One mission. Two engines. Same purpose.

The person matters morethan the diagnosis.

Although cancer may alter your path, it doesn't get to decide who you are.

Medical innovation

We build what can change the experience.

Fortiva Medical builds solutions around an often-overlooked question in cancer care: how can we make the experience of treatment better for the person receiving it? Our first focus is scalp cooling.

Explore Fortiva Medical

A smiling woman with long hair in a bright consulting room, her clinician resting a hand on hers

Human impact

We give back where products alone cannot.

The Fortiva Foundation exists to expand access, experiences, and moments to help people stay connected with their lives during and beyond cancer. Everything we do is rooted in the belief that #KindnessCures.

Explore The Fortiva Foundation

A family standing together in an alpine meadow at Sun Peaks, British Columbia, looking out across the mountains

Our purpose

A brighter cancer journey for every person.

Mission

Protect the person inside the patient, because cancer already takes so much from those fighting a battle they never chose.

Vision

We envision a cancer journey where every person has access not only to treatment, but to the support and human connection that help them continue living, while they are fighting for their life.

How we operate

Profit and philanthropy co-exist. Both elements are crucial measures of our success.

Different paths.
A shared purpose.

One advances medical innovation. The other expands human impact. Together, they allow Fortiva to address something bigger than any single product or program.

Fortiva Medical

How can we make the experience of treatment better for the person receiving it?

Our first focus is scalp cooling.

We are bringing a class defining scalp cooling solution to market, to support those undergoing chemotherapy treatment, designed with the individual at the epicenter, creating a fundamentally different experience for all.

Launching in the United States and Canada in 2027. We are not ready to show the product yet, and we will share more here first.

A nurse in navy scrubs holding a patient's hand at the bedside

Impact

The need is enormous, and access is opening up.

Around 65% of people receiving chemotherapy experience hair loss, or changes to their hair's growth, texture, colour or thickness. Rossi et al. 2017; Wikramanayake et al. 2023

55% of breast cancer patients report high psychological stress caused by chemotherapy-induced hair loss. Peera et al., Annals of Palliative Medicine, 2024

2.11M

New cancer cases projected in the United States in 2026.

American Cancer Society

254,100

New cancer cases projected in Canada in 2026.

Canadian Cancer Statistics Advisory Committee

6 states

States now require insurers to cover scalp cooling, with eight more moving.

New York, Louisiana, West Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, California

2015

The year scalp cooling first received FDA clearance. The category is established.

US Food and Drug Administration

Coverage is moving

Where scalp cooling is today, and who pays for it.

Worldwide

Scalp cooling is already established across six continents. What is changing now is who pays for it.

Drag to spin

59countries

Paxman's published installation list, reporting 59 countries and over 3,500 systems as at 2019. The company now states 65+ countries, so 59 is a floor. Pins mark countries, not individual clinics.

Not everything cancer takes can be restored by medical intervention.

The Fortiva Foundation exists to expand access, experiences, and moments to help people stay connected with their lives during and beyond cancer.

Access

Opening doors that would otherwise stay closed, for people who would otherwise go without.
Experiences

Moments worth having, not just days to get through. The things people remember afterwards.
Moments

Time that belongs to the person, not to the treatment. Ordinary life, handed back.

We cannot control cancer. But we can fight to give something back, helping to protect everything else that cancer threatens.

Everything we do at The Fortiva Foundation is rooted in the belief that #KindnessCures

fortivafoundation.org →

Our why

Fortiva began with Kelsey.

Kelsey and Derek Strokon together in a television studio — Kelsey and Derek.

Her cancer journey showed us how important it is to never lose sight of the person living through it.

Kelsey taught us something that now defines Fortiva. We are so much more than a diagnosis.

She kept her hair through treatment, and she understood exactly what that meant. Not vanity. Control, at a point when almost nothing else was still hers to decide. The ability to walk into a room and be seen as herself first and a patient second.

Today, we carry that belief forward by creating better experiences for people affected by cancer. It is why Fortiva is a company and a foundation at the same time. The technology honours what she asked for. The Foundation carries on what she started.

Kelsey is where our story began. Every person facing cancer is why it continues.

Kelsey Carignan speaking on the TEDxSurrey stage — **Kelsey Carignan** at TEDxSurrey, The Secret You Need to Know When Facing A Cancer Diagnosis. Watch on YouTube

The Fortiva launch team

The people building this.

Derek Strokon

Co-Founder
Chief Executive Officer

Kristy Greer Brooks

Co-Founder
President

Kyle Soutar, CPA, CMA

Co-Founder
Chief Business Officer

Cayla Roberts

Branding & Communications Officer

Natalie Van Eron

Foundation Executive Director

Jodi O'Donnell-Ames

Foundation Special Consultant

Your experience

Do you have a story to share?

Scalp cooling is one small part of something much larger. If you have been through treatment, or walked beside someone who has, we would like to hear what that was actually like. Not a testimonial. The real version.

We read everything. Nothing is published without asking you first.

Stay updated

Everyone here has a part in this.

Staff, founders, partners, patients, donors and investors. Pick what brings you here and tell us where you fit.

If you are in treatment now and looking for scalp cooling options that exist today, the right conversation is with your oncology team. They will know what is available in your area and whether it fits your protocol.