On November 21st, 2023 Amsterdam Public Health hosted her 7th Annual Meeting, themed 'Diversity, Equity and Inclusion' (DEI) in both the academic working environment and in research practice. More than 300 researchers visited the conference held in the cozy ‘theater De Meervaart in Amsterdam.

Plenary morning session

The plenary morning session was kicked-off by Aminata Cairo. In the first five minutes she warmed the audience up by singing a Surinamese song together. In her talk, she looked at the world of diversity and inclusion through the lens of storytelling and invited the audience to embrace the concept of understanding stories as a means to explore our world and make changes where necessary. She gave us a lot food for thought. Next, APH director Prof. Martine de Bruijne welcomed everyone and introduced the host Mariëtte Hoogsteder, chair of the APH Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) committee. Mariëtte, together with DEI committee member Mai Chin A Paw, provided a short introduction about the vision of the DEI committee and their plans for the upcoming period. Different poll questions were asked to the audience, which were answered via their mobile phones.

Aminata Cairo Hermen van de Waal
Aminata Cairo

Keynotes

APH invited three keynote speakers on the theme of DEI. Dr. Petra Verdonk, APH researcher and associate professor at the Department of Ethics, Law & Medical Humanities at Amsterdam UMC, spoke about diversity issues in health care and medical education from an intersectionality perspective. Subsequently, Dr. Hafez Ismaili M'hamdi, assistant professor at the Department of Medical Ethics, Philosophy and History of Medicine at Erasmus MC, held a keynote on equality and recognition as important aspects for inclusivity. Finally, Prof. Hinda Haned, professor by special appointment of Data Science at the University of Amsterdam and co-director of the Civic AI Lab, lectured about responsible AI and stated that a set of best practices, guidelines, and tools are needed to ensure AI-driven systems are trustworthy, safe, and respectful to human rights and dignity.

Diversity game room

During lunch, attendees had the opportunity to play the game ‘The Last Straw!’, a board game on the social determinants of health. During the board game players were taken through the life cycle and encounter macro and micro issues that impact each character’s health and longevity, depending on a character profile that includes gender, socio-economic status and ethnicity. More than five game tables were filled with enthusiastic players, and different interesting situations were discussed. If you are interested to play this game with you colleagues or research group? Please contact us.

Parallel theme sessions

The afternoon parallel thematic sessions were hosted by the APH research programs. A recap of these sessions can be found on the APH Annual Meeting 2023 parallel theme sessions page.

APH Poster presentations and award winners

68 junior APH researchers presented their posters. A jury, existing of program board members or representatives of the research programs, scored the 14 pre-selected posters and a top 3 was chosen. The award came with money prizes in vouchers of resp. €500,-, €300,- and €200,-.

APH Poster Award winners 2023 Hermen van de Waal
APH Poster Award winners 2023

Winner: Jeanet Karchoud - Long-term PTSD prevalence and the adverse psychological, function and economic consequences: a 12-15 year follow-up in adults with traumatic injury

1st Runner-up: Hafize Demirci - Watching a movie or listening to music is effective in managing perioperative anxiety and pain: a randomized controlled trail

2nd Runner-up: Soukaina el Jaouhari - Aging in place care preferences of persons living with dementia with a migration background and their informal caregivers: a qualitative interview study.

APH DEI Booster award winners

APH awarded 6 APH DEI Booster Grants with a value of max. € 5.000,-, to encourage educational projects, scholarly research, creative endeavors, and professional activities that promote APH's and its DEI committee’s goals on promoting diversity, equity and inclusion in our research, the academic work environment and beyond. In a festive award ceremony, APH vice directors Dionne Kringos and Frank van Leth selected the lucky winners by random selection.

APH Booster Award winners 2023 Hermen van de Waal
APH Booster Award winners 2023

List of the 6 winners

Lisanne Kouwenberg - Patient-inclusivity in healthcare sustainability research

Tessa Bergman - Information meetings about end-of-life care for Turkish and Moroccan older people

Corine Oldhoff-Nuijsink - Pilot research panel with vulnerable citizens to promote digital health research

Judith Mollet - A fair compensation for study participation, to enhance inclusivity and diversity of our research

Yasaman Vali - Enhancing equity in diagnostic testing: a protocol for inclusive healthcare in hepatology

Sagar Nagaraj Simha - Research stay: developing safe, fair and inclusive AI for decision making in ICUs across the world

Closing

The APH Annual Meeting 2023 closed this interesting and fun day with a spectacular performance, performed by dancer and inspirational speaker Redo. Redo shared his remarkable life-story about growing up with a physical challenge and his belief that with the right attitude and mindset everything is possible, as long as you avoid making excuses. With his slogan ‘No excuses, No limits’ and his performance, the audience was really impressed and inspired.

Closing act Redo Hermen van de Waal
Closing act Redo

Afterwards, this great day ended with pleasant drinks and networking. Special thanks to all speakers, poster presenters, the organization, and all the attendees of this year’s Annual Meeting. We welcome you back next year!

A cheerful afterparty Hermen van de Waal
A cheerful afterparty

Aftermovie

Watch the video to get an idea of the day and the atmosphere!

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