CEO Launches At-Home Cervical Cancer Screening to Improve Women’s Health Access

Amid a nationwide decline in cervical cancer screenings, health tech entrepreneur Kara Egan is leading efforts to make life-saving testing more accessible. As CEO and co-founder of Teal Health, Egan has developed the Teal Wand, the first FDA-approved at-home cervical screening test, designed to remove barriers preventing women from getting screened.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 13,000 women in the U.S. are diagnosed with cervical cancer each year, and 4,000 die from it. While vaccines and regular Pap smears can prevent most cases, screening rates have dropped since the Covid-19 pandemic, reports the American Cancer Society.

Woman in a sunflower field | Source: Pexels

Egan, a former health tech investor, founded Teal Health to address this gap. “What drove me to start Teal is just that women deserve better healthcare,” she said. “Even if the visit’s free, you had to leave work, you had to get childcare, you had to [find] transportation.”

The Teal Wand allows women to collect samples at home, offering the same accuracy as a doctor’s office test. Patients complete the process through telehealth, from eligibility screening to receiving results online. The device is currently available in California, New York, and Florida and is covered by major insurers, including Cigna, Aetna, and Blue Cross Blue Shield.

Egan noted that accessibility efforts are working: “Over 50% of women getting screened with Teal have been behind on their screening, and 20% of them had never been screened before.” She emphasized the goal of preventing cervical cancer through early detection: “Cervical cancer is entirely preventable if you get screened.”