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The Movement Toward Better Pregnancy Loss Care with Laura Corcoran

  • Jun 25
  • 3 min read

Behind many groundbreaking medical innovations is a simple realization: there has to be a better way. For some innovators, that realization comes from personal experience: seeing a gap in care, feeling its impact firsthand, and choosing to transform that challenge into a solution that can help others.


Creating successful healthcare solutions requires more than identifying a problem; they require listening to those affected, understanding the healthcare environment, and developing solutions that create measurable impact. Laura Corcoran, CEO and Founder of Dignity Care, experienced this firsthand. After navigating multiple pregnancy losses, Laura recognized a gap in miscarriage care: patients lacked a dignified option for collecting pregnancy tissue when testing was needed.


“From my own experience, I began this journey into the pregnancy loss world, and I ultimately invented something called the Miscarriage Collection Cradle,” Laura explained. Her personal experience became the foundation for creating the Class 1 medical device, designed to provide women with more choice, comfort, and dignity during an emotionally difficult healthcare experience.


Finding the overlooked problem in healthcare

Laura’s innovation journey began by questioning why miscarriage care lacked a solution that addressed both clinical needs and patient dignity. Rather than accepting the existing process, she explored whether a better approach was possible. Through researching other women’s experiences, Laura discovered that many patients faced similar challenges. Using her engineering background, she developed early concepts and prototypes to address this unmet need. Reflecting on the process she explained, “I’m an engineer. Here’s a problem. I can do something about this.”


Laura’s story highlights the importance of creating healthcare solutions around the people experiencing the problem. While medical devices must meet technical and clinical requirements, successful innovation also requires understanding the emotional and practical realities of care. For the Miscarriage Collection Cradle, patient dignity was central to the product’s purpose. The device was designed to provide women with greater control and support while helping healthcare professionals collect samples more effectively. Laura emphasized the lasting impact of pregnancy loss and that healthcare challenges are not always visible, and listening closely to patients can uncover opportunities for improved care.


Bringing a new medical device into healthcare

Developing a medical device is only the beginning of the innovation process. For a solution to make an impact, it must fit into real healthcare environments and meet the needs of those delivering care. For Dignity Care, adoption required more than proving the device worked. Laura focused on understanding the healthcare ecosystem and identifying the stakeholders involved in bringing the device into practice. She engaged with clinicians, hospitals, and healthcare organizations to understand implementation needs and build support for adoption, helping the Miscarriage Collection Cradle expand into healthcare settings across the UK and Europe. Laura’s journey demonstrates that successful medtech innovation requires considering the entire healthcare ecosystem, not just the technology itself. “The solution will come once you’ve thoroughly understood the problem and really identified the user needs,” Laura said.


Why this matters

Laura Corcoran’s journey with Dignity Care demonstrates how personal experience, engineering expertise, and patient advocacy can come together to create meaningful medical innovation. While technology plays an important role, the most impactful solutions begin with understanding real-world challenges. The future of medtech will depend on innovators who recognize overlooked problems, challenge existing processes, and develop solutions that improve patient care.


What to watch

The next generation of healthcare innovators will be those who engage with users early, understand healthcare systems, and design solutions that address both clinical and human needs. Laura’s story reminds medtech entrepreneurs that innovation is not simply about creating a device. It is about understanding the problem, building a solution, and ensuring it reaches the people who need it. Her advice for innovators is simple: “A lot of people, when they see a problem, they’ll focus on the solution. The solution will come once you’ve thoroughly understood the problem.” In medtech, innovation succeeds when it transforms an unmet need into a better healthcare experience.



 
 
 

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