Gaps in the system - digitalization and gender in medicine

Symposium, May 8, 2019, CRC Hanover

Our everyday world has become more digital in almost all areas. But what does digitalization mean for medicine and what does it mean for gender equality? Against this background and in particular in view of the question: What opportunities and risks does the digital future open up for female physicians, were the topics at the interdisciplinary conference of the Equal Opportunities Office of Hannover Medical School (MHH) on 8 May 2019. The specialist event was organized as part of a research project called Digital Future of Medicine for Women (DigiMedfF), which is funded by the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and will run for a total of 2 1/2 years.

The event was introduced by three words of welcome. Dr. Andreas Tecklenburg (Vice President of the MHH for Patient Care), Dr. Sabine Johannsen (State Secretary at the Ministry of Science and Culture of Lower Saxony) and the host Dr. Bärbel Miemietz (Equal Opportunities Officer of the MHH) spoke. The interdisciplinary presentations by renowned experts from the fields of Gender & Diversity in Engineering & Computer Science, Medical Informatics and eHealth addressed the following problems and issues, among others:

• Competence acquisition under gender and diversity aspects, speaker: Prof' Barbara Schwarze,
• Medical informatics and digital competence - HiGHmed perspective, speakers: Prof. Dr. Dr. Michael Marschollek and Dr. Marianne Behrends,
• E-health, interoperability and gender, speaker: Prof. Dr. Dr. Sylvia Thun.

The first research results from the DigiMedfF project were also presented with a focus on gender-related characteristics in digitalized medicine and medical teaching.

In the second part of the conference, participants were given insights into current projects and perspectives on the digitalization of medicine and gender through short inputs. The topics included robot technology and AI (Dr. Jasmin Grischke, Robokind), digital literacy (Dr. Cinthia Briseño, Frisk Innovation GmbH), decision-making through algorithms (Veronika Thiel, AlgorithmWatch) and the students' perspective on the ongoing digitalization in medicine (Jonah Grütters (Federal Representation of Medical Students).

The intensive day was rounded off with a panel discussion entitled: Gender. (K)An issue for digitalization in medicine? Under the expert moderation of Dr. Christina Czeschik, Anke Diehl (Digital Change Manager, UK Essen, and Ärztinnenbund), Prof. Dr. Dr. Frauke Koppelin (Head of Master Public Health, Jade University of Applied Sciences), Dr. Inga Hege (Associate Professor for Medical Education, University of Augsburg) and Jan Tauwaldt (medical student and IT consultant, Asta of the MHH) discussed the topic.

The conference can be seen as a great benefit for interdisciplinary exchange in the field of digitalization, medicine and gender. In addition to a lively exchange between all participants and the formation of networks, many questions were raised that will hopefully generate more sensitivity for the gender perspective in digitalization in the future.