Marissa Fayer, CEO and founder of HERhealthEQ, joins hosts Enrique Alvarez and Sofia Rivas in this episode of Logistics with Purpose to discuss the critical intersection of technology and healthcare, particularly in advancing women's health equity.

With a mission to provide essential medical equipment to developing countries, Marissa emphasizes the importance of bridging the gap between surplus and need, ensuring that communities have access to vital health resources. She highlights the role of AI in healthcare, explaining how it can streamline processes, reduce burnout among medical professionals, and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

Listen in as Marissa shares her personal journey from aspiring astronaut to a leader in the medical field, and be inspired by her passion for empowering women and ensuring that no one is left behind in the global pursuit of better health outcomes.

Additional Links & Resources:

• Connect with Marissa: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marissa-fayer/
• Learn more about Marissa: marissafayer.com
• Check out HERhealthEQ: herhealtheq.org
• Learn more about DeepLook Medical: https://www.deeplookmedical.com/
• Learn more about Logistics with Purpose: https://supplychainnow.com/program/logistics-with-purpose
• Learn more about Vector Global Logistics: https://vectorgl.com/
• Subscribe to Logistics with Purpose: https://logistics-with-purpose.captivate.fm/listen

This episode is hosted by Enrique Alvarez and Sofia Rivas. For additional information, please visit our dedicated show page at: https://supplychainnow.com/empowering-women-mission-health-equity-herhealtheq-lwp119

Welcome to Logistics with Purpose presented by Vector Global Logistics in partnership with Supply Chain. Now we spotlight and celebrate organizations who are dedicated to creating a positive impact.

Join us for this behind the scenes glimpse of the origin stories, change making progress and future plans of organizations who are actively making a difference. Our goal isn't just to entertain you, but to inspire you to go out and change the world. And now, here's today's episode of Logistics with Purpose.

Welcome to another episode of Logistics with Purpose. I'm your host, Enrique Alvarez and we have an amazing guest today.

Plus my co host today is a very special friend, good person I've met a long time ago and we haven't done this in a while. So, Sophia, how are you doing today?

I'm doing great. I am so happy to be back here with you.

I miss our time with Supply Chain and Espanol together, but I know that we now have more projects together coming up and very excited to be here.

I'm excited for that as well. And I'm sure this is not going to air on Thanksgiving week, but it is Thanksgiving week. So one thing that you're thankful for.

Yeah, I think you learn faster when you're struggling.

And with that said, and without further ado, let me introduce to Marisa feyer, medical device CEO of Deep Look Medical Nonprofit, CEO of Her Health EQ Co Chair, US AI for Good Investment Committee at Goddess Gaia Ventures, EIR at Grey Bella Capital, and TEDx Speaker. Marissa, great to have you here.

How you doing? Great to be here. Thank you. Thanks for having me.

It's a pleasure. And we got a chance to meet each other at the U.S.

chamber of Commerce a couple weeks ago and I just didn't have enough time to get to know you and kind of talk about all the amazing things that you're doing. So I think this interview will actually be very inspiring and exciting and so thanks again.

No, thank you. And honestly, I was too busy clapping when you won your award, so taking all the pictures and filming. So congratulations to you.

Thank you.

Well, so happy that you're here. Marisa. When Enrique told me, do you want to be part of this episode?

I was definitely in because you have an amazing history of experience and also, I don't know, you have become another role model in Woman in Supply Chain that I look forward to meet one day and to get Things started. We have a couple of quick questions.

So if you could tell us what is a quote that you live by or a phrase that inspires you every day or something that you repeat yourself like a mantra to get the day started.

Yeah, so it's actually a quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson. I have it actually as the backdrop on my laptop. The purpose of life is not to be happy.

It's to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived. Well.

That's a great quote. I hope our listeners are taking down notes. Next question. If you could meet any trailblazing woman, who would you want to meet?

So the list is very, very long. So past and current. The list is incredibly long, especially in the healthcare space. I think it's Florence Nightingale.

She has a really bad reputation until recently, until there's been a lot of new news about her. But I mean, she was the first modern nurse and to be a woman caring about other women and in healthcare and trailblazing for me, I don't know, it's.

It sounds weird, but yeah, I think she's one of the first, you know, Marie Curie. I mean, you know any of those incredible trailblazing women before there was any women even in healthcare or in any modern space.

I mean, those are the women that I would want to meet.

And I love that you said that the list is long. I think that so very few people know that the list is long, long. So just be aware there are a lot of women in the industry that you can look up to.

Yes.

And more coming up.

Yes.

What's the song that leaps you up?

Well, I'm a New Yorker through and through, so I'm biased. I think I'm going to say like any hit Broadway musical, I'm in New York, I'm exposed to it.

So I think any great Broadway musical song is uplifting or I don't know, any fun classic edm, like the classic dance music. Yeah, I'm pretty equal opportunity, you know, something happy. We need more happy in life.

So I think the last question here is what's a fun fact of your healthy lifestyle? I think in the pre run you were mentioning something interesting there.

Not sure that I'm super healthy, but I try to be. I mean I do work out like the usual people. That's mental health and things like that. But my healthy lifestyle is travel.

I mean, I'm not healthy while I'm traveling most of the time since I'm eating everybody else's food. But it's just travel. It's like exploring your mind.

