1. SEEing Change in Women's Health

Our inaugural episode features the two co-founders of Reia - Meegan Daigler and Kaitlin Maier. Reia is building a suite of women's health products by redesigning lesser-known yet widely used devices to suit the needs of the modern woman.

Kaitlin, Meegan (and their COO Ari) met at engineering school. In their final year, they created an independent study on engineering in gynecology instruments. Through their final course, they met Paul (CMO), an experienced urogynecologist who introduced them to prolapse (which they had never heard of) and pessaries (which they definitely had never heard of).

It was immediately clear that the pessary was ripe for redesign. Though they earned just a B+ in the class (admittedly, that first design was not very good), the idea was sticky.

After gaining a few years of work experience, the team came back together and was awarded their first NIH grant in 2019.

Between 2019 and 2023, over 50 different versions of the Reia pessary were iterated on to get to the one you see today. The team conducted mechanical, biocompatibility, and clinical testing. Hundreds of women and healthcare practitioners gave us feedback not only on the pessary and applicator, but on the color, instructions, and packaging.In June 2024, the FDA gave us their blessing to start sales. happy ending, which, like all rom-coms, is just the beginning.

In June 2024, the FDA gave us their blessing to start sales. A happy ending, which, like all rom-coms, is just the beginning.