the development of technology to improve healthcare for women.

– You can make a lot of efficiency improvements in healthcare. Something we are doing right now is introducing a tool that allows us to dictate the record keeping. It will provide a lot more quality in the healthcare meeting because then the doctor will be able to focus much more on the patient.

She continues:

– Then we are trying to come up with an innovative solution within women's health as a whole. We are trying to develop a tool and a service to catch women early in the stage in a preventive way and then take them on a health journey that is personalized for them. And that has not been achieved before, in any case.

Together, the sisters continue to focus on women's health in Sweden, while also seeing interest in the rest of the Nordic region.

– We notice that the workplaces we talk to want to apply this to their offices in other countries. The easiest to reach is the Nordic countries, but also other countries in Europe. I think there will be good opportunities to take this abroad.

Through her work and great passion for women's care in Sweden, Lydia Graflund has created something unique and innovative that makes her a worthy nominee for the Digital Shooting Star of the Year at Consid Awards 2024. The nomination justification reads:

Estercare enables women to take control of their health in a simple and accessible way. Through their pioneering efforts in digital healthcare, Estercare offers an innovative platform for digital care meetings with gynecologists, midwives and sexologists. Estercare not only simplifies the process of expert care, but also promotes a holistic perspective on women's health, improving the quality of life regardless of life stage.

Estercare has committed to providing inclusive and accessible care, combined with a strong focus on educating and empowering women to understand their own bodies. Their work is creating a future where every woman can feel confident and well-informed about their health issues.