I think if you keep your mind open and you see other things you actually like, you have a healthy lifestyle because you can appreciate and you see what other people, how they live, how they work, how, you know, how they are. And then it's not just you and your tiny little baby bubble. And that's, I think, what keeps my mind healthy.

My body, not so much because I'm eating my way through most of these countries. But, you know, everybody else is fine.

Well, thank you very much for your answers and thank you for being here again. So tell us a little bit more about your background, like your childhood. Where did you grow up, what's going?

Like the things that you did early on in your career that kind of propelled you to the woman that you are now and the successes that you've had.

Yeah, I mean, I had an incredibly lucky and blessed childhood. I mean, still do. But I grew up in suburban New York, right outside of New York City.

We came into New York quite a bit, went to all the museums and, you know, got to experience life.

But at a very early age, I fell in love with space and anything having to do with space and NASA and Sally Ride and you know, to see Sally Ride, the first woman in space go up, I mean, like, that was literally my childhood. So I was very interested in space. I went to space camp twice, space academy twice, was studying to be an astronaut, applied to astronaut corps.

Like all of that, like that kind of was my driving force. So I studied science and math, I mean, even in elementary school and you know, everything having to do with high school and even university.

But I mean, I lived in a family that believed in equality. Like, it wasn't a question of like why I wanted to study this or, you know, you can't do that. It just.

I'm grateful my family didn't even think about it. And they empowered me and allowed me to have those dreams and to do that work and enabled it.

I mean, even to this day, my dad and I go out stargazing and we'll go watch a rocket launch and things like that. Like, it's still very much core to me and to kind of what I believe in. And so, yeah, that's how I grew up.

Like, very lucky, very close knit family, supportive family all around. I'm actually the only one who really left for a long amount of time.

Even our extended family, everyone's like within 50 miles of each other and always has been. I mean, we're, I'm fourth Generation American. I mean, you know, we've been here.

For a very long time, and I'm guessing. Well, your dad actually was the one you mentioned. What's his name, by the way?

Russ Russell. And my.

So anything that he probably told you or some kind of phrase that he usually used or anything that you remember?

No, both my parents. I'm still very close to them. Just follow your dreams, do what you want.

Like, listen, we were in a position where they said, you know, you get into whatever university, you study, whatever you want, like, we'll figure it out. And I know most people don't have those opportunities, and so I know how grateful that I am and how, you know, easy it seems.

And obviously it wasn't easy on them. But, yeah, I grew up a very traditional, play the sports, do all this stuff. You know, my parents.

And they were there, you know, and they were there, and we had the ability to be there. My mother's a teacher. We always learned, we always read, and I think that's incredibly important, and that kind of shaped who I am.

That is a beautiful story. I think, as you said, not many women around the world have that, but I think we're getting there.

And learning stories like yours and knowing that maybe you are the one that can break that cycle or pattern of family history, then that's amazing. I think for myself, I sometimes get asked, why still? Like, why are you in supply chain? Why are you with acoustics?

But I think I'm proof of being here is something that makes me happy and that impacts the world. So.

Yeah, And I also think, like, listen, everyone has their why. Everyone is going to question other people's whys. It's whatever you feel in your heart.

You know, I did not intend to be where I am right now, but, like, this is the path that was given to me, and this is what I've done and taken from it. But, you know, who knows? Like, everyone just has something that has ignited inside of them, and that's where they go. And we're the lucky ones.

We're the lucky ones that can follow that passion. Not everybody has that ability. Some people just, you know, have to have a job and work, and you just.

You do that for your family, but your passion's your family. You know, I think everyone has to kind of reframe their why and why they're doing things.

I don't think anybody loves working at McDonald's, but, like, they do that to support their family and their why is their family. I mean, I think it's just every Person has their own different why and opportunity.

Well, going back to your path, which has been successful, you went from science and math and dreaming of space and becoming an astronaut to manufacturing engineering and Boston University, an MBA in general management Marketing, I read at some point, and then a lot of other things. Certificate on global health innovations at esse.

Tell us a little bit more about your professional career and how it evolved from the astronaut that you wanted to become to then just going through all those different other topics and universities.

Yeah, it wasn't that far of a divergence. So I went to Boston University studying aerospace engineering. I went there with that intent, and I was doing a. A minor in business.

You know, thankfully, I found a professor who exposed me to manufacturing engineering and also told me I can cut my course load in half. And I'm not sure what sophomore doesn't want to hear that. So, you know, aerospace engineering was very conceptual. And listen, it was a different age.

The aerospace engineering industry was really taking a downturn.

I was gratefully recruited into a medical device company straight out of college. And as everybody says, once you go into healthcare, you almost never leave because you are, you know, somehow even indirectly helping people.

I think that's, you know, kind of where a lot of this comes from. Like, I'm an explorer. I like to see different things.

I've always been supportive of women in stem, so through an engineering degree, I was able to give back and, you know, support STEM programs and help girls understand science and engineering. And then it's just the natural career path to, like, oh, after a few years, you go get your mba.

Because if you want to be in corporate, you know, a lot more in the corporate offices, you know, you need to continue to get the traditional degrees. I was in corporate for 15 years, so I worked at the largest women's health company, Hologic, developing new technologies.

I was head of mergers and acquisitions for a long time, and then I moved out of country, and then everything changed for me. I moved to Latin America.

