IMaGeS

Gender has an effect on people’s health (development of illnesses, symptoms, patients’ experiences, etc.). For example, some diseases do not produce the same symptoms in women as in men, which often leads to women being misdiagnosed. In clinical trials, men are heavily over-represented, which raises questions about the extent to which women’s specific characteristics are taken into account, for example in terms of the efficacy and absorption of drugs and side-effects. Similarly, technological innovations in healthcare (e-health devices, applications, tools, etc.) rarely take gender issues into account at the R&D stage. This project therefore looks at the way in which stakeholders (institutions, innovation players and those involved in research and care) do or do not take gender issues into account in the development of medical and therapeutic innovations (drugs, devices, etc.), and attempts to identify the reasons why gender is or is not taken into account. This project also seeks to reveal the reasons for the inclusion or exclusion of female patients in the very early stages of the development process. The approach is based on social sciences and, more specifically, management sciences.

Contact : Sandra CHARREIRE-PETIT et Clotilde CORON (RITM – Université Paris Saclay)