Women's Health Innovation Forum

Philadelphia helped invent women's medicine. In 1850, the city opened the world's first medical school for women. More than 170 years later, women's health is one of the fastest-growing areas in life sciences, and maternal and reproductive health sit at its center, where the science is advancing fastest and the human stakes are highest. Philadelphia holds the research, the clinical depth, and the talent to lead this field. This symposium is about coordinating those strengths and putting them to work. This half-day symposium at uCity Square convenes the researchers, clinicians, advocates, and investors shaping the future of maternal and reproductive health; from high-risk pregnancy and fetal medicine to postpartum care, birth equity, and the diagnostics and technologies transforming how women move through pregnancy and beyond. Fireside conversations will help us learn from leaders in the field and set intention. The heart of the day is a full hour of facilitated small-group working sessions, where participants move from conversation to plan. Each table takes on a specific challenge in maternal and reproductive health, led by a subject-matter expert, grounded in a real problem, and structured to produce something concrete: a connection made, a next step named, a collaboration started. Attendees don't just listen; they build, alongside the people who can actually move the work forward. Together, we'll tackle questions like: How do we build a continuous, coordinated care model, from pregnancy through postpartum, so outcomes are set by biology, not by zip code? Where do Philadelphia's institutions, clinicians, and companies have the most to gain by working together...and what would it take to start? What would it take to move the region's most promising maternal and reproductive innovations from research into practice? Who needs to be in the room, and what could we accomplish if we planned as one ecosystem instead of many? By the end of the day, participants leave with more than ideas. They leave with named next steps, new collaborators, and a shared plan for making Philadelphia a leader in the field it helped create.