Where were you in Latin America?

I was in Costa Rica for three years. Costa Rica.

Wow. And you speak in Spanish too, right?

Not as well. As I used to.

But yes, you could have been interviewed by Sophia in Spanish. We would have done in Spanish.

I mean, after Margarita in Mexico, I think it's a very good opportunity. I became much more fluent.

That's actually our welcome drink ER show.

So Margarita on the rocks, perfect. But yeah, so, I mean, I moved out of country and which is something I always wanted to do, I wasn't forced to do. I actually volunteered for it.

I created my own job description and I moved and I worked for a large medical device company, Hologic. And I saw the global scale of things and so a lot of things shifted to me. I moved a lot more into global health. I started the idea for the nonprofit.

I didn't start it at that time, but I started the idea for the nonprofit then. And I really got like, I just kind of dove heavy into global health and that's where I, you know, very much am today.

To be very clear, none of this was planned, like never planned to be an entrepreneur.

That's the way life happens. I mean, right?

It just, I mean, some people are very planned and I think it's funny. I will probably get back to or. I've already achieved my original goal.

Being an astronaut.

Well, no, I already have my tickets.

Oh, you can still, you can still.

Oh, no, I have my tickets. I'm waiting, I'm waiting for my number to be called, don't you worry.

But again, like I was able to do that because I thankfully have done, you know, well enough in my career to put those deposits down. But no, I mean, for sure, like you're going to have a second episode altogether and it's going to be me.

Waving from Interviewing the Astronaut, right?

Yeah, but yeah, yeah, I mean, my career, I mean, listen, like, I switched from space to healthcare. I mean, I think again, it's all about exploration. That's what space really is, you know, so is healthcare.

I mean, healthcare is the exploration of helping people live a better, healthier life. And it shifted toward, towards, well, I'm still very us focused. It shifted to a global focus.

And because of my work with women, my focus on women, being a women engineer, a lot of that shaped who I am for a very long time. And I've been in Women's Health for 20 of my 24 year career. And it's something that I'm lucky that I fell into. I'm lucky that I found it.

I'm lucky that I pieced all the pieces together. Not that I think it's finished. The puzzle's certainly never finished. But you're always missing those few pieces, and they're still very much missing.

But I think that I pieced it together. It was not intentional, to be very clear. Like, a lot of people are very like, I know, but you took.

It sounds like you took chances. Right. So.

Because at the end of the day, I think that you're mentioning that you didn't intend to do that and you didn't plan for it, but it also sounds like you took the opportunities that you were getting and you weren't afraid of actually pushing forward, and you actually were okay in exploring and doing things that you were not really good at or haven't even done before, which is kind of the way that you grow. What do you think, Sophia?

Oh, I think it's very interesting how. Yeah. From all your experiences, you're. You gain something, a new learning and how you put that learning into practice.

And I think part of that could lead to entrepreneurship. So either you plan for it, as you said, or you're pushed by someone like Enrique, or you're a natural. Right.

So you are like it's embedded in you, and then something triggers it to come out.

But that's a very interesting story, and I wanted to go back to a point where you said, once you make that move to Latin America, things change from not only your perspective, but also an understanding of the industry itself. Could you tell us more about that?

What was the things that you realized were different than, for example, before that you focus, I don't know, in regions like North America or developing countries?

Yeah, I mean, I was very U.S. focused. You know, I traveled certainly when I was younger, but I didn't have the perspective, and I was not traveling in developing countries.

And so the fact of the matter is, I just developed at that point, I just launched and developed a brand new, you know, mammography system. And there was women dying of breast cancer in Costa Rica simply because their mammography machine broke down.

Now, anybody in logistics probably knows this, but when you have a new model of something coming out, oftentimes the older models are sent back for refurbishment and, you know, resale and. Or, you know, just scrap.

And so we had mammography machines of the previous version just lined up against the wall, and we were scavenging parts, and, you know, we were doing some repairs and we were throwing some in the garbage. And that just was not ever acceptable to me. And I never had a solution until I moved to Latin America and found this out.

I mean, listen, like, it's the opening line to my TedX but I was sitting at a bar having a conversation with a friend, and it changed my life.

You know, she was running the largest women's breast cancer foundation in Costa Rica and was telling me that women were dying, which for me, who have been in breast imaging, you know, for years, at that point just thought it was ridiculous that we have equipment that why don't we just get it to where it needs to go? You know, again, it's a logistics solution.

And, you know, so the whole idea of, you know, corporate giving wasn't, you know, CSR and corporate giving, like, none of that was in existence 20 years ago. You know, 15, 20 years ago, like, it didn't exist, or it did, but it was very quiet.

You know, I created the entire program for my facility down in Costa Rica and kind of launched that and became a lot more bigger of a corporation. And because people didn't know and think about it, like, it just. It wasn't a thing back then.

And if it was done, it was done very quietly in very, you know, smaller circles. And thank God, you know, people think about it now that there's actually too many solutions. That's the benefit of all of this.

But, yeah, I mean, that's how it happened.

And so seeing that a piece of equipment that we just had returned that was an older model but is still completely functional for 20 years, I mean, I facilitated the donation of this equipment. And quite honestly, 10 years later, it's at least 10 years, it's still working. Like, we still get metrics from it. Like, I know it's still in place.

