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Women Spend Billions on Their Faces. Dr. Korina Built the Beauty Health Index (BHI) Because No One Was Measuring Them.

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

Consider what a woman is expected to decide without evidence. Which serum is worth $200? Whether the laser package delivered anything. Whether the retinol is working, the sleep is working, or neither. Whether the change she sees in the mirror at thirty-eight is hormonal, behavioral, or simply the light in that particular bathroom.

The beauty industry is worth hundreds of billions of dollars globally, and women account for most of it. Yet almost none of that spending is guided by measurement. There is no standardized way to know whether any of it worked, because facial health has never been treated as a health category worth measuring in the first place.

Dr. Korina Alevrogianni thinks that is a research failure, not a shopping problem.

The Vanity Label Cost Women Real Science

The reason facial health has no standard measure is not that the science is impossible. It is that the question got filed under vanity, and vanity does not attract research funding.

This is a familiar pattern to anyone who follows women’s health. Women were routinely excluded from clinical research for decades, a practice that only changed structurally when the National Institutes of Health Revitalization Act of 1993 required their inclusion in federally funded studies. The consequences of that exclusion are still being unwound, which is why so much of what is now known about menopause, autoimmune disease and cardiovascular symptoms in women has arrived late and incompletely.

Facial health sits at the far end of that same neglect, with an added penalty. Because it is visible and coded as aesthetic, caring about it is treated as frivolous rather than clinical. So the field developed backward. A commercial industry grew to enormous scale while the underlying measurement science was never built.

The result is that a dermatologist grades skin by eye using subjective scales. A surgeon assesses proportion in isolation. Consumer apps hand out beauty scores with nothing validating them. And the woman paying for all of it is told to trust her impression of a before-and-after photograph taken on two different days in two different lights.

Women Spend Billions on Their Faces. Dr. Korina Built the Beauty Health Index (BHI) Because No One Was Measuring Them.

Photo Courtesy: Beauty Health Index

Dr. Korina Alevrogianni Hit the Gap in Her Own Practice

Alevrogianni is a 29-year-old plastic surgeon based in Athens, and she did not arrive at this argument through theory. She arrived at it through the exam room.

Patients would return after a procedure and ask whether it had actually worked. She found she had no objective answer to give them. Cardiology has its readings. Endocrinology has its panels. Aesthetic medicine handed her her own two eyes and a photograph that shifted with the lighting. The most trained person in the room was working from impression, and the patient knew it.

She hit the same wall as a consumer, buying skincare with real money and no way to evaluate the outcome.

Her instinct about what to do came from an earlier life. Before medicine, she was a national-team rhythmic gymnast for Greece, winning the Greek national title more than 30 times and taking two bronze medals at the 2013 World School Championships in Brazil. Sport taught her that a score is feedback measured against your own previous performance. Athletes improve because they measure. She could not understand why the face was the one system nobody had bothered to instrument.

What the Beauty Health Index (BHI) Actually Measures

The Beauty Health Index (BHI) is the framework she built in response. A 60-second smartphone scan reads the face across five domains, covering facial structure, skin quality, expression, regenerative performance and lifestyle influence, distilled from 40 evidence-based measurements into a single personalized score.

Two design choices matter for the argument she is making. The first is that lifestyle is within the framework rather than outside it, so sleep, stress, nutrition, and the hormonal cycle are treated as inputs to facial health rather than as unrelated variables. The second is that the score never ranks anyone. There is no leaderboard or comparison with other users. The only measurement that exists is a woman against her own previous scans, which is what makes it a health readout rather than an attractiveness grade.

Alevrogianni published the framework with surgeon Dr. Spero Theodorou in the peer-reviewed medical journal Cureus, where it is indexed on PubMed. That publication is the point. Her claim is that this belongs in the medical literature, not in a product catalog.

Dr. Korina Refuses to Overclaim

The most persuasive thing about her position is what she declines to assert.

She describes the Beauty Health Index (BHI) as a proposed framework built from a structured review of existing research across dermatology, aesthetic surgery, psychophysiology, regenerative biology and lifestyle medicine, with validation studies underway. She says plainly that reliability and clinical applicability still need to be tested.

In a category where certainty is sold by the jar, a founder itemizing what remains unproven is doing something unusual. It is also the behavior expected of anyone asking a field to take a new measure seriously. Honesty is not a marketing posture. It is the price of admission to the conversation she wants to have.

