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The logo of the Social Research Centre Dortmund
Department of Social Sciences
Studierende sitzt am Arbeitsplatz und schaut auf den Laptop. © Aliona Kardash​/​TU Dortmund

Kick-off events for the project “PETRA: AI-supported, educational therapy support for perimenopause” in Berlin.

Photo: Lisa-Marian Schmidt and Christine Best standing next to a roll-up banner from the Fraunhofer Institute © Fraunhofer IESE
First kick-off events in Berlin accompany the launch of the project "PETRA: AI-supported, educational therapy support for perimenopause".

The cooperation partners involved in the funded PETRA project (Fraunhofer IESE, Ruhr University Bochum, Berlin Institute of Health at Charité Berlin, FEMNA, and the Social Research Center at TU Dortmund University) met in Berlin in January for a kick-off meeting to discuss the structure of the collaboration and the upcoming work in the project. This was the main focus of the first day. On the second day, the project partners took part in an event organized by FEMNA. Under the title “How can gender-equitable care be achieved?”, experts from the fields of science, medicine, health insurance companies, and journalists discussed this question. It became clear how urgent this issue is. Following this panel discussion, there was sufficient time for a review and networking activities. Finally, the PETRA team met again for final planning.

On February 3, the project's funding body, the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space, invited participants to Berlin for a kick-off meeting for the announcement of “Interactive Technologies for Gender-Specific Health” (GeGe). In addition to presenting the funding line, the external advisory boards for the funding line, and accompanying measures, the event focused on the presentation of the individual funded project modules. As part of the project presentation for Module 3 – Technologies for Therapy Recommendations – the PETRA project was presented by project coordinator Dr. Theresa Ahrens (Fraunhofer IESE). The kick-off event was rounded off by two thematic workshops, each consisting of three sessions. The Social Research Center, represented by Christine Best and Dr. Lisa-Marian Schmidt, took part in the productive and exciting kick-off events and is looking forward to further collaboration on the project.

The project for gender-equitable medicine is being funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology, and Space (BMFTR) over a project period of three years.