I know it's still working. And I know women are still having better access to mammography and breast imaging that they didn't have.

And that just something switched in me from the mindset to say, like, there's a lot of waste. There's, you know, a lot of corporations that want to do good.

There's a lot of corporations that have the ability to do good, and they need a solution.

And the solution, as you mentioned, it's really not. It's not rocket science. It's really something that you saw. It's something that we were not using here that they needed down there.

And at the end of the day, that impacted a lot of lives. I mean, something like that really changed the world and made their community a lot better. And of course, it's making the world better.

And you've always been like, an advocate and fighter for health equity for women. And I think that's still a topic, which it shouldn't be.

Which again, is not complicated, a machine down to Mexico, Costa Rica, or anywhere around the world where they might not have access to help the way we have here, you can literally save a life easily. Easy, right?

Yeah. And it just, you know, it's only just one. I mean, you know, everyone's like, oh, you know, how do you feel?

I'm like, I mean, I feel great, but has nothing to do with me. This has to do with just the one person who is now, you know, fine. We're not curing cancer, but we're able to find it early.

And when you find breast cancer early. Right.

I mean, dark. Yeah.

It impacts the community. There's a 99% survival ship.

If you find it, you know, very early, it's 60% when you find it later, and even, you know, later and even worse odds in developing countries. And so if you find it early, great. You know, you could survive that and you can be back with your family.

And it's just, you know, we cannot perpetuate this cycle where, you know, women are dying for no reason.

Because the problem is when women are not part of the community and not part of their family unit, it's the girls that get pulled out of school first, not the boys. It's the girls. And so for me, as a woman in stem, I want the girls to go to school.

Like, I don't, you know, while I want the boys to go to school too, they're not pulled out. I want the girls to go to school.

The longer that they're in school, the less children they have better opportunities for, you know, economic empowerment and supporting their own lives and their families. That's important to me. And quite honestly, it's not going to be any of us in the US that are solving cancer, you know, or saving the world.

It's going to be these girls in developing countries that have access to education. They're going to be coming up with these creative ideas, and we just need to make sure that they're in school. And so, like, I'm not an educator.

I'll leave that to my mom and all the other amazing educators out there. But, like, I'm in healthcare. And so if we solve the healthcare problem, the girls stay in school.

There's almost no parents around the World, especially mothers that don't want their kids educated. I mean, you see it in Africa, you see it in Latin America, you see it everywhere.

And there's education and, you know, now, you know, now there's a ton of access.

Absolutely. And well said.

Could you tell us a little bit more about. Well, first and foremost, what it is and why did you start it and then what's the mission or the vision for this amazing organization?

Absolutely. So Her Health EQ is a global nonprofit and we provide medical equipment to developing countries focused on women and women's health.

We focus on NCDs, which are non communicable diseases such as breast cancer, cervical cancer, maternal health and heart disease. And we work with local partners and just equip them with the equipment that they need to either treat, prevent or diagnose any of these issues.

The issue with non communicable diseases is that, you know, when these countries kind of graduate into this middle income, which is not comparable to what the US Considers middle income, but just generally what is considered by the World bank as middle income, they lose a lot of their aid and they don't have the infrastructure yet to support, you know, the cancers and maternal health issues and heart disease issues. People are starting to live longer.

Like that's one of the metrics when you quote, unquote, graduate, you know, from some of these, you know, into the middle income range. And they just don't have the equipment.

And so they have the doctors, they have the nurses, they have the infrastructure, you know, kind of in place, but they don't have the equipment to do the job. And that's what we do. We connect with medical device companies.

So either take, you know, donations of the equipment or purchase them at cost as a nonprofit. And we just get them to into the hands the doctors, the nurses, the clinicians, the midwives who need it. They tell us what they need.

They, you know, what they're focused on, how they're going to support it, how they're going to get the outreach out there. And we just make sure we get them the equipment. It's becoming a lot easier now, especially as a lot of this has gone smaller and handheld and mobile.

I'm literally hand carrying In a carry on, you know, 10 ultrasound probes for maternal health screenings in Guadalajara, Mexico. My flight is booked. I can actually see them right, right in my vision and they're in their little baby carry cases and they're going in my carry on.

I mean, that's how mobile things are. And so sometimes there's bigger pieces, pieces of equipment, sometimes they're, you know, smaller.

But to get the equipment to the people's hands, like, that's very much what we do. And our mission is to just have better health equity for women all around the world. Women need access to quality medical equipment.

So again, I think they can survive, they can live, they can have healthy lives to be productive members of their family, their community, you know, and the entire country.

And this is around the world. A million.

This is around the world, yeah. So we focus.

Which is screened.

Yeah. So screened, covered, available, et cetera. So, yeah, we're getting close. We've directly impacted right now 51,000 women.

That number is going to jump at the end of the year. We only collect quarterly metrics, so that's going to jump as. We just deployed 10 pieces of equipment in Ghana. I'm about to deploy 10 more in Mexico.

Beginning of next year, we're doing another 10 in Nigeria.

We're going to be going back to several of these countries for multiple pieces of equipment additional because we want to make a sustained, impactful change. And so, you know, we're very much broadening our reach and our goal because, listen, 1 million women, it's not a lot.

I mean, I think it's very achievable goal.

Yes.

