Academic coursework examines emerging challenges, research gaps, and innovation across women’s health.

As the WHx Program continues to advance women’s health through research, technology, and systems change, academic inquiry plays a quiet but essential role behind the scenes. This spring, that inquiry comes into focus through Frontiers in Women’s Health (WHx), a seminar-style course taught by Canan Dagdeviren, Associate Professor of Media Arts and Sciences and academic head of the WHx Program.

Rather than centering on lectures or traditional coursework, the class creates a space for conversation and reflection that closely aligns with the questions and priorities explored by WHx. Guest speakers working across science, medicine, policy, and technology share firsthand perspectives on the gaps, biases, and opportunities shaping women’s health today, offering students insight into how these challenges unfold in real-world contexts.

Across the semester, topics include reproductive health, hormone research, clinical trial equity, data gaps in medicine, innovation in FemTech, and the growing role of AI in precision care. Students engage with these themes through short written reflections, small-group discussions, and a final project—either written, creative, or exploratory—that allows them to synthesize ideas and respond to the course conversations.

By situating this course within the broader WHx ecosystem, the program reinforces a core belief: progress in women’s health depends not only on new technologies, but on expanding the questions we ask, the voices we elevate, and the systems we examine. Frontiers in Women’s Health (WHx) reflects how that work takes shape in an academic setting, informing and strengthening the mission of WHx beyond the classroom.​