Women in STEM:
Creating sustainable healthcare solutions with a passion for science

Anna Bachmayr-Heyda: Fighting cancer in the lab and in rural Kenya

Anna is a biologist specialized in immunology and cancer research. She spent her PhD analyzing ovarian cancer samples in the lab. “I enjoyed learning which genes are expressed and how cells communicate with each other,” she explains. With this knowledge and expertise, Anna joined Boehringer in 2018, shifting her focus to cancer drug discovery. Now a Principal Scientist, she oversees a lab in Vienna and has a keen interest in complex in vitro models for evaluating the efficacy of drug candidates to improve patients’ lives.

In 2020, Anna learned about Together Women Can (TWC), an initiative at Boehringer aimed at preventing, screening, and treating cervical cancer in rural Kenya. “I knew immediately, this is something I wanted to support,” she says. The TWC team started a research collaboration with the Kenyan MOI University. Anna became one of two co-leaders, learning about the serious challenges many women in Kenya face: 20 % of new female cancer cases are cervical, and more than half are fatal.

However, solutions are within reach by building on an existing infrastructure: The TWC-MOI project team has successfully equipped five rural clinics, run awareness campaigns in five sub-counties, and trained 44 healthcare personnel and local volunteers. Within a year, over 3,700 women were screened. Of these, 3.7 % were diagnosed with precancerous lesions, most of whom were then able to receive immediate treatment. “In my job in drug discovery, the clinical benefits of a new drug often only become evident a decade after the research phase,” Anna says. “With my work for TWC, I can see the immediate impact for these women. This is truly rewarding.”

Fostering acceptance through awareness campaigns, their efforts have even revived the national cervical cancer screening program in Uasin Gishu County, located in rural Western Kenya. Anna and her team are currently preparing to publish their findings in a global scientific journal. The next project, a collaboration with the local NGO WaWa Kenya, aims to screen women for cervical cancer and vaccinate girls against HPV in neighboring Homa Bay County in 2024.

Victoria Gamerman: A data visionary for advanced patient-centric healthcare

Victoria Gamerman, our Global Head of Digital Transformation Center of Excellence, was inspired by the first mathematician she knew – her grandmother. This early influence ignited a passion for analytics and math that has shaped her career. “I saw how my grandmother used her mathematical skills to solve complex problems, and that inspired me,” she says. “Today, I’m using those same skills to improve healthcare. I’m connecting the dots among patient-centricity, digital health, and real-world evidence to evolve clinical research through innovation and digital transformation.” Victoria’s passion for her work shines through when she talks about the “ecosystem of healthcare” that comes from varied data sources. “The ecosystem of healthcare that ultimately comes out of those data sources is what will give us the huge opportunity to better understand and create really powerful medicines for future generations,” she explains.

In the past, information was collected on a case-to-case basis from a patient’s doctor or in defined environments such as clinical trials. The digital transformation now allows us to leverage data, collected in different places, such as smart watches from individuals and weather in various locations, and keep track of wellbeing information, like steps, sleep, and air quality. But Victoria’s goal goes beyond data analysis. She wants to transform the way we understand and approach healthcare by leveraging data, creating actionable insights, and making data-informed decisions. To achieve that, Victoria is not just crunching numbers. She’s leading a team of data-minded, analytically-driven, digital enthusiasts and AI strategists who collaborate on key business problems like leveraging data collected in different places to create more robust insights through the power of predictive analytics to optimize decisions in trial operations. By doing so, she’s helping us create more effective treatments, improve patient outcomes, and ultimately, transform the healthcare landscape.