And now I'm curious on how you keep the metrics, but I think that's a conversation for another time. But I think that's a great goal that from there you can keep going upwards.

And I think the key of success here, and correct me if I'm wrong, but is identifying where is it actually needed, where is the surplus and where is it actually needed?

Because I think many companies have failed in their, I'll call it not only their sustainability goals, but their social equity goals by thinking they have to create new things to Satisfy that demand.

Correct.

And many other women in other industries like fabrics and textiles, also in food industry have identified that there is surplus in some places and there is stockouts or I would say deserts where they need this and where it's actually valuable. So again, like we were saying, it's not rocket science, it's an exercise of survivors and finding the right contacts for it.

I mean, that's what we're doing. We're filling the gap between the excess to those that need it. I mean, we're kind of an intermediary, which is completely fine.

We're not developing, we're not creating something new. We've created something new as far as like, here's the process, here's the avenue to do it.

But I mean, we're helping companies and helping make sure that equipment gets to where it needs to go.

Yeah. And that's just the first step of this virtual cycle. Right.

As we were saying, because again, it's not curing cancer, for example, but it is about preventing health issues from escalating in a way that women are affected. And then the ripple effect of that that we were mentioning, maybe being pulled out of school, not able to complete their education and so on.

Talking about this circle, because I see it as a virtuous cycle. Right. From a sustainability perspective, because we haven't talked about that.

But what are other positive impacts for these alcoholic solution or this first step that you're doing of connecting the dots between surplus and demand?

Yeah. So I mean, it's sustainable. We just don't want junk going into the garbage for no reason. And so, and when we say junk, like it's not junk.

Two year olds, ultrasounds, not junk. They have a 20 year life cycle. They're perfectly fine, they're great. You change the color of your logo, they still work. It doesn't matter.

So, you know, we're making sure that also we work with hospitals to try to deploy some of their access equipment. I mean, you know, it's funny, during the pandemic, everybody saw like, oh my God, we have stuff in like these plazas.

Well, yeah, Imagine now what you still have in that closet, you know, that we need to, you know, deploy. Or you've just upgraded all your pieces of equipment because you just got, you know, a lot of money. Well, okay, great.

What are you going to do with the old stuff we don't want in the dumpster? So first and foremost, sustainability. And you know, the other side is access. Access to quality quick care.

And I hope, like, my intention is that we are put out of business as soon as humanly possible. I don't want to run this until I'm 90. I hope that this goes away and that this is solved way before, you know, I get older.

And, like, that's the intent. I would be happy to find something else to do if I am put out of business because there's health equity around.

Well, you. You have to become an astronaut. So you still need a couple more years to do that.

I mean, a few more years. Yeah, that's true, that's true. But this is a nonprofit. That was. All my profits actually go into the nonprofit.

Speaking of one of them, Fire Consulting llc. And so you started it. So I very briefly, just give us idea of what you do and what you focus on.

But, like, my question to you would be, for all our entrepreneurs out there, what's the key? I mean, if there's. I know there's many, many things.

I know there's stones and there's no magic one, there's no silver bullet or whatever, but if there's one or two things that you say, okay, if you're an entrepreneur out there, if you really want to make this jump, in order to be successful, you need to be what?

Tenacious. You need to be really tenacious. Tenacious. And I don't know where that word just came from, but it just came out of me.

But you need to be tenacious and you need to fight for what you want. Quite honestly, I fell into entrepreneurship. I did not want to become an entrepreneur. When I did it, like, I didn't know what I was doing.

I actually took a voluntary layoff at a company because I was burnt out. And everyone said I should go into consulting.

And sadly, I wasn't smart enough to know that I should have gone to, you know, McKinsey, Deloitte or any of those large companies. So I just started my own consulting firm with no planning.

What I would say is to any entrepreneur, plan it while you're working another company making a paycheck. Like, that was my fia's.

Taking notes.

Yeah. Like, honestly taking those notes. Like, you should not like, like, don't just, like, quit because you feel like it.

Like, take their money, do your job, and make the plan appropriately and then switch. I did not do it well. And to Be clear, like, you know, some of the lessons learned and not doing things well. In the beginning, that was me.

I mean, you know, it looks great now. In the beginning, I had no idea what I was doing. I had no right consulting, you know, like, I had no plan.

But I was tenacious and I reached out to my contacts and I started doing small projects and then I started doing much larger projects and then I started taking executive positions. You know, to be clear, I'm not really doing consulting now because I'm a full time CEO now at two companies.

So one of them her healthy Q and you know, a lot of the other jobs.

But it enabled me to have those opportunities to take those executive positions, to, you know, be fractional at several different companies to learn, you know, what was happening, how to do it best and to get the exposure.

I think I'll always have the consulting firm because, you know, from a legal standpoint and a tax law, you have a lot of the standpoint, it's totally worth it.

No, you have the experience. I'm sure that a lot of people will actually hire you or try to share your experience and knowledge and feedback and suggestions. So why not?

So that makes perfect sense. Sophia, I think you have a question.

Yeah, I'm very curious because sometimes they say you need to have experience before being an entrepreneur or sometimes like, go ahead, deep dive, just do it. I think like, from what I'm hearing is better to plan it, better to have time.

And I think it's also a women's mentality because we're very, I think, cautious. But then there's a point where you need to risk it.

Right.

