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Apr 2023: Spring School for Global Health: Digital technologies for addressing global challenges in women’s health and wellbeing

5-6 April 2023, Spring School for Global Health: Digital technologies for addressing global challenges in women’s health and wellbeing, Geneva, Switzerland (1 ECTS). Prof. Wac is a co-organizer.

More information is on the website of the Institute of Global Health.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

Digital health technologies and services hold a considerable potential of solutions for ameliorating women’s health and well-being. They are increasingly used for accessing, collecting, and analysing personal health data, for hosting communities around specific health conditions or for accessing health-related services. For instance, applications have provided a unique global window for the tracking of menstrual health, for women who are victimsof violence, or for the promotion of positive sexual health. Digital technologies also offer solutions for improving the promotion/prevention of health during the perinatal period. They hold the potential to help compensate some of the known global inequalities in access to mental health support for women suffering from postpartum depression, for instance by enabling access to online peer-support or online therapies. The goal of this 2-day workshop will be to present the work of four experts in digital health addressing issues related to women’s menstrual health, perinatal health, and overall physical and mental health and wellbeing. A second objective of this workshop will be to conduct a collaborative ideathon project in groups to conceptualize one project idea for which they think that digital technology may bring a significant innovation and value for improving women’s overall physical and mental health and well-being. Participants will be encouraged to anticipate the implications of the project in terms of cultural context, access, adhesion, ethics, data analytics and financing. This exercise will benefit from the interactions with the speakers and the course instructors.

TARGET PARTICIPANTS

We seek to cultivate a multidisciplinary approach, the course is therefore opened to a broad range of disciplines (i.e. social science, health/life/medical sciences, computer science/engineering, …) with an interest in digital technologies and mental health.

PREPARATORY STEPS BEFORE THE WORKSHOP

  • We will provide access to a secured platform where participants can exchange information and gather depending on their shared interest
  • We will provide 3-4 general readings on the topic

DATES AND VENUE

  • 05 and 06 April 2023 (Geneva – rooms and place TBA)

Short preliminary schedule

Wednesday April the 5th 2023

  • 9am – 12pm : Group work with the organizers
  • 12pm – 1 :30pm : Lunch
  • 1 :30pm – 3pm : Group work with the organizers
  • 3:30pm – 4:30pm : Pr Katarzyna Wac – U. Geneva, Center for Informatics (topic: Leveraging digital health to investigate individuals’ sexual health)
  • 4:30pm-6pm (7:30am-9am California time) Dr Laura Marie Symul, Stanford U., Dpt of Statistics (topic: tracking of menstrual health through data analytics of mobile applications)

Thursday April the 6th 2023

  • 9am-10am : Pr Laurent Gaucher – Geneva school for health science, Dpt Midwifery (topic: public and global health perspectives on postpartum depression)
  • 10am-11:30am: Dr Sonali Quantius – CEO HaploCare (topic: Haplocare, a global community to improve the wellbeing of mothers during perinatality)
  • 11 :30am – 13 :00pm : Lunch
  • 13:00pm – 2:30pm : Group work with the organizers
  • 3:30pm – 5:30pm : Presentation of group work by the students

CREDITS

  • 1 ECTS

FEES

  • CHF 350 for SSPH+ members or UNIGE students. 
  • CHF 700 for externals 

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS

  • 20-30 persons

REGISTRATION DEADLINE

  • 15/03/2023