Conferences archive > 2015 > SPEAKERS & ABSTRACTS

Giovannella Baggio


Giovannella Baggio obtained her medical degree in 1972, University of Padua (Italy), specialized in Endocrinology (1974) and Internal Medicine (1979).  
Postdoctoral training: 1975-1976 Research Fellow, Lipid Clinic, Lufolf Krehl Klinik, University of Heidelberg, Germany, and  1977-1980 Research Associate, Atherosclerosis Centre, University of Padua.
Clinical Professional Appointment: 
- 1980-1987 Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine, University of Padua; 
- 1987-1991 Associate Professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology, University of Pavia;
- 1991-1995 Associate Professor of Geriatrics and Gerontology, University of Padua; 
- 1995-1999 Full Professor of Medicine, Chair of Geriatrics and Gerontology, University of Sassari;
- 1999-present Director of the Internal Medicine Unit of the University Hospital of Padua;
- 2013-present Chair of Gender Medicine, Molecular Medicine Department, University of Padua – Italy;

She is the Founder and President of the Italian Research Centre for Gender Health and Medicine. 
She is author of 250 peer referee publications and co-Editor of 6 books and monographies

Gender-specific Medicine: a Task for the Third Millennium

Gender-specific Medicine is a new dimension of  Medicine which concentrates the attention on the influence of sex and gender  on patho-physiology, clinical aspects, therapy and prevention of diseases.  In the last 40 years many scientific studies  have described diseases focusing primarily and sometime exclusively on clinical records of just one sex! Thus Gender-specific Medicine is the study that distinguishes the normal functioning and the experience of diseases in men and women. 
 Gender-specific Medicine remains still a neglected dimension of Medicine. It is the correct approach in terms of diagnostic procedures, prevention, drug therapy that have to be followed for diseases affecting men and women but not related to reproductive functions. 
Clamorous examples are: Cardiovascular Diseases have been studied mainly in males while Myocardial Infarction is the leading cause of death in women; Cancers and Hematological Diseases are treated without any sex/gender differences; Cognitive Impairment and Dementia outnumber dramatically in women; Osteoarthritis is  listed as strong disabling condition in a large number of women; organs Transplants are not well enough considered for the sex-matching. Few diseases, such as Osteoporosis and Depression,  have been studied prevalently in women. 
In this fantastic era when science has really opened a new future to life with outstanding new discoveries, Gender-Specific Medicine remains a crucial gap in the scientific knowledge at the global level! 
Thus Gender-specific medicine rises as a new emergency at the beginning of this Third Millennium. Women do live longer on average 5 years than men, but living longer have gained even more in terms of disability and diseases. 
 Inter/multidisciplinary scientific studies, new financial resources as well as population and medical awareness  are mandatory on this topic.

What are major boosts to gender medicine in recent decades?
The Pekin World Conference on Women in 1995, has developed a platform in which for the first time women's health and discrimination on medical research has been discussed. Since then, the WHO from the concept of  "Women in Development" shifted to "Gender and Development" , introduced the Gender Medicine into the ''Equity Act" and founded the "Department of Gender and Women's Health" and  the "Gender Meanstreaming".
The situation in Italy in the last decades has made steps forward in terms of attention to women's health, but only in the last 15 years Gender Medicine was introduced. In 2012 the Parliament unanimously passed a resolution on Gender Medicine and in 2013 were filed two proposed Law on Gender Medicine, not yet voted. The National Research Center for Gender  Health and Medicine together with the  Giovanni Lorenzini Foundation as well as GISeG (Gruppo Italiano Salute e Genere ) have organized numerous Congresses and Courses on Gender-specific Medicine. Moreover many Italian Regions have inserted Gender Medicine in the Political Plan Program for the Health Care. 
It is necessary now to create a network among all political institutions and scientific  societies interested and working on this topic in order to found  a Medicine (in a translational dimension) on the basis of gender differences.

torna top