So what would be in these 25 years of experience that you have and more, I've been. What is a strategy that you have used that have helped you become the leader that you are? To me, yeah.

So, I mean, I work surrounded by men, so I've taken on a very. And I think given, you know, I'm an engineer and I was, you know, interested in space and healthcare and all these things for a long time.

I've taken a very man centric, you know, traditional man mentality, which means, you know, you apply for the job when you feel you're 50% qualified. Now a woman is going to apply for a job when she's 125% qualified and then still questions herself. So for me, I mean, listen, like, absolutely plan.

You have to plan. You need the experience. I think, like, I see a lot of people that are starting consulting firms right out of university.

What are you consulting on, you have no experience. Nobody should hire you. And, you know, I think it's ridiculous. Like, you need experience.

And I think it's good to learn from corporate environments, small or large.

Like, it doesn't have to be a massive, you know, organization, but, like, you have to learn, A, how things are done and B, how things are not done well, so that when you do consult, you can figure out how to do them better. Like, that's the point, that you learn from other people and other people's infrastructure.

So, I mean, as far as women go, I mean, listen, like, I think that, yes, you need to plan, but, like, you feel 75%, 80%, 85% that you're there. Just do it.

Because to be clear, again, the man's going to do it when they're 50% ready and they're going to get it because they put their name in the hat. If you don't even put your name in with more experience and better ideas, you're never going to get it.

So you could be sitting at home and say, oh, God, I should have gotten that job. You know what? You didn't apply. And nobody knows that you were looking for that job.

And so, like, as a woman and I, this is what I counsel to other women that I, you know, that I work with or I mentor. You are experienced enough, go after it. You're not going to get everything, because nobody gets everything. But go after it.

If you want that client, go after it. If you want that job, go after it. Don't go in with zero experience. You know, like, I'm not going into the food and beverage industry.

I don't know anything about that. But, like, if you're talking about operations, operations for every company, more or less the same, you know, you just apply what you know.

But, like, and you learn, right? You can learn. You have the ability to learn and learn and grow and. Yeah, and work hard.

Just go after it. Like, what's going to happen? They're going to tell you no and you stay where you are. Fine.

Very good advice. Tenacious. Go for it. Just don't overthink. When you're qualified, you're qualified. You don't have to be 120% qualified because you can learn.

And learning is the easier part of actually applying for things or doing things. You are or recently became the CEO of Deep Look Medical. Very exciting and a very hot topic. Right?

Because you're focusing a little bit more on the AI side of things and implementation of a device called DL Precise. Did I get that. Right.

Can you tell us a little more about this particular tool and then AI, how AI has come together to expand the horizon of what you do already. And then also a little bit about Deep Look Medical and the great things that they're doing.

Yeah, for sure. So I became the CEO over two years ago of Deep Look Medical, you know, software technology company for profit business in the imaging and AI space.

And so, you know, we work in radiology, just really working to improve visualization. There's a really big issue, especially goes back to women, women with dense breasts, which affects 45% of all women. You can't see through it.

It's like, you know, when you're getting your mammogram, you're looking for the cotton ball in the cloud and you can't see a mass, you know, you can't see it. And so that's a big problem. And while technology has gotten better, it's still not there. Low visibility imaging needs help and needs AI.

This is where AI is a massive tool. So, I mean, AI is really starting to be adopted in a few industries in healthcare. So healthcare, like actually really likes AI.

They don't like to admit it, but they definitely like it. So it's helped a lot on the back end.

So a lot of the streamlining of, you know, patient records and chatbots and all of these things and, you know, getting you your appointments, nobody realizes this, but that's AI. You know, we talk about AI as if it just showed up last March when GPT announced their new thing. AI has been here.

AI is our phone, is our zoom that we're talking over. AI is our computers. You know, you talk about something, all of a sudden you see an Instagram ad, that's AI. But even basic coding, that's AI.

So it's been around for, you know, 20, 25 years. I remember learning it at university. And so.

But in healthcare, it's really helping to streamline operations in every industry, but especially in healthcare. And so with respect to the imaging side of things, it's really starting to be adopted, especially first and foremost in mammography.

It's a very complicated process, harder than most other imaging. It's also the only annualized screening that happens in imaging. And so in the US there's 42 million women that have mammograms every single year.

28 of them have recalls, which means they have to come back for additional testing. That's about to jump to over 45% with new legislation that's just been enacted that I was a Part of.

So it's not enough radiologists, there's not enough radiologist technicians, and they need tools. And so they're starting to adopt them. What we do is we help them to visualize and reduce the amount of recalls.

There's a lot of technology that's being adopted in AI. It's really exciting.

You know, it's not this, like, crazy robots taking over and doing things now, you know, there are robots doing surgeries, and it's quite fascinating to be very clear. There's a human operating that robot, to be very clear.

So, you know, there's not like a random guy walking down the street and just opening up your liver. And so people don't understand, I think, like, how much it's embedded into our lives and our culture, especially in healthcare.

And there's nothing wrong with that. Like, listen, like, I'm part of AI for good, you know, I'm part of, you know, all of these governing bodies.

I mean, it's important for us to have the governance around it. But it's being widely adopted. It's not making decisions, it's not taking diagnoses. It's not doing those things. Not yet.

I think we're five or 10 years away from that. But it's a way to help doctors almost like, compute information faster. That's literally what it is. I mean, that's what it's helping them do.

