Industry leaders from across the health ecosystem, including Clue, Ema EQ, Thrive Global, Oura, and Willow, will set the first clinically rigorous, transparent standards for AI in women’s health
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today marks a major step forward in women’s health as Willow Innovations, Inc. (Willow), the maternal health pioneer that revolutionized the breast-pumping experience, and Ema EQ, the first AI for women’s health, announced the formation of the Women’s Health AI Consortium. The consortium is the first industry body dedicated to establishing shared benchmarks, ethical standards, and transparent evaluation methods for artificial intelligence in women’s health.
Women’s health technology has historically been underserved, underfunded, and misunderstood, leaving 50% of the population last to receive adequate clinical attention and the first to encounter AI tools built on incomplete data, deployed without sufficient oversight, and validated against benchmarks that were never designed with them in mind. The Women’s Health AI Consortium was formed to close that gap before this usage becomes the default.
“Women’s health AI is moving at a pace that demands immediate, coordinated accountability,” says Sarah O’Leary, CEO of Willow. “This Consortium gives the industry a clear, shared standard – one that is built on evidence, reflects lived experience, and holds every tool accountable to the women it serves.
The Consortium’s governance framework is organized around six core commitments:
- Ethical and Safety Standards
- Bias Reduction and Cultural Integrity
- Emotional and Clinical Quality at Scale
- Contextual and Longitudinal Intelligence
- Mentorship for Ethical AI Builders
- Transparent Oversight and Continuous Improvement
The initiative is designed to benefit the broader women’s health AI ecosystem by giving women and the companies serving them greater confidence in the tools they encounter, through shared expectations for quality and trustworthiness. For organizations developing or deploying AI in women’s health, it offers clearer reference points for design, validation, and procurement, helping connect innovation to what trustworthy women’s health AI looks like in practice, and supporting cohesion across the field rather than fragmentation.
“At Ema, we have seen firsthand how AI can transform women’s health outcomes, but only when it is built right,” said Amanda Ducach, CEO of Ema EQ. “We co-founded this Consortium because the stakes are too high to leave standards to chance. Women deserve AI that is clinically safe, culturally aware, and designed with them, not just for them.”
The Women’s Health AI Consortium is governed by a multidisciplinary board of clinicians, technologists, ethicists, and health innovators, including Sarah O’Leary, CEO of Willow; Amanda Ducach, CEO of Ema; Morgan Rose, CSO of Ema; Audrey Tsang, Board Member and former CEO at Clue; Melissa Bennett, SVP of Engineering and AI Strategy at Thrive Global; Ethan Cowan, PhD in History and Philosophy of Science and Technology; Tanvi Jayaraman, MD, Clinical Lead at Oura; and Asima Ahmad, MD, CMO at Carrot Fertility. Jennifer Yoo, Partner at Latham & Watkins, serves as a board observer.
With the formation of The Consortium, the expectation is that AI tools meet accuracy benchmarks, contribute data that helps close gaps in women’s health, and remain transparent about their data sources. Tools should be honest with users about their limitations and built to reflect the full reality of women’s lives. These expectations reflect a baseline that women using these products have always deserved. The Consortium exists to help the field finally get there.
About The Women’s Health AI Consortium
The Women’s Health AI Consortium aims to close the gap between the pace of AI development and the standards that guide it. Today, models are trained on data that under-represent women and without clinical review. The Consortium, established by clinicians, technologists, ethicists, and regulators, is developing the first shared benchmarks and governance framework for AI that serves women’s health.
Visit https://emahealth.ai/WHAIconsortium to learn more.
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