Female technology pioneer and EZbra Advanced Wound Care founder and CEO Efrat Roman awoke from breast cancer surgery with a clear goal: to improve the recovery process.
Her postsurgical dressing was bulky. The bandages were difficult to wrap, and the tape to secure them wasn’t designed for it. With breast and chest procedures completed worldwide each day—lumpectomies, mastectomies, reconstruction and more—a one-size-fits-all option seemed ludicrous.
“During such a fragile time in a woman’s life, giving her a unified solution that allows her to keep a sense of independence is so important,” Roman says. “But here I was, dealing with gauze and tape, and I couldn’t change the dressing without help.”
Through Roman’s company, women recuperating from breast, or chest surgery, now have an alternative. After years of consulting surgeons, radiologists and wound care experts during product development, EZbra is Roman and her team’s answer to the postsurgical dressing challenge. Her overriding goal is to help women recover with ease and dignity.
“When a woman uses EZbra, she retains her sense of independence,”
she says.
Resembling a soft bandeau top with slots to stabilize drain tubes and bulbs, the EZbra can be worn under a dress or shirt for a camisole-like effect. Comfort and style are important, Roman says, and so, too, is the ability to self-apply. Struggling to apply and re-apply dressing after surgery is difficult. Often, patients cannot raise their arms to full range of motion, but that’s not necessary with EZbra.
The dressing serves a practical purpose as well: It reduces operation-room time and recurring clinic visits because of its simple application. Other postoperative dressings can pose a medical adhesive risk of skin injury, or MARSI, but EZbra does not contain latex. The patented design is sterile and disposable.
Specializing in wound dressings that exist to change how women recuperate from surgery, EZbra products mold to the shape of the breast and are adjustable. Patients and physicians can maneuver and customize the device, providing compression where needed.
“We designed EZbra to meet the shape of the breast and to cover incisions wherever they are,” Roman says. “It’s an effective way to customize recovery.”
Roman has been described as a women’s well-being expert and is also the founder of Cure Diva, a shopping and community platform for women at every stage of breast cancer and its treatment.
She is optimistic about the future of “femtech,” describing its current state as “tip of the iceberg.” She notes the old-fashioned “grin and bear it” attitude is changing culturally.
EZbra Advanced Wound Care is developing more products, and Roman has surrounded herself with a clear majority of female board members and investors to help achieve that. Women, she says, understand the need for such innovation. According to the National Breast Cancer foundation, 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with the disease.
“We all know women are having these issues,” she says. “It’s time for us to also deal with menopause, fertility and more,” she says. “It’s time for femtech to take on these challenges.”
To commemorate October as Breast Cancer Awareness month, EZbra will donate money and products to breast cancer organizations.
“Breast cancer is everywhere—you would think solutions like EZbra would be, too,” she says. “I want to help make that happen.” ♦