And it's incredibly effective in precision medicine, which is really exciting because actually, when we talk about oncology, the rarer your cancer is, the better options for something new and novel, you know, shows up for you because they can put all these things together, they do the computation and then spit something out for you, the best treatment pathway. So it's a really interesting space, especially in healthcare, because you can see it actually impacting people's lives.

You know, you guys are in supply chain.

People only learned what the word supply chain meant when they couldn't get their deliveries during the pandemic from Amazon, you know, and they didn't understand that it's all interconnected.

And so, you know, but every, most everybody is impacted by healthcare in some respect, whether it's yourself for an annual, you know, physical, or it's, you know, your children or, you know, you need to call in a prescription or, you know, things like that. A lot of it's being done with AI and it's just helpful. There's just not enough people to do the work.

I completely agree. I think it is very interesting how today we fear AI and I think we fear it, firstly, because we don't know it.

And the other thing is, like, we are still behind in regulations. Maybe that's also. That keeps our peace of mind a bit unsteady.

But I believe that the power of AI, as long as we do it with a good intent and an educated implementation, I would say that is something that will give us value in the short run and then in the long run. I think that part, when you say it is here right now in healthcare, it is here to reduce the time that it takes to diagnose.

I think that's key, especially because. And I think of my own experience, right?

When I go get my yearly checkups and when I get asked to go again, or when they say, like, one time I had a health care, because they read the image wrong.

So that's something that I think, like, well, if AI could be there to help these human mistakes that happen, because most of our doctors, especially in Latin America, are very burned out. There are not enough of them. So it's. It's only natural that sometimes they will get it wrong.

But I think those applications of AI are very important and also valuable for everyone around.

Yeah, I mean, what they do is they serve sometimes as a first line, and then the physicians either confirm, you know, or reject it.

And that's very helpful because it just computed all the information, you know, it took all your blood work and it took all of the things and it said, yeah, I. I think this is wrong. And then they can say, oh, you know what? Yeah, I do think.

Or, you know, or you click the button and said, no, I, you know, I reject that analysis. And, okay, it gives them almost a basis to start.

You know, we have to forget we're not like, flipping through textbooks anymore to find that piece of paper and to find that one article that somebody published about this and that AI can spit that out in two seconds, you know, and make that suggestion and, you know, exactly, Sophia, what you said, like, it helps them with the burnout.

It helps them get to, you know, not having you come back a few times and, you know, reduces the anxiety for the patients, it reduces the stress on the patients, and it reduces, you know, the time that patients have to take and the cost, you know, every time you have to go back, especially in the US Every time you have to go back, you have to pay another co. Pay. Well, it's all about money.

I've been learning a lot today with you, so thank you both. I didn't know that out of 42 million, 28 were recalls. I'd never even thought about that number being that high.

And, and then I, the, it's actually quite low breast density. I thought that, hey, you'll go get your mammogram and then you'll know for sure. But apparently that's not the case and I'm just super ignorant.

I have to definitely do a better job on my end. But to both your points, I think AI can help.

And then also people have to continue to be educated by this and we have to help people in developing countries because I'm sure that if we're facing this in the United States, just imagine how, I guess, bad it is in other countries. Right?

Yeah, I was going to say because it has the ability, it's really interesting. AI has the ability to really help global health. Like that's a place because, you know, it helps.

Even if you do have your mammogram in Nairobi, well, there might not be a radiologist to read it, but you can send it to teleradiology and they can read it for you and you can get your results or something like that, or you know, blood analysis. You put the thing in the machine. Well, you don't have a doctor to maybe, you know, analyze it. Well, here AI is going to help you.

But also connecting people to care, a lot of care can happen at home.

A lot of people, you know, like I actually, you know, talked to my doctor on the app and you know, like, sometimes I had a sore throat and I was like, oh, my throat's sore. And they're like, hold the camera up and. And then they send over the prescription and then all of a sudden it shows up at my door.

Well, that's AI that's connected health. And just imagine in developing countries how that can grow into scale.

You can have a doctor's, you know, nurses sitting anywhere and you can actually reach more people. Also people can access to their information and their charts.

And the fact of the matter is, when you're in developing countries, it's still paper based, which means you then have to go pick them up, pick them up, move it, move all your stuff. You have to hold your healthcare information well, if you could just have it in your phone, wouldn't that just be more helpful?

I mean, so you can go to your doctor and say, here's my history, now you know what to do with it.

And then AI pulls from every single screening or every single, for example, deep look medical.

With the software that they use, they probably can start actually pulling information around the world than making AI diagnose a lot Better than what a couple of doctors could do just because we have such an amount of data that they can look into. But, Sophia, go ahead.

Oh, I think I am very amazed by everything that you do, Marissa.

I think there are many things that are changing not only the way in which we look at health, but also the way in which people are impacted by it and how they relate to it.

I think there also is shifting our mindsets of being scared of knowing and taking a more better approach in having preventive, I would say, information that would get us or help us not be in a worse situation in the future. And just being a fan here, because I did see your TED talk and I really loved it and I believe that all of our listeners should go and watch it.

It's a very good TED talk. Tell us a bit more about how you view our scar's resources, which are time and.

Well, you mentioned three resources that you have now viewed them differently. I don't know if you can tell us a bit more about that.

