Did you know that healthcare produces twice as much CO₂ as aviation?
In this episode of Women Disrupting Tech, you’ll learn how healthcare pioneer Dieuwertje Drexhage started Layco to disrupt medicine with safe reusable devices that make healthcare green again.
Key Takeaways from the episode
By listening to our conversation, you’ll discover that
🌍 Most medical equipment isn’t designed for 70% of the world’s population.
🔄 Reusable medical devices help to reduce waste, cut costs and improve access to care.
💰 Layco’s tiered pricing model makes life-saving healthcare more affordable and accessible in underserved regions.
🎧 Ready to be inspired? Tune in on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or YouTube. Or hit the play button below👇.
How Layco Makes Childbirth Safer and Healthcare Greener with Dieuwertje Drexhage | Ep. 88 – Women Disrupting Tech
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- Key Takeaways from the episode
- Want to help build inclusive technology? Change starts here!
- The Magic in This Episode 🪄
- The Two Zero-Cost Ways to Support Women Disrupting Tech
- The Magic in This Episode
- About Dieuwertje Drexhage
- About Layco
- Your Opinion Matters!
- What’s coming up?
- More episodes like this?
The Magic in This Episode 🪄
“We provide healthcare to make people healthy again. But on the other hand, the healthcare sector is so polluting that we make a lot of people sick.”
When Dieuwertje Drexhage walked past a pile of discarded medical waste near a hospital in Kenya, she saw both a problem and an opportunity.
What if medical tools weren’t designed for single use but for sustainability? What if reusability could make healthcare both more affordable and more accessible?
🎙️ In episode 88 of Women Disrupting Tech, Dieuwertje shares:
⚡ What it takes to design for patient safety, quality, and accessibility
⚡ How reusable vacuum extractors can save both money and lives.
⚡ Why sustainable healthcare is as much about doing good as being fair
Plus, you’ll learn how Dieuwertje is navigating the startup world and what role humor plays in reinforcing her role as CTO.
🎧 When you’re ready to listen and learn how we can make childbirth safer and healthcare greener, click the button below to tune in on Spotify.
The Two Zero-Cost Ways to Support Women Disrupting Tech
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The Magic in This Episode
As a startup founder, you need to be a pioneer. And when we talk about how she got to work in a Kenyan hospital in the first place, the pioneer in Dieuwertje surfaces: the more roadblocks arise, the more enthusiastic she becomes.
Building a reusable vacuum extractor takes a lot of pioneering (and testing) to get done. After all, you need to figure out how to make them reusable, durable and easy to sterilize? That is already a hard balance to strike.
And then you still need to figure out how to do this in a way that makes the devices affordable for hospitals in low and middle-income countries as well. Making this happen is truly magical.
Did I mention the benefits of using a vacuum extractor? Increasing the use of a vacuum extractor by 2% resulted in 25% fewer stillbirths. Plus, I would not be hosting this podcast had there not been a vacuum extractor.
🎧 Ready to discover the magic of accessible and sustainable healthcare going hand-in-hand? Tune in to the episode on Apple Podcasts using the button below.
Or click the image with the quote to watch the episode on YouTube.
“I think accessibility and sustainability go hand in hand.”
Dieuwertje Drexhage, CTO and co-founder of Layco
About Dieuwertje Drexhage
Dieuwertje Drexhage is a healthcare pioneer and the co-founder and CTO of Layco.
While interning at a Kenyan hospital, Dieuwertje saw firsthand that medical equipment is not made with the demands of rural hospitals in low-resource environments in mind. She discovered that these devices were designed for single use and were reused or ended up on medical dump sites.
After returning to The Netherlands, she started Layco while studying for her master’s in Mechanical Engineering, Biomechanical Design at the TU Delft.
As of the date of publication of the podcast, Layco is fundraising, and Dieuwertje is happy to talk to investors who are aligned with her vision that everyone deserves to have access to high-quality healthcare. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
About Layco
LAYCO develops reusable medical devices to increase safe births globally and reduce the CO2 footprint and waste of the healthcare industry. Their first focus is on producing vela ®, a reusable vacuum extractor that can be safely used up to 100 times.
If you want to learn more or follow their journey, check out the website or follow Layco on LinkedIn.
Your Opinion Matters!
What do you think is the biggest challenge in making healthcare more sustainable?
1️⃣ Medical tools designed for single use
2️⃣ High costs of innovation
3️⃣ Resistance to change in the industry
4️⃣ Lack of awareness about the issue
Tell me what you think in the comments.
And if you would like to suggest a guest or a theme for the podcast, please let me know via email or send a DM on LinkedIn.
What’s coming up?
I’m proud to say that we have some amazing episodes coming your way in the next few weeks.
In episode 89, Femke Cornelissen is my guest to share her journey from being a photographer to being Chief CoPilot and a Microsoft Most Valuable Professional. This episode is special because, for the first time, I have a co-host.
The episode after that is as much a surprise for you as it is for me. I can promise you that it will be different from the ones you’ve listened to before.
So, stay tuned for more inspiring stories on Women Disrupting Tech! And if you want to be the first to learn about new episodes, subscribe to updates.
Until we meet again in the next episode, keep being awesome.
More episodes like this?
If you want to listen to other episodes on innovating in healthcare, you can check out the following three episodes:
– In episode 87, Hanneke Takkenberg and I speak about how we can make medicine and leadership more inclusive.
– In episode 56, we hear how Jacquline Kazmaier‘s Autoscriber is helping doctors prevent burnout and enhance patient care.
– In episode 29, Lusanne Tehupuring shares how her company Enatom propel anatomy lessons for medical students into the 21st century.
Women Disrupting Tech | The Podcast 
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