Zurich – The University of Zurich (UZH) is creating the first chair for gender medicine in Switzerland in order to verify gender-specific medicine. The aim of this new branch of research is to develop more individualized diagnoses and therapies based on the fact that women and men suffer from different diseases.
The University of Zurich (UZH) has created a new Chair of Gender Medicine. According to a press release, the aim of this branch of medicine is to improve the recovery of patients through more individualized diagnoses and therapies using tailored medicine. This is because common diseases such as heart disease, stroke, migraine, depression and cancer manifest themselves differently in women and men. By setting up its own Chair of Gender Medicine, UZH aims to promote this important component of research as precision medicine.
"In many areas of medicine, men were the prototype, which is why diseases in women were only recognized late or not at all in the past, because the diagnosis was primarily based on male symptoms," Beatrice Beck Schimmer, UZH Professor and Director of University Medicine Zurich (UMZH), is quoted as saying in the press release. Clinical studies were generally conducted with men. The reason given was female hormone fluctuations, which could lead to inhomogeneous results.
Not only at the level of diagnostics, but also in the field of research and treatment, the gender distribution was one-sided, with the medical profession and medical science reserved for men. "If only one gender does research, it narrows the view," says medical historian Sarah Scheidmantel. The introduction of the new chair and the change in culture in the large hospitals and clinics should bring about a lasting change, according to the press release. The first chair holder in Zurich is Carolin Lerchenmüller, Professor of Cardiology. ce/eb