Summer School GENDER-PATH (14.-17.09.2026)
Gender-sensitive evidence through new digital developments and reflection: participatory, application-oriented, translational, cross-university (GENDER-PATH)
The Summer School GENDER-PATH (14.-17.09.2026) | Witten/Herdecke University, Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50, 48155 Witten) is dedicated to the question of how digital health can help to systematically identify and reduce gender-specific data gaps in clinical research. Digital technologies such as apps, wearables, sensor-based systems and AI-supported analyses open up new possibilities for data collection and evaluation, but at the same time raise questions regarding bias, access and use.
The Summer School will therefore focus on addressing the gender data gap along the entire digital data life cycle - from recruitment and data generation to analysis and application in research and healthcare. The event brings together participants from different disciplines and professional fields to reflect critically and interdisciplinarily on the potentials and challenges of digital health.
In addition to professional impulses, an interactive hackathon format offers the opportunity to develop your own solutions and try them out in practice. Furthermore, the development of a podcast on science communication is at the centre of the Summer School. A particular focus will be on integrating the perspectives of affected groups of people as well as ethical, social and structural issues with the aim of promoting the gender-sensitive and responsible use of digital technologies in clinical research.
Programme
A varied programme awaits you:
- Self-directed learning in advance to build data literacy
- Specialist presentations on the gender data gap and digital health, as well as insights into research projects on the topic
- Interdisciplinary discussion on challenges such as bias, access, acceptance and digital skills
- Interdisciplinary hackathon to develop concrete solutions to challenges relating to the gender data gap and digital health, led by start-ups
- Opportunities to network with participants and speakers
At the hackathon, we will be supported by the following challenge partners:
Season is the first calendar for women and couples: It helps you plan around your cycle for more energy, productivity, and health in everyday life. Founded by Shanel Chien and Celine Ndakwa, Season combines cycle intelligence with smart daily planning without becoming a medical app. At the GENDER-PATH Summer School, the founders will present a question drawn from their daily practice: How can the gender data gap in menstrual health be closed without blurring the line between lifestyle and medicine?
Care for people with dementia has so far been insufficiently gender-sensitive. Franziska Anushi Jagoda and Dr. Dominique Autschbach from the Chair of Nursing Science at Witten/Herdecke University are addressing this issue in the ParGenDA project in collaboration with the German Alzheimer’s Association e. V. Self-Help Dementia and will present a research question from this work: How can biographical information from people with dementia (particularly LGBTIQ+ identity narratives) be collected and used in a gender-sensitive manner to facilitate psychosocial support?
As former participants in the GENESIS-DH Summer School and current collaboration partners, Amanda Amazu (PhD and psychological psychotherapist) and Ella Abken (research associate and acting co-lead of the ME/CFS Biobank) will explain how data gaps arise in health research—from ME/CFS to research involving people with intellectual developmental disorders. In doing so, they demonstrate how recruitment and diagnostic barriers contribute to knowledge gaps in medicine. Their question: How can these barriers be broken down and data gaps in health research be closed?
Target group
We invite:
- Undergraduates, PhD students and early-career researchers in health sciences, computer science, economics and related fields
- Trainees, students and practitioners from inpatient and outpatient care settings
- Anyone with an interest in digital health, gender-sensitive research and interdisciplinary collaboration
Participation and application
Participation is free of charge. An application is only possible if there is an opportunity to participate for the entire period of the Summer School (14.-17.09.2026). Travel and accommodation costs can be covered if required (limited funds). The language of the event is German.
- Participation places: 20
- Application deadline: 19.07.2026 at 23:59
Venue
Witten/Herdecke University
Alfred-Herrhausen-Str. 50, 58455 Witten
Promotion
The Summer School GENDER-PATH is funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR) (funding reference 01GN2601).
Contact us
Prof. Dr. rer. medic.
Theresa Sophie Busse
Junior Professor
Faculty of Health (School of Medicine) | Junior Professorship of Digital Health
Alfred-Herrhausen-Straße 50
58455 WittenRoom number: C-2.329