A DIY Pap Smear

For Vanessa Bennett, senior international business leader at Roche, the COVID-19 pandemic had a silver lining: It made people comfortable with at-home healthcare. With 4,000 U.S. women dying each year from preventable cervical cancer, which can arise from HPV, screening is crucial but underutilized by those wishing to avoid uncomfortable Pap smears, which require an in-office gynecologist exam. Roche’s HPV self-collection solution includes a swab for at-home specimen gathering; a lab then analyzes the collected cells for 14 different types of high-risk HPV genotypes. A telehealth consult follows, with intervention help if cancer is detected. Through Roche’s partnership with Peru’s Ministry of Health, more than 300,000 women have been screened since 2021, and the product was FDA approved for use in the U.S. in May. “Women are saying, ‘I never have to see a speculum again. I love this,’” Bennett says.