AMIIF Kicks Off Innovation Week 2022
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AMIIF Kicks Off Innovation Week 2022

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Miriam Bello By Miriam Bello | Senior Journalist and Industry Analyst - Tue, 04/26/2022 - 16:53

AMIIF’s Innovation Week 2022, inaugurated yesterday at Papalote Children's Museum, is recognizing the transformation of the health sector, including the contributions of the pharmaceutical industry. The event also aims to showcase the lessons learnt by the biopharmaceutical sector to improve collaboration with industry, society and governments.

At the inauguration event, Cristobal Thompson, Executive Director, AMIIF, and Rodrigo Ruiz, President, AMIIF, presented the first edition of the medical-scientific career recognition awards, which were given to María Elena Medina-Mora, Director, Faculty of Psychology at UNAM, Antonio Fraga Mouret, Surgeon, UNAM, David Kershenobich, General Director, Salvador Zubirán National Institute of Medical Sciences and Nutrition (INCMNSZ), and Manuel Ruiz de Chávez, Surgeon, UNAM.

AMIIF_Semana de la innnovacion_Reconoc

Role of Gender in Medical Attention for Noncommunicable Diseases

Today, Innovation Week held five panels and presentations from expert innovators in the industry. During today’s only in-person panel, “Economic and health impacts of noncommunicable diseases in women in Mexico,” researchers presented the primary results from AMIIF’s collaborative research project with the National Institute of Public Health (INSP) and Australia’s George Institute for Global Health.

“Gender disparities are expressed in health outcomes that go beyond biology. Structures of inequality and their replication greatly influence health outcomes,” explained Edson Serván, Researcher, INSP. Few have studied women’s experience within the healthcare sector and there are no gender-sensitive social policies, which can be problematic because gender interacts with the social, economic and biological determinants and other risk factors of non-communicable diseases (NCD), according to Serván.

During this study, researchers analyzed from a gender perspective how the burden of NCDs differs between Mexican women and men. The study also aimed to understand the political and health context in which the disadvantages experienced by women exist and formulate intervention recommendations to address them.

Researchers selected five NCD for the study: type III diabetes mellitus, five cancers and neoplasms for each gender (women: breast, cervix, liver, stomach and lung cancers; men: prostate, stomach, lung, liver and colon), chronic cardiovascular diseases, chronic respiratory diseases and chronic kidney disease.

Component 1 - State-of-the-Art

  1. Five digital libraries were searched: PubMed, Cochrane Library VHL/BVS, Elsevier Science Direct and HINARI.
    • From 5,265 results, only 7 percent of them respond to the objective, which is rarely approached from a comprehensive perspective.
    • Scarce evidence, particularly in the region, documenting the economic impacts of gender at the micro level.

Component 2 - Burdens of NCDs

  1. The burden of disease, measured in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and in mortality, shows clearly differentiated patterns between women and men.
  2. The increase in the burden of disease due to selected diseases in the adult population in Mexico was observed in both genders.
  3. The gender gap (rate ratio between women and men) has decreased in favor of women for all diseases except chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Component 3 - Political Analysis

  1. The initial mapping shows gender issues in Mexico, with the main results focused on violence, sexual and reproductive rights and inequality.
  2. When NCDs are included, articles from international organizations dominate.
  3. The problem of NCDs linked to gender is not visible in the gender and health agenda. The topic will be deepened with various stakeholders.

Component 4 - Financial protection

  1. In the past 20 years, the percentage of Mexican households headed by women grew to 50 percent. These households are socially more vulnerable than those headed by men.
  2. These households, and especially those with older adults, had higher health spending and greater risk of falling into catastrophic spending or impoverishment.
  3. In a context of accelerated aging, increased burden and amplification of inequities in health due to COVID-19, researchers urge to promote actions that strengthen social protection in health in Mexico. These actions should be aimed at preventing or mitigating financial risk from a gender economic perspective.

INSP’s Researcher Emmanuel Orozco said that to mobilize political action, inequalities must be made visible and the focus should shift from reproduction, insecurity and violence to labor, economy and health, among others.

“We must not leave it as an isolated study, but follow up so that roadmaps are developed and the actors get used to this differentiating approach, clearly understanding the needs of each genre,” explained Karla Baez, Director of Access to Innovation, AMIIF. She added that this is just the first of many studies that will follow these efforts.

The importance of the creation of information systems in Mexico was named as another need for this panorama to chance. “Current databases for these types of research are not precise; they are disaggregated and spread throughout the country, which inhibits improvement on intersectoral work and governance to give relevance to the gender perspective,” said Robyn Norton, Principal Director, George Institute.

Photo by:   AMIIF

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