Photo: Rebecca Love (King's 2015) and Andrea Berchowitz co-founded Vira Health in 2020
Rebecca Love (King’s 2015) grew up in the small city of Peterborough in Canada, earned her undergraduate degree at Queen’s University in Kingston and then to the UK to study for her master’s degree in social policy at Oxford. From there Love went to King’s College, Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar to do her PhD in epidemiology.
“It was really clear to me that that was a place that was doing great research and was also a great place to learn, to be a student and that’s what drew me in,” says Love who conducted research within the University’s world-leading MRC Epidemiology Unit studying childhood obesity at the Center for Diet and Activity Research. Love went on to work briefly for the City of London, developing policy around childhood obesity but realized neither academia nor public policy were her calling.
“I wanted to be closer to the people and health challenges the world was facing and be on the forefront of that to make changes immediately,” says Love.
This drive to make a difference led her to areas of women’s health that were long neglected and misunderstood by conventional medicine, co-founding a company called Vira Health, which addresses menopause care. In the beginning, this approach was a tough sell with investors.
“We were having to convince people, to assure them menopause is a huge challenge. Women are suffering with it. They’re not getting enough care, and they’re leaving the workplace because they’re not well supported.”
Today, six years later, the conversation has shifted, and menopause and its symptoms are part of a larger conversation. Love’s approach uses technology to zero in on symptoms and solutions, an online application called Stella.
“Lives and are so impacted [by menopause], and we yet don't have the right structures for women to feel comfortable and safe, to ask for help. This digital product is able to show up for them in that way. And I think the big thing to me is just women knowing and feeling like they're not alone.”
The Stella app offers solutions that combine behavioral science, health coaching, and algorithm-supported medical devices.
“We have then invested a lot of time with expert clinicians and teams to be able to then take the results of those outputs and make it really easy for a clinician to interpret,” explains Love.
Her work also includes a focus on preventative care for conditions like osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease that affect women as they age as well as breast cancer screening.
For Love, her path, while not always easy or conventional, has been and continues to be challenging and rewarding. “We’re a lot further ahead than we were six years ago. The things you need to do just come in these big waves. Taking a step back is important, to see how far you’ve come.”