Women Spend Billions on Their Faces. Dr. Korina Built the Beauty Health Index (BHI) Because No One Was Measuring Them.

Photo Courtesy: Beauty Health Index

The Case for Funding What Women Already Pay For

The broader argument is not really about an app. It is about what gets studied.

Women are already spending at scale on their faces. That spending is not going to stop because researchers find it unserious. What could change is whether any of it is evidence-based. Building a standardized measure is the precondition for that, because without one there is no way to run trials, compare outcomes, or tell a woman whether a treatment did anything at all.

Facial health has been called vanity for long enough that the label stopped being examined. Underneath it sits a measurable system responding to sleep, stress, hormones, and time, on the part of the body that other people see first and that women are judged by constantly. Choosing not to study was never neutral.

The Beauty Health Index (BHI) launches this September, with a waitlist open on the website for anyone interested in seeing their own baseline. Dr. Alevrogianni continues to make the case for the research, which is what outlasts any single product.

New Research Examines Women’s Advancement in the Workplace

Womens Journal Staff 2 on August 13, 2026

Utah State University’s Utah Women & Leadership Project released new research examining women in the workplace across education levels, based on a statewide survey of more than 5,200 Utah residents. The findings show stronger perceptions of opportunity and workplace belonging among more educated respondents, while women continue to report advancement and equality gaps.

Key Takeaways

  • Utah State University’s Utah Women & Leadership Project released a new workplace research brief on August 11, 2026.
  • The analysis draws on a statewide survey of more than 5,200 Utah residents.
  • Higher education was associated with stronger perceptions of workplace fairness, belonging and advancement opportunities.
  • Education had a stronger effect on women’s workplace perceptions than on men’s.
  • Highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities and lower trust in workplace responses to problems.

Utah State University’s Utah Women & Leadership Project released the workplace research brief on August 11, 2026. The analysis examines differences in workplace perceptions across education levels and considers how those differences appear among women and men.

The findings are based on a statewide survey of more than 5,200 Utah residents. The size of the survey provides the basis for examining workplace perceptions across different groups of respondents rather than focusing on individual experiences.

The research examines several workplace issues relevant to career development, including fairness, belonging, advancement opportunities and confidence. It also considers perceptions of workplace problems and organizational responses to those problems.

The results show an association between higher levels of education and more positive perceptions of several workplace conditions. Respondents with more education reported stronger perceptions of opportunity and workplace belonging.

The analysis also identified differences between women and men. According to the research, education had a stronger effect on women’s workplace perceptions than on men’s.

The findings therefore place education within an examination of workplace experiences. Higher educational attainment was associated with stronger perceptions in several areas, but the results did not indicate that education eliminated differences in workplace experiences for women.

Education Shapes Perceptions of Workplace Opportunity

The research found that respondents with higher levels of education were more likely to report positive perceptions of workplace conditions. These included perceptions of fairness, belonging and access to advancement opportunities.

The findings connect educational attainment with perceptions of the workplace rather than establishing that education directly causes better workplace outcomes. The research focuses on the relationship between education levels and how respondents view their professional environments.

For women, the relationship was particularly pronounced. The study found that education changed women’s perceptions more strongly than men’s.

Higher education was associated with stronger perceptions of workplace opportunity, but the findings also identified continuing differences in advancement experiences. Highly educated women reported fewer advancement opportunities than their male counterparts.

The combination of these findings provides a distinction between workplace perception and workplace access. Women with higher levels of education may report stronger confidence and more positive views in some areas while still experiencing differences in opportunities to advance.

Workplace belonging was another area examined in the research. More educated respondents reported stronger feelings of belonging, placing educational attainment among the factors associated with how people perceive their workplace environments.

The research also examined leadership confidence. Higher education was associated with stronger leadership aspirations and greater confidence, including among women.

These findings connect education with several aspects of professional development. At the same time, the reported differences in advancement opportunities indicate that educational attainment alone does not remove workplace disparities affecting women.

The findings also provide context for existing discussions about women’s career paths and professional development, including the varied routes women may take through executive positions, consulting, entrepreneurship, and other forms of work. 

Women Report Continued Gaps in Career Advancement

The research found that highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities. This finding remained present even as higher education was associated with stronger workplace perceptions.

