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Insider Insight: Christy Prada, CEO of Future Fertility

This week we meet Christy Prada, CEO of the Canadian medtech start-up Future Fertility

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Christy Prada

Christy Prada is the CEO of Future Fertility, a Toronto-based artificial intelligence medtech start-up focusing on non-invasive reproductive innovations. 

What is your morning routine?

I generally wake up whenever my alarm (i.e. my 15 month old daughter) goes off which these days is between 6-6:30am.

Every morning we do a short walk together, my husband, our daughter and our dog, Callie, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. I really enjoy the opportunity to have some down time together before a busy day of meetings and work.  Then I frantically get dressed while downing a coffee and head out the door for the office.

I wish I could say I got up, had a healthy breakfast, did a workout and got organised for the day, but this is simply unrealistic for me these days.

My life has become a bit more chaotic with return to the office, and a new baby, but I am really enjoying the new pace of life!

Which technology could you not live without?

Cell phone. The boring and predictable answer, but it is the truth. I rely a lot on my phone to stay connected to urgent requests from the office, which enables me to get in more family time on a daily basis versus being at my desk.

I try to get home to spend evenings/bedtime with my daughter before logging back onto my computer, and a cell phone makes this feasible.

How do you relax?

Outside of family time, I also enjoy a glass of wine after a busy day, taking a dance class, or (if I am really lucky) hitting the spa with my girlfriends. Friday night is pizza night at our house, which I also truly look forward to – the little things!

Which quote resonates with you?

“If it were easy, everyone would do it.” I’m not sure where it originated, but my team hears me say this all the time.

I think it nicely reflects the unique challenges of working in a technology start-up. Not everyone can embrace the agility, execution and stretch tasks that are required when you are forging a new path or creating a new industry.

What is the best thing about your job?

Getting to work with so many talented, passionate people, both at my company and in the industry. I’ve been blown away by the enthusiasm, dedication and deep scientific, technical and academic talent in the fertility industry.

My team! I am so inspired by the team I work with every single day. I am fortunate enough to have a team of deep technical, clinical, academic and operational experts that know their practice and functional area inside and out.

They are ambitious, fearless and committed individuals and I feel lucky to have a team like this by my side.

I really see my role as working to empower and enable them to do what they do best, as much as possible.

What keeps you motivated?

I find the problem we are working to solve for to be hugely tangible and inspiring. In my previous role, we were helping to improve access to healthcare, so I knew that any other roles I took on would have to have a similar level of altruism.

I love that I am contributing to an industry that will help to empower more people through their own fertility journeys, whatever they may look like.

Whether someone wants to have a baby now, help someone else have a baby, or aren’t sure yet, empowering patients with access to information to help them better plan for their lives and be more engaged in the decision-making process through the journey is extremely compelling to me.

It’s a win that we are also making labs and clinics more efficient, effective and data driven, and generally advancing the industry as a whole, which is further motivating.

Aside from this, at a more micro day-to-day level, I am a business developer/builder at heart, so I always love the rush of signing a new commercial deal/partnership or bringing on a new employee that is a perfect fit for a key role.

What is the most important lesson you have learned working in the fertility space?

Being new to the fertility space, (I joined Future Fertility as CEO seven months ago and am new to the industry!) I feel I still have lots to learn. However, a few key things stick out to me.

There is tremendous appetite for innovation and new technology – this just needs to be balanced with usability and clinical applicability. If you can help solve a real problem for clinicians, embryologists or other providers, there will be good support from early adopters to collaborate and enhance the use case of the solution.

There is no “one” right answer! While this is true for the clinical side of things (in speaking with physicians, embryologists, and other care providers, who each have their own approaches to their practice) it is also an important lesson for companies like ours to embrace while growing.

We may have to try something a few times to get it right, and keeping an open mind is critical when building products for this industry. The best lesson I’ve gained from working in a health technology start-up in general is to be relentlessly focused on execution in an agile way, which is well aligned to this lesson.

What advice would you give to your younger self?

Relax and enjoy the process. This is when the best learning comes, and you can’t go back and re-experience it again! Embrace the present.

What is something you wish you could experience again for the first time? 

Becoming a mother. This has been the most fundamentally impactful experience of my life. It has changed who I am, how I engage with people and how I view myself. This is why I am in this industry – to help others fulfil this dream and experience this, and to help empower people to have informed choice over the matter.

What are your long-term goals for the company?

