In a perspective published in Frontiers in Global Womenโs Health, researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center evaluated how smart televisions could serve as an untapped digital health platform to address sex- and gender-related health disparities among women in the United States. Digital health interventions targeting conditions unique to or disproportionately affecting women, collectively recognized as Femtech, have historically relied almost exclusively on smartphone applications. Concurrently, televisions have remained culturally perceived as passive viewing devices rather than interactive health interfaces. Industry market reports indicate that by 2025, approximately 82 percent of television-owning households in the United States possessed at least one smart television, approaching mobile phone ownership rates. Nevertheless, lead author Xiomara T. Gonzalez and senior investigator Mia K. Markey established that published scientific evidence evaluating television-based interventions in womenโs healthcare remains virtually absent despite the ubiquitous presence of these screens in modern domestic environments.
To map this emerging multidisciplinary field, the authors conducted comprehensive literature searches across peer-reviewed and grey literature indexed in PubMed, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore, and Google Scholar. Initial database queries in July 2025 were supplemented by targeted investigations through September 2026, structuring inquiries around digital health interventions, smart television platforms, womenโs health conditions, and Femtech. Throughout their synthesis, the investigators maintained rigorous analytical distinctions between empirical scientific findings and market research forecasts. Recognizing that health needs evolve across the life course, the authors framed womenโs health expansively to include physical, biological, reproductive, psychological, emotional, and…