Career advancement is one of the areas in which the research identified differences between women and men. The findings indicate that education can be associated with greater confidence and stronger perceptions of workplace opportunity without producing equal advancement experiences.

The study also examined perceptions of workplace discrimination and harassment. Education produced stronger changes in women’s perceptions of these issues than in men’s perceptions.

Women with higher levels of education were more likely to recognize workplace challenges involving discrimination and harassment. The findings therefore connect educational attainment with greater awareness of workplace conditions as well as stronger perceptions in areas such as belonging and opportunity.

The research also considered trust in workplace systems. Highly educated women reported lower trust in how organizations respond to workplace problems.

That finding adds another distinction to the research. Women with higher educational attainment reported stronger perceptions in some workplace areas while expressing lower trust in organizational responses to problems.

The results do not establish that every woman experiences the same workplace conditions. Instead, the statewide survey identifies differences across education levels and between women and men.

The research places women’s career advancement within several workplace factors, including access to opportunities, organizational responses to problems and perceptions of fairness.

For women professionals, the findings provide data on the relationship between education and workplace experiences. The results also indicate that higher education does not correspond with identical advancement opportunities for women and men.

A separate examination of career progression among senior women executives has also described professional advancement as involving lateral moves, entrepreneurship, consulting and other paths rather than a single sequence of promotions.

Workplace Belonging and Leadership Confidence Vary by Education

New Research Examines Women’s Advancement in the Workplace

Photo Credit: Unsplash.com

Workplace belonging was among the areas associated with higher educational attainment in the research. More educated respondents reported stronger feelings of belonging in their workplaces.

Leadership confidence also showed a relationship with education. The findings associated higher education with stronger leadership aspirations and greater confidence.

For women pursuing management or executive responsibilities, these findings distinguish between preparation for leadership and access to advancement. The research reports stronger leadership aspirations and confidence among more educated respondents while also identifying fewer advancement opportunities for highly educated women.

The research further examined family-friendly workplace policies. These policies formed part of the analysis of workplace conditions and perceptions across education levels.

The findings also addressed the gender pay gap, leadership development and entrepreneurship. STEM was another area included in the research, expanding the analysis beyond a single occupation or professional sector.

These subjects connect workplace experiences with several areas of women’s professional lives. Career advancement, leadership development, entrepreneurship and participation in STEM are all included in the research framework.

The findings do not establish that education produces the same workplace experience for every woman. Instead, the survey identifies associations between educational attainment and perceptions of workplace conditions while documenting continued differences in advancement opportunities.

The research also indicates that women’s responses can differ more sharply by education level than men’s responses. This distinction was part of the analysis of how educational attainment shapes perceptions of workplace issues.

Other coverage of women’s leadership has examined the responsibilities involved in moving from professional expertise into higher-impact strategic roles, including the distinction between operational execution and broader leadership responsibilities. 

The results therefore provide separate measures for workplace confidence, belonging, opportunity and trust. Those measures do not move in exactly the same direction for women.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does the new research say about women in the workplace?

The research found that higher education was associated with stronger perceptions of workplace fairness, belonging, opportunity and leadership confidence, while highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities and lower trust in workplace responses to problems.

How does education affect women’s career advancement?

The research found an association between higher education and stronger workplace perceptions and leadership confidence. It also found that highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities.

How many people participated in the Utah workplace survey?

The statewide research analysis is based on responses from more than 5,200 Utah residents.

Do highly educated women report workplace advancement gaps?

Yes. The research found that highly educated women continued to report fewer advancement opportunities despite stronger workplace perceptions associated with higher education.

What workplace policies does the research recommend?

The research recommends greater transparency in promotion pathways, investment in family-friendly policies, stronger organizational accountability and gender-responsive workplace strategies.

How a Leadership and Accountability Coach Encourages Personal Responsibility

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

By: Kate Sarmiento

The leadership advice industry has a type. Growth mindset. Servant leadership. Lead with empathy. None of that language is wrong exactly, but somewhere along the way, giving feedback turned into an exercise in cushioning, until the actual message gets buried under all the padding around it.