I’d love for our products to play a role in every clinic / fertility cycle globally. There is no reason why every single patient going through the process shouldn’t have personalised access to insights about their fertility, starting with the egg and beyond.

For more info, visit futurefertility.com.

Mental health

Tech exec launches programme to address women’s leadership gap in technology sector

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A new 12-week executive programme aimed at tackling burnout and stalled career growth among senior women in technology will launch next month, amid ongoing concerns about gender representation in the industry.

Padmasini Dayananda, a tech executive with 24 years’ experience, created the initiative to support women leaders in reshaping their careers and raising their profiles in the sector.

The programme is based on what Dayananda describes as a “Triple-E Framework,” drawing on concepts from Stanford’s Career Design Lab and the Uncertainty Experts initiative.

“Women now have a seat at the table—but they want more,” says Dayananda. “They’re ready to explore untapped potential and redefine their path. What got them here won’t take them to the next level. This program is designed to create extraordinary breakthroughs by helping them drop old baggage, build strategic agility, and grow with purpose.

Opening for registration on 2 June 2025, the course is designed to help participants overcome self-limiting beliefs, plan their next career steps, and recover from professional burnout.

Figures from Women in Tech UK show that while women make up 42 per cent of the tech workforce, they hold just 31.7 per cent of leadership roles. Many exit senior positions due to limited advancement opportunities, lack of visibility, or chronic stress.

Called HER Circle of Influence, the programme combines executive mentoring and strategic coaching. Enrollment will be selective, with places offered through an application process.

Dayananda was ranked fourth in Information Age’s Top 10 Diverse Leaders in UK Tech and is an alumna of Windsor Leadership. See more on the programme here

 

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European healthcare professionals react to new ultrasound technology

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European ultrasound specialists have responded to the launch of an advanced ultrasound system by international health technology provider Mindray.

The Resona A20, unveiled in Naples late last year at the 35th congress of the European Federation of Ultrasound Societies in Medicine and Biology, was developed by Mindray to allow healthcare professionals to have a “deeper comprehension of the human body”, and to enable early detection of illness with new levels of confidence.

It is the first premium ultrasound system to be developed by the company.

‘The highest level of confidence for complex cases’

Professor Vito Cantisani, president of the European Federation of Societies for Ultrasound in Medicine and Biology, remarked he was “positively impressed” with the new technology as one of the world’s first users. “I found this new equipment very useful to evaluate deeply complicated cases,” he said. “The Resona A20 brings the best image quality for the highest level of confidence.”

Professor Cantisani, who is also chairman of integrated advanced imaging at University Sapienza, Rome, remarked how software in the Resona A20 supported multi-parametric evaluation, helping to deliver “a comprehensive evaluation of my patients”. “We are entering a new era,” he said.

He pointed out that one significant improvement is the multi-parametric liver study, helping to comprehensively study any pathology. He added that the technology enables all requested information to be displayed in real-time in one shot.

“The A20 smart thyroid tool gives automatic real-time lesion detection, which helps to be fast and precise,” Professor Cantisani added.

“HD Scope+is very useful because it increases the level of confidence, enhancing the border delineation, the eco-structures, the presence of calcification of the lesion that I study, such as breast and thyroid lesions, where it is really important to depict clearly and properly any of those features.”

Microvasculature study functionality was also described as important

A ‘slow flow’ often suggests that there might be a problem with the small blood vessels. Professor Cantisani said: “The ultra micro angiography provides a very high sensitive depiction of the slow flow.”

The new technology is expected to support daily clinical activity, research, and education, with the potential to enhance the role of ultrasound in the diagnostic imaging landscape.

Dynamic tumour information, and new pathways

The new high frame rate of the Resona A20 could make a “major difference” for healthcare professionals in delivering a correct diagnosis quickly for kidney, liver and oncology patients, and could help to transform clinical pathways, according to Prof Dirk-Andre Clevert, head of the Interdisciplinary Ultrasound Centre, Department of Radiology, University of Munich-Grosshadern Campus.

“The A20 gives us the opportunity for super resolution,” he said. “Five hundred frames a second means a very, very high resolution, and a lot of dynamic information, additional information for the tumour which doesn’t exist or can be missed in conventional contrast examination.”

New diagnostic pathways could become possible for different patient cohorts, he added. For kidney transplant patients, it was now possible to show a “tiny kidney infarction not clearly visible by a contrast enhanced ultrasound examination”.

