Lecture series on gender medicine at Innsbruck and Vienna medical universities: a teaching format in comparison

Introduction: Diversity-specific differences in health, illness and access to a health system have meanwhile been studied well. Educating medical students offers good leverage for broadening this knowledge within the medical professions. One approach is to use elective subjects. Project Description: The goal of this work is to compare the lecture series on Gender Medicine at the Medical Universities of Innsbruck and Vienna. Results: The cornerstones of both of these lecture series (topics that vary per semester, various lecturers speaking on a predefined cross-cutting topic) are similar. Various approaches prevail for the target groups and the lecturers as well as the question of credit for external students. Both universities tackle different medical disciplines each semester while concentrating on gender-specific questions. Teacher evaluation in Innsbruck as well as the feedback from the students in Vienna show that the lecture series have a positive impact on how the various diversity categories influence health and illness. Discussion: Ensuring that a particular leitmotif runs through the various lectures of a lecture series entails increased planning and organizational work. On the other hand, various medical disciplines and their perspectives can be presented in a lecture series. Conclusion: The lecture series are embedded in overall strategies at the two universities. Ensuring the sustainability of the integration of Gender Medicine as a cross-cutting topic in medical education is, however, only possible when combined with other efforts.