Nearly half of executives say a lack of honest feedback from their teams is their biggest concern, while the employees on the other side of that conversation are staying quiet: six in ten report holding back when they’ve got a different take from the group (Source: Radical Candor, 2026). Managers, meanwhile, tend to believe they’re already giving frequent, useful feedback, while the people receiving it describe something much thinner: feedback that’s rare, vague, or shows up too late to matter (Source: Gallup, 2024). Somewhere in that gap between what a leader thinks they’re saying and what actually lands, results start disappearing. Deadlines slip. Trust erodes. Nobody names the real problem, so nobody fixes it.

Linda Galindo has built her entire career inside that gap. She won’t validate an excuse, no matter how reasonable it sounds. Through her books and a steady schedule of speaking engagements, she’s made one thing clear: leaders don’t get to hide from their own results. Galindo doesn’t play that game. She says the thing people don’t want to hear, and that’s exactly why they keep calling her.

A Journalist’s Instinct Doesn’t Retire

Before any of this, Galindo was a journalist covering topics including government and business. That’s worth sitting with, because it explains how she operates now. Journalists don’t get paid to make people comfortable. They get paid to ask the question nobody else wants asked, then report what they actually found, not what would read better in print. Story after story, Galindo kept seeing the same root issue underneath the mess: somewhere in the chain, somebody wasn’t being held accountable for their part in it. That pattern, in retrospect, was the reason accountability was the focus of her life’s work.

That instinct to dig past the polished answer just changed venues, moving from newsrooms into boardrooms, and it shows up most clearly in what she won’t let a client do: hide behind “the culture.” Ask her what’s actually behind most performance problems and her answer doesn’t shift much depending on who’s asking. Underneath almost every performance issue sits an accountability issue, and underneath that is usually a lack of trust, a leader who doesn’t fully trust a team to deliver, or a team that’s stopped trusting a leader to set clear expectations and be accountable.

When that gap opens, some piece of the truth stops getting said out loud, and the familiar dysfunctions creep in behind it: silos, turf wars, politics, the list any manager could recite half asleep. Her method is to hold up a mirror and make sure people see what’s actually in it, not what “the market” or “remote work” or “the culture” have made convenient to blame instead.

Not Everyone Wants This, and That’s the Point

None of this reads as ruthlessness dressed up as honesty, and that distinction is the whole point. Being ruthless doesn’t require follow-through, but Galindo’s approach runs entirely on follow-through. She’s not interested in delivering a straight truth and then walking away to let someone sit with it alone. The work is staying in it with them long enough to figure out what actually changes next. That kind of directness, paired with real investment in whether someone improves, doesn’t show up often in this field. Plenty of consultants can manage bluntness. Fewer can be blunt and still be trusted, since trust usually depends on people believing you’re rooting for them, not just scoring a point.

That’s also why this style isn’t built for everyone, and Galindo has never pretended otherwise. Some leaders want a consultant who’ll agree with their read on the situation and hand over three tidy action items that don’t ask them to change much. That’s not what they get from her. What they get instead is someone willing to say, plainly, that a team’s dysfunction usually traces back to decisions the leader made, not some vague force floating around the office that nobody’s accountable for. A few clients walk away from that.

Galindo isn’t chasing universal approval though; she’s chasing results, and results tend to follow honesty more reliably than they follow comfort. In a market where a consultant may choose to optimize being liked over being effective, being the one willing to say the uncomfortable thing stops being a risk and starts being the entire reason a client hires you.

Where the Accountability Work Actually Starts

When a team keeps circling the same problems without ever naming what’s actually causing them, a gentler conversation is rarely the missing piece. Someone has to hold up the mirror. Staying in the room afterward, while the people in it work out what to do with what they see, is the harder half of the job, and it is the half Galindo builds her engagements around. In her framing, accountability starts with the leader, not the conditions surrounding them. Learn more about working with Linda.

Celebrating Lois Stockton: A Memphis Leader Defined by Service, Vision and Influence

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

By: Lennard James

For decades, Lois H. Stockton has represented the kind of leadership that strengthens institutions, creates opportunities and leaves a lasting impact on a community. As a Memphis business owner, healthcare executive, civic leader and trusted mentor, Stockton has developed an extraordinary record of entrepreneurship, public service and commitment to others.

A graduate of Tennessee State University, Stockton is the owner of The Nail Station, a Memphis-based business that reflects her entrepreneurial vision and determination. Building and sustaining a successful business requires discipline, sound judgment and an ability to develop meaningful relationships with customers, employees and community partners.