For liver patients, the need for additional imaging, could potentially now be avoided, he added. “Around 30 per cent of my liver examination patients need to have CT or MRI, and further contrast enhanced ultrasound,” said Professor Clevert. “There might be an option for a shortcut, to start with super resolution before going to MRI or CT – to save both time and money.”

‘A huge amount of data’: A new perspective for doctors

The new ultrasound system uses an acoustic intelligence technology platform, combined with Mindray’s next-generation transducers to improve acoustic focusing, and support precise diagnosis.  This helps healthcare professionals to visualise often unseen details.

Professor Clevert said that the Resona A20’s option for super resolution meant “more frames in a shorter time, with additional information like dynamic flow direction”, in addition to providing results of image analysis on the same system, preventing the need to transfer information to external computers.

“You have the option to see very tiny vessels which are not normally visible,” he said. “You can see the flow direction, you get information regarding time of arrival, so how fast the contrast has arrived. It’s not only super resolution, we have vascular information, dynamic information.”

He described the potential for a “very big power insight”. “If you can acquire 500 frames in a second, and you can store 30 seconds, this means you have around 15,000 frames. This is a huge amount of data.”

 

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Sponsored Content

#empowHERaccess Global Prestige Awards 2025: A Global Celebration of Women in AI, Technology, and Economic Leadership

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The highly anticipated #empowHERaccess Global Prestige Awards 2025 returns for its fifth year, honoring global leaders who are shaping the AI-powered economy while driving corporate ESG and UN SDG goals. Hosted in both the U.S. and India, this industry recognition platform builds upon the success of the 2024 campaign, which reached 4.5 million impressions.

Presented by Women in Cloud (WIC) in collaboration with The Mainstream (formerly CIO News), the awards celebrate women technology and business leaders, impact filmmakers, entrepreneurs, investors, donors, wellness champions, and allies who are pioneering innovation in AI, cybersecurity, film, technology, and wellness.

“The #empowHERaccess Global Prestige Award 2025 honorees represent the future of leadership in the AI-powered economy,” said Chaitra Vedullapalli, President of Women in Cloud. “These women are leading transformative initiatives within their organizations, driving innovation and measurable business outcomes. Companies with women in senior leadership roles are 30% more likely to outperform their peers, proving that visibility and recognition of these leaders are critical for building a thriving, inclusive AI-powered economy.”

Women in Cloud’s past awards have showcased groundbreaking contributions, fostering equitable economic access, industry inclusivity, and policy-driven innovation. This year, the program expands globally to honor over 200 changemakers whose leadership is shaping critical industries.

Nominations officially opened on March 25, 2025.

The #empowHERaccess 2025 Awards Gala will be a premier gathering of industry leaders, investors, policymakers, and changemakers, celebrating transformative contributions to the AI-powered economy. This year’s ceremony will introduce two new award categories:

  • The Wellness Champion Award – Honoring leaders fostering corporate and community wellness initiatives.
  • The Impact Film Award – Recognizing films that champion women’s experiences in AI, wellness, and sustainability.

This global recognition platform also features signature categories, including:

  • Trailblazer Leadership Award – Recognizing women leaders or allies accelerating ESG and ERG efforts.
  • Technologist Visionary Award – Honoring pioneers in cloud, AI, and cybersecurity innovation.
  • Women Tech Entrepreneur of the Year – Celebrating B2B and B2C women-led companies making an impact.
  • Mentor of the Year Award – Recognizing individuals championing women tech entrepreneurs and professionals.
  • Ally of the Year Award – Honoring those who empower and support women in tech.
  • Community Leadership Award – Highlighting individuals building inclusive, diverse talent ecosystems.
  • Generative AI Innovation Award – Recognizing leaders advancing equitable AI solutions.
  • Corporate Equality Advocate Award – Celebrating corporate champions of gender equality.

Being recognized at the #empowHERaccess Awards was a transformative moment, amplifying our mission and opening doors to global opportunities.” – Cara South, Trailblazer Leadership Award Winner 2024.

Join the Movement: Nominate a Leader Today

The #empowHERaccess Global Prestige Awards are a catalyst for change and recognition. By honoring the leaders, innovators, and allies shaping the future of AI, technology, and inclusivity, we drive a more equitable, diverse, and sustainable industry.

Now is your chance to be part of this transformative journey.

Submit your nominations today: https://womenincloud.com/empowheraccessawards2025/

Join the conversation on social media using #empowHERaccess2025

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