by Gendro | Jan 12, 2022 | Podcast
12 January 2022
The podcast discusses the often overlooked issue of gender representation in medical research, particularly focusing on HIV trials and pharmacological studies. Dr. Heidari, founding president of GENDRO, and her team conducted a systematic review revealing a significant gender disparity in HIV research trials, where only 19% of participants were women despite them constituting more than 50% of HIV cases. The conversation delves into the history of gender inclusion mandates, such as the NIH Revitalization Act of 1993 and subsequent mandates for basic science research, highlighting the importance of including both sexes from the outset to avoid overlooking physiological sex-based differences that could emerge later in clinical trials.
Despite progress, adherence to guidelines ensuring gender inclusion remains inconsistent, and there is a gap between simply including men and women in studies and conducting appropriate gender-specific analyses. The podcast emphasizes the necessity of breaking down study results by gender and even calculating the optimal gender distribution in study designs to ensure robust findings. Additionally, the discussion touches on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, illustrating how drugs can affect male and female bodies differently, with examples like marijuana pharmacokinetics showing that women require less marijuana to experience the same effects, which could be obscured by higher dropout rates among women in previous studies. The conversation underscores the critical need for considering gender differences in medical research to ensure equitable and effective healthcare outcomes.
Listen to the podcast part1 and part2.
by Gendro | Dec 9, 2021 | Events
9 December 2021 | Organiser : Alliance for Health Promotion
The purpose of the session was to capture the changes necessitated by COVID-19 and how they impacted the well-being of various populations. This interactive platform helped us better understand the specific needs and challenges of different populations, taking the angle of inclusion, equity, and empowerment in order to contribute to building a resilient and sustainable society of well-being and leaving no one behind. It aimed to explore how connecting different population groups at the local level through intergenerational collaboration and applying health promotion tools could boost resilience, equity, and sustainable development. The session was run by youth as moderators and covered topics like a) Empowering youth to create individual and community preparedness and resilience, Re-visiting gender-specific determinants of health and well-being, b) Challenges and opportunities to achieve better health and well-being for people with disabilities, and c) Connecting generations through Health Promotion to achieve the sustainable health and well-being of communities.
Esteemed speakers included Elizabeth Cherian Paramesh, Vice President of Alliance for Health Promotion, GenevaTrustee, Shirin Heidari, President of GENDRO, Katerina Firlova, Manager Strategic Partnerships and Operations, Health Nexus, and Annette Ebbinghaus, Master Sophrologist
Organiser website : https://allianceforhealthpromotion.org/
by Gendro | Nov 12, 2021 | Events
12 November 2021 | Organiser : Open Think Tank Network (OpenTTN)
In November 2021, a forum was held in Geneva that marked the official launch of OpenTTN. For three days, participants from all over Europe came together to discuss foreign policy issues in a participatory format with high-ranking experts and speakers.
The participants had the opportunity to celebrate the success of the joint publication of the OpenTTN on feminist foreign policy. The opening event was attended by: Marie-Claire Graf, YOUNGO Global Focal Point for the UNFCCC, Ambassador Thomas Greminger, head of the Geneva Center for Security Policy, Shirin Heidari, Founder of Gendro and Senior Consultant on WHO’s Gender, Equity and Human Rights Team, Tamara Mawhinney, Deputy Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations in Geneva, Maria Sokolova, TradeExperettes
During the subsequent sessions over the weekend, the participants not only thought about the internal structure of OpenTTN, but also analyzed the most important foreign policy trends and considered new projects for cooperation between the various think tanks.
by Gendro | Oct 5, 2021 | Events
5 October 2021 | Organiser : GE Academy
Trainers Dr. Shirin Heidari, founding president of GENDRO, along with Cristina Dragomir from Constanta Maritime University, who served as an Associate Professor, provided an overview of the main imbalances and biases regarding HR management in research and academia during the session. These imbalances encompassed vertical and horizontal segregation, the gender pay gap, and issues related to international mobility. Participants were sensitized about unconscious bias and were encouraged to challenge allegedly objective and gender-neutral career enhancement criteria. The trainers provided examples of measures aimed at tackling these biases and emphasized the importance of building capacity for self-reflection and enhancing HRM processes.
Event recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNdX_KY9n7o&ab_channel=GenderEqualityAcademyEU
by Gendro | Jun 17, 2021 | Events
The panel was chaired by Shirin Heidari from GENDRO, and the presenters included Tracey Goodman from WHO and Lavanya Vijayasingham from UNU-IIGH. Jean Munro from GAVI moderated the discussion, while the panelists included Apoorva Mandavilli, a journalist from The New York Times, Prof Noni MacDonald from Dalhousie University, Canada, and Prof Saad Omer from Yale University, USA. Amidst the unprecedented scale and speed of vaccine research and development, and the mammoth task of ‘leaving no one behind’ in the global deployment of COVID-19 vaccines, there was a need to ensure that critical sex- and gender dimensions were not ‘deprioritized’ in evidence generation, policy decision-making, and communication initiatives.
Stronger considerations of sex and gender factors in these areas could contribute to better science and innovation, prevent avoidable harm, build public understanding and trust in a timely manner, and ultimately improve immunization coverage. Some key areas that required attention and action included the persistent oversight of sex and gender dimensions in clinical trials and other vaccine-related research, nuanced analysis of post-market surveillance and pharmacovigilance data that could inform sex-based differences in the frequency or severity of adverse events, the lack of data in specific populations such as pregnant and lactating women in the initial phases of vaccine roll-out in some countries, sex and gender dimensions of vaccine confidence, acceptability, and uptake, and transparent and accurate science reporting to clearly communicate the relevant sex and gender dimensions to the lay audience.
Learn more here:
Presentation 1: Critical sex and gender considerations for equitable research, development and delivery of COVID-19 vaccines
Presentation 2: SDG3 GAP Gender working group /UNU-IIGH Guidance note and checklist for tackling gender-related barriers to equitable COVID-19 vaccine deployment
Event recording : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=825vOFeqbQ4&ab_channel=UNU-IIGH