The Nail Station has represented more than a commercial enterprise. It has served as an example of how locally owned businesses contribute to the economic and social strength of a city. Through her work as an entrepreneur, Stockton has demonstrated that business ownership can provide a foundation for independence, leadership, job creation and community engagement.

Her commitment to Memphis, however, extends well beyond entrepreneurship.

Lois Stockton served as Chair/President of the Board of Governors of Memphis Health Center, one of the city’s most important community healthcare institutions. Before stepping into the executive position, she provided years of leadership as chair of the organization’s governing board, helping guide its mission and continued service to Memphis and surrounding communities.

Memphis Health Center provides accessible and comprehensive healthcare services to individuals and families, including residents who are uninsured, underinsured or medically underserved. Its services include pediatric and adolescent care, adult medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, dental care, vision services and behavioral healthcare.

Leading an organization with such an extensive mission requires more than administrative experience. It demands compassion, accountability and an understanding of the barriers many families encounter when seeking medical care. Stockton’s leadership reflects her belief that access to quality healthcare should not depend solely on a person’s income, insurance status or neighborhood.

Her dedication to preserving the history of Memphis Health Center was demonstrated during a special tribute to its founder, Dr. Chauncey O’Hara Daugherty. In 2025, the center unveiled an oil portrait honoring the pioneering cardiothoracic surgeon who established the organization in 1970.

Lois Stockton emphasized that recognizing Dr. Daugherty’s contributions was long-term. The portrait now serves as a permanent reminder of a physician whose vision helped make medical care more accessible to historically underserved communities. Her participation in the tribute demonstrated an important quality of her leadership: the ability to move an organization forward while honoring those who created its foundation.

Stockton’s influence also reaches into Memphis’ civic and political community. Over the years, her guidance, relationships and support have helped numerous elected officials become the leaders they are today. She has encouraged emerging public servants, shared the wisdom gained through decades of community involvement and helped connect leaders with the people and neighborhoods they seek to represent.

Her influence has never been centered on seeking personal attention. Instead, Lois Stockton has often worked behind the scenes, offering encouragement, counsel and honest advice. She understands that effective public service depends on relationships, trust and a genuine willingness to listen.

Many elected officials have benefited from community leaders who recognized their potential before they gained widespread recognition. Lois Stockton has been one of those influential figures. Her ability to identify leadership qualities in others and encourage them to pursue meaningful service has contributed to the development of public officials who now serve Memphis and Shelby County.

Her journey demonstrates the many forms leadership can take. Leadership can mean building a business, guiding a healthcare institution, mentoring future public servants, supporting young people or ensuring that a community pioneer receives proper recognition. Lois Stockton has embraced each of these responsibilities with purpose and consistency.

She has also demonstrated the importance of women in executive and civic leadership. At a time when women have often had to work harder for recognition and access, Lois Stockton’s longevity and accomplishments stand as evidence of perseverance, preparation and personal strength.

Her life offers an important lesson: titles may be temporary, but service creates a lasting legacy. Whether supporting a local business, guiding a healthcare organization or advising future leaders, Lois Stockton has remained focused on strengthening the community around her.

Today, we celebrate Lois H. Stockton not simply for the positions she has held, but for the people and institutions she has influenced. Her accomplishments in entrepreneurship, healthcare and civic engagement demonstrate what is possible when experience, compassion and determination are united by service.

Lois Stockton is a mother, businesswoman, healthcare leader, mentor and community advocate whose work has helped make Memphis stronger. Her legacy can be seen in the families who receive quality healthcare, the entrepreneurs encouraged by her example and the elected officials whose development was strengthened by her guidance.

Her story reminds us that meaningful leadership is measured by the opportunities created, the people served and the community left better for the next generation.

Maddi Carroll Didn’t Wait for the Recruitment Industry to Change. She Built The Power Recruiter to Do It Herself.

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

By: Angelica Burlaza

Maddi Carroll spent years watching her own industry fail the people it was supposed to serve. Instead of accepting that as just how recruitment works, she built something to change it. That decision became The Power Recruiter, a new online course designed to properly train recruiters from the ground up and to give an industry with a reputation problem an actual path toward fixing it.

