Drinks Reception & Inaugural Women’s Health Innovation Awards

October 14, 2026

Awards:

Health Plan of the Year

This award recognises the payer organisation that has gone furthest in 2026 to improve access and outcomes for its female members, through bold coverage decisions, innovative reimbursement models, or programmes that have meaningfully expanded access to women's health services for their members. This is for the plan that didn't just talk about women's health as a priority. It acted.

 

Employer of the Year

The employer community has become one of the most powerful forces for change in women's health. This award recognises the organisation that has built a benefits strategy that genuinely reflects the health needs of its workforce, going beyond the standard offering to invest in fertility, menopause, maternal health, or preventive care in ways that have made a real difference to the women they employ. For the employer that understood that supporting women's health is not a perk. It's a business decision.

 

Provider of the Year

Delivering better care for women requires more than good intentions. It requires system change, clinical courage, and a willingness to redesign how care is actually delivered. This award recognises the health system, hospital network, or clinical organisation that has led the way in 2026, whether through integrated care models, equity-focused programmes, clinical innovation, or simply making women feel heard and seen in ways the system has historically failed to do.

 

Most Innovative Partnership

The biggest breakthroughs in women's health rarely happen alone. This award celebrates the collaboration that has produced something neither party could have achieved independently, whether between a payer and a digital health company, a pharma and a provider, an employer and an innovator, or any combination across the ecosystem. We're looking for partnerships that are genuinely creative, commercially meaningful, and built to last.

 

Investor of the Year

Capital allocation is a statement of conviction. This award recognises the investor, fund, or capital allocator that has made the most significant and strategic commitment to women's health in the past 12 months, not just in deal volume, but in thesis clarity, portfolio quality, and the courage to back categories that others have historically overlooked. For the investor who saw the opportunity before it was obvious.

 

Changemaker of the Decade

Some people don't just build companies or policies. They shift what the field believes is possible. The Changemaker of the Decade is the individual whose body of work over the past ten years has most fundamentally shaped the women's health landscape, opening doors, changing minds, and leaving the field in a meaningfully better place than they found it. This is the highest honour of the inaugural WHOs, and it belongs to someone the entire industry already knows has earned it.

 

The Patient Impact Award

Every decision made in this room ultimately comes down to one question: did it make life better for women? This award exists to answer that question out loud. It recognises the initiative, intervention, programme, or innovation that has had the most direct and meaningful impact on the lives of patients in 2026, improving outcomes, expanding access, reducing suffering, or simply making women feel that the healthcare system finally sees them. It can come from any part of the ecosystem. What matters is not the size of the organisation behind it, but the scale of the difference it made to real women receiving care. This is the award the industry exists to earn.