WEDNESDAY, June 7 (HealthDay News) -- The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Office of Women's Health and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health have launched a new online course that is aimed at clinicians and highlights how illness and health outcomes differ between males and females.
The six self-paced lessons also cover the policy, medical research and health care implications of these differences. It contains definitions of sex and gender; U.S. guidelines and regulations; and scientific content such as cell physiology, developmental biology, pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics and genomics.
The course is aimed at researchers, clinicians, professionals in academia and students and will be free to the public. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion of the course and will be able to study for the second module on specific conditions and organ systems that is currently in development.
"Understanding the potential contribution of sex and gender factors in health and disease and in morbidity and mortality is critical to the public health and important for the design of research studies and their clinical implications," said Vivian Pinn, M.D., director of the NIH Office of Research on Women's Health, in a statement.
More Information -- FDA