Carroll already runs Power Recruitment and Consulting, a Brisbane-based agency known for relationship-first placements across the white-collar construction and infrastructure sectors. Building an education brand alongside that business was not about stepping back from recruiting. It was about taking what she had learned running her own agency and turning it into something an entire industry could use.

She built it to raise her own team’s standard, then realized the whole industry needed it

The idea for The Power Recruiter did not start as a business plan. It started with Carroll wanting her team at Power Recruitment and Consulting to be a step above, with a consistent approach regardless of who a client or candidate happened to work with. Whether someone on her team was a brand new recruiter or an experienced one, she believed the same fundamentals applied to both.

“I first built this to train my own team, and then I thought, why stop there?” she said. “If I can lift the standard across the whole industry, then recruiter goes from a word we’re a bit ashamed of to one we’re proud of.”

That shift, from strengthening her own team to taking on an entire industry, is where The Power Recruiter really took shape. Carroll built the course around the belief that recruiters wield real influence over people’s careers and livelihoods, and that almost nobody teaching the profession is still doing the job day-to-day. She wanted her course to be the exception.

Carroll says another motivation stemmed from situations in which candidates were contacted using information they did not expect to be shared broadly. She says those experiences reinforced her view that privacy, consent, and trust should be emphasized in recruiter training.

A common misconception about the course is that it is only for people brand new to recruiting. Carroll pushes back on that directly. “It’s not just for people starting from scratch, it’s for anyone at any stage,” she said. “Whether you’ve never recruited a day in your life, you’re coming across from another industry, or you’re already recruiting and just want to get better at it, the fundamentals are the same. And honestly, hardly any of us were ever properly taught them.”

What makes The Power Recruiter different is Carroll herself

Carroll is still an active recruiter, working real placements through Power Recruitment and Consulting while running the course. That matters because it means every lesson comes from what she is doing this week, not theory from years ago.

It also means her own approach to the job shows up directly in what she teaches. Carroll is vocal about the industry’s obsession with speed and fees, and about training recruiters to build relationships that last, not just chase a single placement. Her philosophy comes down to something simple: recruiters need to remember they are dealing with people first, and the job title comes second. Get that part right, she argues, and the results tend to follow on their own. For a founder who could have kept that knowledge within her own agency, choosing to teach it openly is a statement in itself.

The Power Recruiter’s social channels launched July 1, and the course is now live. Carroll built it because she was not willing to wait for someone else to raise the standard first. Now she is betting that the recruiters who come through her course will be the ones who end up setting it, and that the industry’s reputation changes one properly trained recruiter at a time.

Nicole Notar Is Advancing Earlier Recognition of Endometriosis Through Patient Advocacy and Health Technology

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

Endometriosis affects an estimated 190 million women and girls worldwide, yet receiving a diagnosis can still take years. Nicole Notar, founder and CEO of Vindicara and founder and executive director of Endo Excision For All, is working to improve both diagnosis awareness and access to specialized care.

Through EEFA, Nicole helps patients overcome financial barriers to specialized surgery. Vindicara is a deterministic, non-AI, rule-based clinical decision support system designed to help clinicians identify patients at risk for endometriosis and related conditions earlier. Together, these efforts reflect a patient-led approach to helping clinicians recognize complex conditions sooner and helping connect more patients with appropriate care.

The Experience That Shaped Her Mission

Nicole did not enter healthcare innovation in search of a business opportunity. Her work began with a problem she had lived with since childhood.

Nicole started experiencing endometriosis symptoms at nine years old. Despite persistent pelvic pain, digestive difficulties, and fatigue, she spent more than a decade moving between physicians and specialties without a clear explanation. Her symptoms were attributed to irritable bowel syndrome and anxiety, leaving her to repeatedly defend what she knew about her own body.

Answers finally came through a six-hour excision surgery. Physicians found 73 lesions affecting her bladder, uterus, colon, rectum, and appendix, as well as two large endometriomas. The experience validated years of suffering, but it also exposed what can happen when medical clues are viewed separately rather than as part of a broader clinical picture.

“Vindicara wasn’t created because I wanted to start a technology company; it was created because I spent years living the problem,” she explains.

Turning Experience Into Immediate Action

Once Nicole found appropriate care, she became increasingly aware that many patients could not reach the same specialists. Cost, inadequate insurance coverage, and limited access to trained excision surgeons often forced people to delay treatment or settle for care that did not address the full extent of their disease.

