Sex, Gender, and the Brain: The Women’s Brain Foundation and Medscape Education Announce Groundbreaking Learning Center

Barchart · 10/17 06:00

The Women’s Brain Foundation (WBF), the global pioneer that has advanced the inclusion of sex and gender-based evidence-generation in all research, drug development, and healthcare since 2017; and Medscape Education, a leading provider of medical education, are proud to announce the launch of their new learning center focused on addressing sex and gender differences in brain and mental health care. This flagship initiative is a natural extension of prior WBF forums in which the importance of determining sex and gender differences has been discussed with the entire healthcare ecosystem – policymakers, academia, patient association, drug developers, regulators and funding agencies.

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This new learning center is associated with the “Medscape Essentials” initiative, which highlights Medscape’s commitment to addressing areas of high unmet need within medical education through self-funding of activities. Last year, Medscape self-funded one-third of its continuing/independent medical education.

This latest edition of the WBF Forum is designed to enhance awareness and understanding among healthcare professionals regarding sex and gender differences in brain health through an informative conversation among experts. This initiative aims to highlight the plethora of differences between women and men with neurologic and psychiatric disorders, an area that has long been overlooked from medical research to clinical practice.

“This initiative is vital,” said Antonella Santucionne Chadha, MD, PhD, founder and pro bono CEO of the WBF. “Healthcare professionals must understand that there exists intrinsic bias, not only in prevalence and incidence of specific diseases, but because many diseases progress differently in women than in men – and women respond differently to treatment in terms of efficacy and safety profiles. Collaborating with a platform like Medscape is important to our work because it can help us accelerate practice changes. We want to bring this evidence straight into the clinic. And the Medscape platform can help us do that.”

The global prevalence of neurologic disorders is extensive, affecting approximately 1 in 3 people worldwide. According to the most recent Global Burden of Disease Study, neurologic disorders are the leading cause of disability and the second leading cause of death globally.1 Sex and gender are independent crucial factors in health and disease outcomes. While sex differences influence disease prevalence, presentations, treatment efficacy, and side effects, gender differences – encompassing socially constructed roles, behaviors, and expressions of individual identities – also significantly impact health behaviors and disease outcomes. Unfortunately, sex and gender differences have been poorly explored in brain health.2,3

“This Medscape Essentials program will help to unveil sex and gender disparities, which historically within neuroscience research have exhibited a strong sex bias favoring males, and often omitted sex as a variable altogether,”2 shared S. Christy Rohani-Montez, PhD, Director of Clinical Strategy, Medscape Education. “Medscape's commitment to bridging the educational gaps in key areas like this supports our values surrounding health equity and our mission to be the most trusted and valued source of health information and education throughout the career of a healthcare professional.”

With a membership exceeding 13-million healthcare professionals worldwide, Medscape Education is uniquely positioned to lead the industry in recognizing and addressing sex and gender differences in health care. This initiative, focused on disparities across neurologic and psychiatric conditions, represents a significant step towards more inclusive and effective patient care, and is just one of many planned that will help address and close the gender gaps.

For more information, visit www.womensbrainproject.com and www.medscape.org.

About Medscape Education

Medscape Education (medscape.org) is the leading destination for continuous professional development, consisting of more than 30 specialty-focused destinations offering thousands of free accredited CME and CE courses for physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals.

About WebMD Health Corp.

WebMD, an Internet Brands company, is at the heart of the digital health revolution that is transforming the healthcare experience for consumers, patients, health care professionals, employers, health plans, and health systems. Through public and private online portals, mobile platforms, and health-focused publications, WebMD delivers leading-edge content and digital services that enable and improve decision-making, support and motivate health actions, streamline and simplify the health care journey, and improve patient care.

The WebMD Health Network includes WebMD Health, Medscape, WebMD Ignite (encompassing Krames, The Wellness Network and Mercury Healthcare), Jobson Healthcare Information, MediQuality, Frontline, Vitals Consumer Services, Aptus Health, PulsePoint, The Wellness Network, SanovaWorks, MNG Health, MedicineNet, eMedicineHealth, RxList, OnHealth, Medscape Education, and other owned WebMD sites. WebMD®, Medscape®, CME Circle®, Medpulse®, eMedicine®, MedicineNet®, theheart.org® and RxList® are among the trademarks of WebMD Health Corp. or its subsidiaries.

About WBF

The Women’s Brain Foundation (WBF) is an international non-profit organization based in Switzerland. We are experts from various disciplines who are applying sex- and gender-based scientific evidence to develop precision medicine, from basic science to novel technologies. We conduct, coordinate, support, and advance research related to sex and gender differences to achieve this goal. We also act as an incubator and an accelerator of women’s health innovation. We focus our research and advocacy particularly, but not exclusively, on diseases of the brain.

References:

  1. Global Burden of Disease Collaborative Network. Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 (GBD 2021). Seattle: Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME); 2024.
  2. Mamlouk GM, et al. Sex bias in neuroscience research. Front Neuroendocrinol. 2020:57:100835.
  3. Moores G, et al. Sex differences in neurology: a scoping review. BMJ Open. 2023;13:e071200.