Yeah, I mean, listen, I, as an engineer, like to streamline, to be clear. So, you know, that's literally what I studied. Like manufacturing engineering is the efficiency of life.

And so, you know, to be able to reduce time and cost and, you know, waste and effort, like, those are the things where we have to work together and fill a gap. So, you know, the idea of her LTQ kind of came about because, like, there was a gap.

Here's a solution, like plug them together, you know, but we have to, when we're talking about the global health setting, you know, we really have to make sure that it's correct. So we have to work locally and get those resources. Like, we're not especially @SORLTYQ, and I don't think any other NGO should do this.

And unfortunately, some of them do. They just, like, drop stuff in and say, good luck to you. Like, have fun, you know, use it.

And they feel great about themselves, but the work's not done. I mean, you know, it has to be functional. It has to be, you know, so you have to have the resources to, you know, for support.

You have to have the resources for training. You have to have the resources to provide them what they need and they have to, you know, get to where it needs to go.

It's not just like, here it is, good luck.

Those are some of the tenants that we've built our healthy queue on because it's super important to have the support and make sure that there's service.

Like, you're not just dropping equipment off in a region and something breaks and then you've just contributed to the trash issue like that that's not efficient or effective. So making sure that there's training in place for somebody to manage service and you might have somebody new who comes to the team.

Well, you need to provide training resources for them to be able to use this type of equipment.

And so those are some of the pillars that you know, I think are important where because we're, you know, we're a relatively young organization, because we're smaller, because we're newer, we can think in an innovative way and not have to do the very traditional, you know, set up 400 people hospital by ourselves. No, these hospitals already exist. I mean, I just got back from Ghana. They're already there.

They're actually incredibly, you know, well built and equipped and they just need, you know, need a new equipment to do more. That's very much where we are and that's infrastructure building, that's support.

Also what we do is make sure most of the time it's women who are trained to do those roles. So providing employment for women in lower resource settings allows them to no longer be in that lower resource setting.

You know, they have the opportunity to pull themselves, you know, into a new category in class so that because they have the capital to do that in a steady job.

And so, you know, a lot of my TEDx talk kind of talked about that, making sure that the framework is in place and the support structure on a local level. You know, this is not like white imperialist, you, you know, us person coming in to say, oh, here I feel great about myself.

It's no, I'm giving you something so that you have better health in your community based on what you want, not what I want to do.

Right.

You know, this is nothing about me. You tell me what you want to do. You have the programs in place, you now have the staff in place. Okay, great, let's allow you to do that.

And I think it's important that we have to listen like for all of us that are in better positions, we need to pull up everybody else alongside us. You're only stronger when you have other incredible people around you. This is not a pyramid. This is not like a ruler on top.

This is not an imperialistic structure. This is, you need to pull everybody to you equally because that's what equality is, you know, equality and equity.

Everyone has to have the same as what you have and not the same what works for them to get to that level. That's equity. And so making sure. That you pull people alongside of you so that they have additional opportunities.

Well, absolutely. And, Marissa, we're running out of time, so I'll have to start wrapping up. It's been an amazing conversation with you.

You actually gave us a lot to think about. And again, we would like to listen to you and actually talk to you sometime in the future.

But now, our listeners, how can they actually get in touch with you? How can they get to learn a little bit more about her healtheq Deep look medical. What's the best way of contacting you?

Yeah, so I have my generalized website, marissafayer.com but there's also herhealtheq.org so it's herhealtheq.org, deeplookmedical.com all of these things. But LinkedIn, I'm very prolific there, just like Sophia. So the two of us will be posting incessantly for all of you.

I'm also speaking at a lot of opportunities, a lot of events, and traveling a lot of places. So it's exciting to get the word out there. There's not that many people speaking about women's health and global health around the world.

And I hate to hear myself speak. Like, I'll never listen to this podcast because I just won't want to hear it.

I'll listen to all the other podcasts, but I won't listen to my own, you know, but I think that more people speaking about it is really important. And I.

And I'm really appreciative that, you know, you guys have had me on and, you know, we're excited to partner with you guys and work with you, and, you know, the work that. That both of you do is incredibly important. And I think, sadly, only people found out about it when they needed it.

But the fact of the matter is, I mean, you know, you've won awards for all of your work, especially in a global health perspective, and that's incredibly important for people to know. And we all have to do this together, you know. And Enrique, you know, you were saying that like, oh, you didn't know.

Well, now you know, and you can be an advocate for women and women's health. And Sophia, you'll continue to kind of spread the word, especially that AI in different contexts, too, in different countries.

And I think it's just like, we all have to do this together. And I think that's something that we all have to kind of remember. So, yeah, you can find me in all those places. I'm happy to talk to everybody.

I've had a lot of coffee today, so I'm very loquacious.

Happy. Nadine. Thank you for being here, Marisa, and sharing with us. I took a lot of notes, a lot of learnings.

And yes, we will be posting about this for a long time and you'll get sick of us telling you about all the great things that Marisa is doing. But I think it's important, as you said, to spread the word and understand that we're in it together and we get faster together.

So the goal we do and women equity, which is something you said and repeat on some of your social media and posts and web pages, health equity can change the world, right? So thank you so much for being here. It's been a pleasure and good luck in Guadalajara. I expect the picture posted by both of you and have a good day.

Thanks so much.