Carine Carmy (Co-Founder & CEO, Origin)
Carine is Co-Founder and CEO at Origin, the leading provider of women’s health and pelvic floor physical therapy. Origin’s unique model of care is clinically proven to have life-changing results and has helped thousands build strength and avoid countless unnecessary surgeries. Prior to Origin, Carine spent her career as a go-to-market leader in healthcare and technology, including leadership roles at Amino, Shapeways, MarketspaceNext, and Monitor Group. She is passionate about closing the gender gap and advocates as a writer and advisor to startups and nonprofits.
Can you explain your job to a five-year-old?
I’m the CEO and Co-founder of Origin. We help women and all people feel their best in their bodies, whether that’s their back, shoulders, or their private parts. As CEO, I am responsible for promoting our vision (i.e., our dream for the future!) and making sure we have the people in place and things we need to make that dream a reality.
What excites you most about your job?
Knowing I get to work with an incredible team on such an obvious, yet highly underserved problem. One in three women have pelvic floor dysfunction—which is three times more common than seasonal allergies and diabetes. Unaddressed, these issues cost the healthcare system billions of dollars and have an outsized impact on physical and mental health.
For the uninitiated, the pelvic floor is responsible for bladder and bowel control, sexual function, core stability, organ support, circulation, and so much more. At Origin, we’re on a mission to create a higher standard of care nationwide and increase access to this essential yet missing piece of women’s health.
Which trend will change the future of medicine?
AI, obviously! But beyond that, I continue to be in awe of innovation in women’s health, particularly driven by rising entrepreneurship among individuals who experience women’s health issues firsthand and are shocked, dismayed, and fed up by the status quo. These challenger-founders are bringing a much-needed level of fresh thinking and patient-centric innovation to a field that has historically been deeply overlooked.
Looking back, which trends have you missed or underestimated?
AI, again. On a personal level, I feel urgency to gain more fluency and to align on our strategy for the future in partnership with clinical and technology leaders on the team. I do think we benefited in not over-investing 5 years ago in AI since the costs have plummeted substantially, but now is the time.
Which MedTech initiative or startup deserves more attention?
I’m very interested in how we can avoid wasted cycles of treatment, especially among women who are often experiencing the brunt of misdiagnosis or too much trial and error given the lack of clinical research. I’m really excited by precision medicine companies like Adyn that help take the guesswork out of which treatments will be most effective and have the least side effects, with a focus on birth control.
Where would you put a million dollars?
Aside from Origin? Kidding aside, pelvic health is poised to be a larger market than fertility and investment dollars are still in the early stages. I’d love to see funding go to research that can help elevate the standard of care to include physical therapy and other low-invasive interventions in areas like maternity or menopause. We get more rehab for a broken pinky than we do for a c-section or vaginal delivery, and this stems from the historic lack of clinical research.
What's the best advice you've ever received?
Trust your gut, literally. We have so much information that exists outside our heads and in our bodies, and great leadership requires tuning into those cues to make better decisions.