Exciting news from Data for Health! We’re thrilled to share the launch of the Gender Equity Unit’s first Coursera course, “Gender Foundations in Health Data.”

In an ever-evolving landscape of global public health, it is imperative to recognize the profound impact of gender on health data, policy, and practice. Our course is designed to raise awareness of the essential need for a gender-sensitive approach in public health data management and analysis. “Gender Foundations in Health Data” will equip learners with practical skills and insights into integrating a gender perspective into data collection, analysis, and utilization.

“Gender Foundations in Health Data” equips learners with practical skills and insights to seamlessly integrate a gender perspective into data collection, analysis, and utilization. The course instructors, Michelle R. Kaufman, PhD, and Tahilin Sanchez Karver, PhD, MPH, are excited to guide you through this new learning opportunity.

We understand the importance of accessibility, and to that end, all course videos have been translated into multiple languages through closed captioning.

For those seeking a certificate of completion, Coursera offers this option for a fee of US$49. However, we are committed to making this knowledge accessible to all, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Therefore, we encourage learners from LMICs to apply for a discount of up to 75% on the certificate cost directly through Coursera.

Data for Health partners made important contributions to the course, so a tremendous thank you to Vital Strategies, CDC Foundation, World Health Organization, Global Health Advocacy Incubator, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, and UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Those D4H partners who want to receive a free course certificate of completion from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health can send an email to Marcela Banegas, Research Assistant at the Gender Equity Unit, at mbanega1@jh.edu for access.

Enroll today, and together we can make a significant impact on public health data practices worldwide. To learn more and to get started, please visit our course page: Gender Foundations in Health Data.

Three scholars from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have called for clearer distinctions between sex and gender in health data in an article published in the Bulletin of the World Health Organization (WHO) on October 1, 2023.

“Effectively tracking progress on initiatives focused on gender equity requires clear differentiation between the terms sex and gender. Sex usually refers to a person’s biological characteristics, whereas gender refers to socially constructed roles and norms,” the WHO article states. “Their fundamental distinctions, however, have implications for the conduct of research and the design of interventions targeting sex- and gender-based health disparities.”

The article, entitled “Differentiating sex and gender in health research to achieve gender equity,” calls for actions including using a “two-step data collection process to determine both sex and gender of individuals, and encouraging recognition of intersex, third gender, transgender and gender nonbinary people… With clearer distinctions between these foundational terms and how they are used in health data, we can achieve more accurate research findings, better-tailored interventions and better progress towards gender equity.”

The article was written by three members of the Gender Equity Unit at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Principal Investigator Michelle R. Kaufman, PhD; Assistant Scientist Tahilin Sanchez Karver, PhD, MPH; and Evan L. Eschliman, PhD, currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at Columbia University.

Read More  

As part of Bloomberg Philanthropies’ commitment to its Data for Health Initiative, the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has received $3.6 million in renewed funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies to expand gender equity work.

Read More  

A new website from the Data for Health Initiative’s Gender Equity Unit connects global health communities with free resources to incorporate gender equity in health data.

Read More  

Dr. Tahilin Sanchez Karver, assistant scientist, Department of Health, Behavior and Society, Gender Equity Unit, received a Delta grant for, “Leveling the Playing Field: Development and Evaluation of an Open Access, Online Course on Gender Equity in Health Data”.

Read More  

Bloomberg Philanthropies granted researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health an award to expand their current scope of work within the Data for Health (D4H) Initiative.

Read More  

This presentation by Dr. Michelle Kaufman and Kate Wright summarizes the activities of the Gender Equity Unit, provides case studies of capacity building to improve gender data gaps, and briefly summarize research studies with countries wanting to ensure their health data is moving towards integrating gender equity.

Read More