PROF. ALEXANDRA KAUTZKY-WILLER

Head of the Gender Medicine Unit and the University Course of Gender Medicine Medical University of Vienna

 

From 1988 to 1997 Alexandra Kautzky-Willer worked as  research assistant Medical University Clinic and University of Vienna. In 1997, she habilitated at the Medical Faculty of the University of Vienna with a thesis on the "Role of secretion of insulin and amylin as well as hepatic insulin extraction in insulin resistance" and was appointed university lecturer for internal medicine.

From 2003 to 2005, she was the first secretary in both the Austrian and Central European Diabetes Societies. Through her commitment to the promotion and promotion of gender medicine, she became a member of the scientific advisory board of the newly founded Austrian Society for Gender-Specific Medicine in 2007 and has been a board member since 2009.

In 2010, Prof. Alexandra Kautzky-Willer became the first head of Gender Medicine at the Medical University of Vienna. She founded the Gender Medicine Unit and the first post-grad University course of Gender Medicine in Europe. In 2012, she was elected Associate Member to the Board of the International Society of Gender Medicine (Isogem).

When we talk about personalized medicine today, the patient’s sex and /or gender is always involved. Gender medicine on the one hand deals with commonalities of men and women. On the other hand, it considers differences – in biological functions as well as in behavior – which may affect the diagnose, course and treatment of diseases or disfunctions.

This approach worked as a door opener since it led to more awareness and thus pathed the route to individualized medicine and health care in general. The research activities in this field have been intensified and the developments have been accelerated – going alongside with progresses in data science e.g. analyzing of big data or measuring and monitoring personal indicators.

 


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