23 September 2026: From Innovation to Cross-Cutting Topic
How can innovations for women's health actually be brought from research and development into care, while at the same time anchoring women's health as a relevant cross-cutting topic in medicine, politics and society?
This question was addressed at the event “FemHealthTech meets Politics and Care” in the North Rhine-Westphalia State Parliament in Düsseldorf. The focus was not only on presenting innovative solutions, but above all on dialogue between the stakeholders who decide how innovations are created, assessed, funded, implemented and made effective in care.
The format was co-developed by Ute Wenning together with the North Rhine-Westphalia state government. It brings together perspectives from science, innovation, politics, care and industry and creates space for direct exchange about opportunities, existing hurdles and concrete paths into application.
Women's health is long past being a topic that can be reduced to gynaecology. Sex and biological differences influence prevention, diagnosis, therapy and care in numerous medical fields. At the same time, innovative FemTech solutions show how great the potential is to make previously inadequately addressed needs visible and to develop new care solutions.
This is exactly where GenDiMedNet comes in.
As a network centre for gender-sensitive medicine, GenDiMedNet connects science, data, innovation and relevant stakeholders. The aim is not to leave knowledge and findings isolated in individual projects or disciplines, but to support networking and transfer systematically.
The event in the NRW State Parliament was an important place of exchange for this: innovative projects and their perspectives met representatives from politics and care. In joint conversation, it became visible which conditions must be created so that scientific findings and technological innovation can lead to lasting change in healthcare.
This also involves a new perspective on innovation: FemTech is not just a market for new products and services. FemHealthTech stands for the possibility of rethinking care, making previously overlooked needs visible and orienting medical innovation more strongly towards the actual needs of patients.
Dialogue between those involved is therefore an essential part of transfer. Participants were deliberately brought together with stakeholders from politics, care, science and industry. Guided conversations offered the opportunity to take in concrete experiences, needs and impulses and feed them into further health policy and scientific work.
From innovation to impact: this very connection is decisive if women's health is to be established permanently as a cross-cutting topic in medicine and healthcare.
GenDiMedNet sees itself as a connecting network: as a place for science communication, for exchange on gender data and gender-sensitive methods, for innovative product and care concepts and, above all, for transfer between the different worlds.
The event in the NRW State Parliament showed how important this connection is. Because innovation does not arise from technology alone. It arises where knowledge, data, perspectives, political frameworks and care practice are connected.
And that is exactly where the path from innovation to impact begins.