She responded by founding Endo Excision For All (EEFA), a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides financial assistance for specialized surgery. According to figures supplied by the organization, EEFA has distributed more than $140,000 and supported over 200 patients seeking endometriosis care.

Its work now extends beyond financial assistance. EEFA offers patient resources, specialist directories, educational conversations, and advocacy tools designed to help individuals understand and navigate their options. For Nicole, it represents the immediate side of her mission: helping people reach necessary treatment today.

Connecting the Clinical Dots

Her conversations with patients also revealed an earlier failure. Many people reached EEFA only after their symptoms had been documented for years across primary care, gynecology, gastroenterology, urology, and pain management. The information existed, but it rarely came together.

“We don’t believe the problem is a lack of information,” Nicole says. “We believe it’s a lack of connection.” That insight became the foundation for Vindicara, the health technology company she leads as founder and CEO. Its deterministic, algorithmically rule-based system is being developed to examine information already present across a patient’s medical history, including symptoms, imaging, laboratory findings, medications, diagnoses, treatment responses, and provider notes.

Vindicara is not intended to diagnose disease or replace physicians. Instead, it is designed to support clinical judgment by identifying risk patterns and highlighting when a patient may require further investigation or specialist care.

Recognition for a Patient-Led Vision

Although Vindicara remains an early-stage company, Nicole’s approach has already attracted attention across healthcare, entrepreneurship, and technology media. She was selected for MSN’s Top 10 Visionary Entrepreneurs Shaping the Future in 2026, while TechRound UK named Vindicara its Startup of the Week.

Her work has also appeared in Authority Magazine, MediTech Today, and podcasts addressing endometriosis, diagnostic delays, and women’s health innovation. A PIX11 News segment brought wider visibility to her experience with medical dismissal, while her participation in the 2026 Women’s Health Horizons event in New York placed her alongside professionals working across medicine, investment, and healthcare technology.

These appearances have allowed Nicole to position patient experience not as an anecdotal addition to innovation, but as information that can expose recurring weaknesses within care systems. As she puts it, “A patient’s lived experience is valuable clinical data.”

Supporting Patients While Building Long-Term Solutions

The relationship between EEFA and Vindicara gives Nicole’s work an unusual breadth. One addresses urgent barriers to treatment, while the other is being built to reduce the delays that allow disease to progress unnoticed.

Through EEFA, Nicole has carried the discussion beyond individual treatment and into healthcare policy. The organization took part in the inaugural Endometriosis and Adenomyosis Capitol Hill Day in March 2026, advocating for improved insurance coverage, fairer surgical reimbursement, and wider access to qualified specialists.

Since Vindicara is still being developed, its impact cannot yet be measured through conventional customer reviews. The response Nicole has received instead comes from patients and families who immediately recognize the need. Some have told her they hope their daughters never endure the same search for answers; others believe earlier recognition could have changed their own lives.

Building the Solution She Once Needed

Nicole Notar’s short-term priorities include completing the platform, establishing pilot programs, strengthening secure electronic health record integrations, and expanding collaboration with clinicians, researchers, and health systems.

Vindicara’s vision extends beyond endometriosis. In time, the company intends to support earlier recognition of frequently overlapping conditions such as adenomyosis, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, POTS, and mast cell activation syndrome. By identifying connections across specialties, it hopes to give clinicians a more complete view of complex patient journeys.

For Nicole, however, the purpose remains deeply personal. Her guiding principle is simple: “Be the person you needed when you were younger.” Through immediate assistance, national advocacy, and clinical technology, she is turning that principle into a connected model for change, one designed to ensure fewer patients spend years trying to prove that their pain is real.

Dermatologists Are Pushing Back on Sunscreen Misinformation. Here’s What to Know.

Women's Journal Staff on August 13, 2026

By: Matthew Kayser

A growing number of viral social media posts claim that sunscreen is toxic, causes cancer, or isn’t necessary at all. Dermatologists say those claims aren’t just misleading; they could discourage one of the most effective tools for preventing skin cancer.

Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States, and 1 in 5 Americans will develop it in their lifetime. Most of those melanoma cases are linked to ultraviolet (UV) exposure, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The risk also builds with exposure: experiencing five or more blistering sunburns between ages 15 and 20 raises melanoma risk by 80% and nonmelanoma skin cancer risk by 68%.

