Updated
2026 Women’s HealthTech Advancement Award Winner: Petal
Advancing women’s health across life stages.
HealthTechNode is proud to announce that Petal has been selected as the winner of the 2026 Women’s HealthTech Advancement Award, recognizing its women-centered wearable and personalized approach to tracking body composition, heart health, mobility, balance, and everyday activity.
Petal stood out for reconsidering both what a consumer wearable can measure and where it should be worn. The compact device fits inside a woman’s existing bra and collects measurements from the chest, near the heart and the body’s center of mass. This placement supports a distinctive combination of bioimpedance measurements, ECG-derived heart metrics, and movement data while avoiding the limitations of relying solely on the wrist or finger.
“Petal earned this recognition for building a wearable around women’s bodies and the health changes women experience across life stages. Its chest placement supports a distinctive combination of body composition, heart, mobility, and balance insights, while its personal-baseline approach helps women recognize gradual changes that conventional consumer wearables may miss. Petal stood out for pairing genuinely women-centered design with a product that began reaching consumers in 2026.”
Jordan Hayes
HealthTechNode Awards Coordinator
Women’s HealthTech Advancement Award
Advancing women’s health across life stages.
Winner: Petal
Petal was selected for its women-centered approach to wearable health technology. Rather than adapting a general-purpose wrist or finger device, Petal was designed to be worn inside a bra, positioning its sensors on the chest and near the body’s center of mass.
That placement allows Petal to bring several types of health information into one wearable. The device uses bioimpedance to measure midsection fat and estimate visceral fat. Its sensors also support ECG-derived measurements for heart rate and heart-rate variability, while its position near the center of mass allows it to monitor step cadence, gait variability, mobility, and balance. Petal also tracks everyday activity, including steps, distance, and active calories.
The Petal Wellness app evaluates these measurements against each woman’s personal baseline rather than relying only on broad population averages. This approach is designed to help users recognize gradual changes that may occur with aging, hormonal transitions, lifestyle changes, or new medications and bring more informed questions to their healthcare providers.
Petal also submitted technical validation supporting its body-composition capabilities. Its midsection-fat model was evaluated across 119 sessions involving 51 participants, while its visceral-fat model was developed using data from 17,389 women and evaluated against a held-out dataset of 908 women. A smaller comparison with clinical DXA scans provided an additional directional check of the wearable’s estimates.
The product began shipping across the United States in 2026. Its discreet form factor, 10-to-14-day battery life, low-power Bluetooth connection, and compatibility with a bra the user already owns make its measurement approach practical for regular use.
- Designed specifically around women’s bodies and changing health needs
- Fits inside an existing bra without requiring a specialized garment
- Measures midsection fat and estimates visceral fat through bioimpedance
- Captures ECG-derived heart rate and heart-rate variability measurements
- Tracks gait variability, step cadence, balance, mobility, and daily activity
- Compares measurements with each woman’s personal baseline
- Began shipping to consumers across the United States in 2026
Runner-Up
Obtelecare was recognized as runner-up for the 2026 Women’s HealthTech Advancement Award. Obtelecare stood out for expanding access to maternal-fetal medicine specialists for patients with high-risk pregnancies, particularly in communities where local specialty coverage is limited.
Obtelecare provides hospitals and health systems with virtual maternal-fetal medicine support that integrates directly into local maternity workflows. Its specialists collaborate with OB hospitalists, nurses, physicians, and other clinicians to provide guidance for complex pregnancies while helping appropriate patients receive care closer to home.
The service demonstrated its ability to operate across markedly different healthcare environments. Obtelecare launched 24/7 inpatient maternal-fetal medicine coverage at Providence Alaska Medical Center and Memorial Hospital Gulfport, while an outpatient program at Ellis Medicine’s Bellevue Woman’s Center went live in only 21 days.
Since expanding in 2025, Obtelecare reported supporting approximately 7,000 patients through 11,000 procedures across nine states. Its combination of virtual specialist access, hospital integration, clinical collaboration, and provider education makes it a scalable response to persistent maternal-fetal medicine workforce shortages.
About the Award
The Women’s HealthTech Advancement Award recognizes technologies, platforms, devices, treatments, and care models that address the distinct health needs of women across different life stages. The category honors innovations that improve access, understanding, prevention, diagnosis, treatment, monitoring, or care delivery while advancing a more complete and inclusive approach to women’s health.
Explore more winners. Visit the main winners archive for other HealthTechNode award recipients, or explore the broader awards program.
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Questions? Contact awards@healthtechnode.com