The North is the Central Focus: Sex and Gender Aware Medical Conference

On July 1, 2024, the first conference of its kind in the north on sex and gender aware medicine was held at the Bar-Ilan U. Azrieli Faculty of Medicine in Safed, with an emphasis on the periphery.

The organizers of the conference - Dr. Rola Khamisy Farah, coordinator of the Sex and Gender Aware Medicine course at the Faculty of Medicine, and Dr. Michal Sela and Dr. Ronal Bernstein the founders and chairpersons of the NogaFem Center – worked together in the organization of the conference and its successful implementation at the Faculty of Medicine in Safed.

The conference was attended by more than 140 doctors, and other medical professions including nurses, pharmacists, attorneys, researchers, and more. The response was very impressive, despite the difficult and challenging security situation in the north in general and Safed in particular.

Professor Orly Avni, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, gave a welcome speech and emphasized the importance of the subject and the Faculty's commitment to educate students to be actively aware of these differences and adopt a sex- and gender-aware lens in research and clinical work in the future.

Professor Glazerman, "the father of gender medicine," founder and current chairman of the Israeli Society for Sex and Gender Aware Medicine, delivered congratulations and gave a fascinating lecture on "Why medicine should be sex and gender aware."

Professor Dror Dicker, director of the Internal Medicine Department (D) of the Sharon Hospital, gave an amazing lecture on sex and gender in obesity diseases.

Dr. Avital Porter, Director of the Women's Heart Clinic at Sharon Hospital, gave a lecture on aspects of sex and gender in the diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular diseases

Professor Naim Shehadeh, Director of the Russell Berrie Galilee Diabetes SPHERE, spoke about treating obesity and diabetes in the Arab sector and the differences between the sexes.

Dr. Fiad Adoi, Director of the Endocrinology and Diabetes Unit at the Ziv Medical Center in Safed, offered his insights on diabetes and gender issues.

Dr. Keren Agay Shay, head of Health and Environmental research at the Faculty of Medicine, gave a fascinating lecture on gender differences in causal risks.