Research supports that regular sunscreen use can meaningfully reduce that risk, which makes the volume of misinformation now competing with decades of established science all the more concerning.

The Myths That Concern Dermatologists Most

The claim that sunscreen ingredients are harmful to human health is among the most widely shared, and most thoroughly refuted, pieces of skin care misinformation circulating today. Many of these claims rely on isolated studies taken out of context or misunderstandings about how sunscreen ingredients are regulated and tested.

“You Can Tan Safely”

One myth gaining traction online, particularly among younger audiences, is the idea that tanning can be done safely by monitoring the UV Index. Dr. Alexandra Theriault, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist at Apex Dermatology in Denver, Colorado, directly pushes back on that. “I am seeing an increasing number of teenagers and young adults who follow the UV Index to ‘safely’ tan their skin,” she says. “Any sun exposure that leads to pinkening or tanning of the skin can lead to an increased risk of skin cancer and premature aging of the skin.”

Dr. Theriault sees the misinformation problem as much an opportunity as a frustration. “I enjoy having an open dialogue with patients, presenting evidence-based recommendations on how they can protect themselves and be proactive about skin health,” she says.

“Sunscreen Is Toxic”

Dr. Jenifer D. Holman, MD, FAAD, a board-certified dermatologist and dermatologic micrographic surgeon at the Center for Aesthetic and Laser Medicine in Tyler, Texas, has personally battled skin cancer and has heard this one before.

“As a dermatologist, I try to practice evidence-based medicine and rely on evidence; current evidence does not show that any sunscreen ingredients available in the U.S. are harmful to human health,” Dr. Holman says. She also points to federal oversight as a meaningful layer of assurance. “One of the FDA’s responsibilities is to review the efficacy, safety, and quality of sunscreens. This means their standards for the sunscreens you can buy in the U.S. are very high.”

For patients who still prefer to err on the side of caution, mineral formulations containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are explicitly noted as noncarcinogenic by the FDA and are considered a sound alternative to chemical filters.

“Sunscreen Blocks Vitamin D”

A third claim circulating widely online is that daily sunscreen use blocks vitamin D absorption to a harmful degree. The science here has recently become more nuanced. A 2025 clinical trial known as the Sun-D Trial found that consistent sunscreen use may be associated with a small but clinically significant decrease in vitamin D levels, a finding the dermatology community takes seriously.

Even so, the recommendation from most dermatologists has not shifted: protect your skin, and supplement with vitamin D through diet or oral supplementation if needed. The American Academy of Dermatology does not recommend seeking vitamin D through unprotected sun exposure, noting there is no level of UV exposure that maximizes vitamin D synthesis without also increasing skin cancer risk.

What Actually Works

For those who remain concerned about sunscreen ingredients, mineral formulations containing zinc oxide or titanium dioxide are another effective option. Dermatologists emphasize that both mineral and FDA-approved chemical sunscreens are considered safe when used as directed, making them a sound option for anyone with lingering concerns about chemical filters.

But for Dr. Holman, the most important quality a sunscreen can have is simpler than that. “I always tell patients the best sunscreen is the one you will use,” she says. “Fortunately, many sunscreens also have beauty benefits. There are sunscreens that treat acne and rosacea, that hydrate the skin, that come in tinted or shimmering formulations.”

The Skin Cancer Foundation recommends a broad-spectrum, water-resistant sunscreen with at least SPF 30, applied to all skin not covered by clothing and reapplied every two hours during outdoor activity. Pairing sunscreen with protective clothing and shade during peak afternoon hours covers most of what daily UV exposure throws at unprotected skin.

Routine skin checks round out a complete approach to skin health. As Dr. Theriault puts it, “early diagnosis of a skin cancer is associated with better cosmetic outcomes and may be life-saving.” Scheduling an annual visit with a board-certified dermatologist remains one of the most straightforward and underused tools available.

Despite what viral videos may suggest, decades of clinical research continue to show that regular sunscreen use helps reduce the risk of skin cancer and premature skin aging. Social media trends come and go, but the evidence behind daily sun protection has remained remarkably consistent.

Disclaimer: This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, nor does it replace professional medical expertise or treatment. If you have any concerns or questions about your health, always consult with a physician or other healthcare professional.