For many years, healthcare has been based on white males as the standard - in treatments, in research, in the development of medicine. Fortunately, in recent years, more attention has been given in healthcare to the differences that exist between people in terms of gender, ethnicity, age, etc. On March 2nd, in honour of International Women's Day, we will dive into these important aspects at the event Exploring health, gender and intersectionality, organised by IDEA Center. We would like to invite you to join us!
During the event, prof. Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, professor of sex- and gender-sensitive medicine at Radboudumc and at the University of Bielefeld will give an opening speech about health, gender and intersectionality.
After the opening, she will join a talk show in which we will explore the subject in more depth. In the talk show we welcome Merel Dap, junior-researcher Social Obstetrics at Erasmus MC and regional coordinator Perinatal audit Southwest of the Netherlands, prof. Maryam Kavousi, Professor of Population Cardiovascular Health at Erasmus MC, and prof. Hanneke Takkenberg, Executive Director Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations & Co-Director NL-Women’s Health Research & Innovation Center at Erasmus MC.
You can register for this event at the bottom of this webpage.
Programme
- 13:30 walk-in
- 14:00 start event with official welcome by Chief Diversity Officer
- 14:10 opening speech by Sabine Oertelt-Prigione
- 14:30 talk show with Sabine Oertelt-Prigione, Merel Dap, Maryam Kavousi, Hanneke Takkenberg
- 15:30 wrap-up in Senaatszaal; start drinks & bites in Cum Laude
- 16:30 end of event
The event will be hosted and moderated by Joris van den Ring-Bax, communications advisor at IDEA Center.
About the speakers
Sabine Oertelt-Prigione
Sabine Oertelt-Prigione MD, PhD, MScPH is a physician specialized in internal medicine and public health, researcher, organizational consultant and coach. She is the Chair of gender in primary and transmural care at the Radboud University in Nijmegen in the Netherlands and Professor of sex- and gender-sensitive medicine at the University of Bielefeld in Germany. Her main research focus is the implementation of sex and gender-related aspects at all levels of the biomedical continuum, from basic research to policymaking. In addition to her academic work, she was a member of the EU Expert Groups “Gendered Innovations 2” and “Gender and COVID-19”, is currently a member of the Medicine Committee of the German Research Council and of the Medicines Board of the German Medical Association as well as a number of societies and specialty groups in the field.
Merel Dap
Merel Dap has been actively involved in diversity and inclusion since her studies at Erasmus University College. Since 2016, she has been part of the Erasmus School of Colour. Together with fellow students, she facilitated safe spaces in which discrimination, racism, and microaggressions could be openly discussed within the university. They also organised events that critically reflected on the structures of the university and academia.
In 2023, Merel began her master’s research in medicine. As part of this project, she spent six months at Harvard Medical School in Boston, working specifically at Boston Children’s Hospital. Merel is currently a junior researcher in Social Obstetrics and the regional coordinator for perinatal audits in the Southwest Netherlands. Her work focuses primarily on organizing care for people in vulnerable circumstances. She is currently researching the experiences of pregnant individuals dealing with heat stress, as well as the implementation of preconception care in general practice.
Her expertise in Black Maternal Health forms an important foundation for her work, enabling her to make healthcare and research as accessible and inclusive as possible. In her free time, Merel enjoys reading Black Feminist literature and caring for her plants, all of which are named after Black Feminists.
Maryam Kavousi
Prof. Maryam Kavousi is Professor of Population Cardiovascular Health and Principal Investigator of the Cardiometabolic Epidemiology research line of the population-based Rotterdam Study. Her research focuses on primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, emphasizing sex and gender-related aspects. Her studies generate new knowledge about population cardiovascular health with the goal of applying this knowledge to discover new biology, inform precision cardiovascular prevention strategies, and reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease.
Maryam Kavousi, together with prof Bert-Jan van den Born, will lead the consortium ‘DIVERSE-CVD: Reducing inequalities in cardiovascular health by taking ancestry into account’. Kavousi: “Delighted, honoured, and encouraged that the importance of this topic is increasingly being recognized and the Dutch Heart Foundation has funded this project.” Approximately one in five residents of the Netherlands has a non-European background. In these populations, cardiovascular disease and associated risk factors-such as high blood pressure, overweight, and diabetes-are more prevalent, particularly among women. The current approach to preventing cardiovascular disease does not work equally well for people with a non-European background. In collaboration with other Dutch Heart Foundation consortia, DIVERSE-CVD aims to address this gap by improving data registration, adapting diagnostic methods, and developing more accurate prediction models to reduce health inequalities.
Hanneke Takkenberg
Prof. dr. Hanneke Takkenberg is Executive Director of Erasmus Centre for Women and Organisations (ECWO) at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) and Co-Director of Netherlands Women’s Health Research & Innovation Center at Erasmus MC, which she co-founded in March 2025.
Since 2012, she has been Professor of Clinical Decision Making in Cardio-Thoracic Interventions at Erasmus MC where her current research focuses on prognosis and clinical and shared decision making in cardiovascular interventions, with special attention to male-female differences.
Prof. Takkenberg’s awards include the 2018 Els Borst award and the 2019 Caty Asscher award for her efforts to achieve gender diversity in the Erasmus MC and Erasmus University Rotterdam. In 2021 she was awarded Female Academics Moving toward Equity’s (FAME) Athena Award for EUR staff members who have made an exceptional effort to promote female talent. At ECWO, her work includes being part of the European Union-supported Stroomversnelling, a project focused on women's economic empowerment by guiding them to sustainable jobs in the STEM sectors.
