Today, 7 October, is Diversity Day. On this day, we celebrate the positive impact of diversity, embracing differences in ethnic-cultural background, age, LGBTQ+ identity, gender, and work capacity. Sanne Peters, Manon van Daal and colleagues recently developed an eLearning to learn how to integrate sex and gender in health research, funded by ZonMW.
‘Considering sex and gender in health research is essential for more inclusive and impactful science, yet it’s still only rarely applied,’ Manon van Daal explains. Manon is postdoctoral researcher in Bioethics at UMC Utrecht. ‘The module provides an accessible introduction to incorporating sex and gender into (bio)medical research. It guides you through the steps that every scientist takes during research, from formulating the right research questions to reporting the findings.’
Sanne Peters, Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Global Health at UMC Utrecht, was the initiator/PI/leader of this project . ‘Many scientists are aware of the importance of including sex and gender in their health research. But embedding them in studies is still only done to a limited extent. It’s not everyday practice for everyone,’ Peters remarks. A lack of knowledge about sex and gender differences not only negatively affects health, but also means that healthcare cannot be fully optimised. ‘It is essential that researchers uncover these differences so that diseases and disorders can be detected earlier and people receive the right care,’ Peters says.
The E-learning is developed together with Elevate Health and researchers for Erasmus MC, Radboud University and University of Amsterdam. The goal? ‘Helping the new generation understand what sex and gender mean, recognize their importance and integrate them into their research,’ Sanne Peter tells.
The E-learning is available to everyone via: https://e-learning.messageproject.co.uk
For students from Utrecht University or UMC Utrecht, the E-learning can also be found through Brightspace.
This project is funded by ZonMW and is part of their Gender and Health mandate. With this, they aim to initiate a movement that will make it increasingly natural to pay attention to sex and gender in research.
Want to know more? Read the full interview with Sanne Peters (Dutch).
This text was partly based on the full interview with ZonMW written by Tjitske Lingsma.
