I said yes: AAMC Advisory Committee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Sex Development

I don’t work in academic medicine and I am not in the medical education system. However, I am one of its products, and the people I serve are its beneficiaries. Sometimes with fantastic results, other times, in the case of people who are transgender or gender non-conforming, results that are underwhelming.

Advisory Committee on Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Sex Development (Axis)(@AAMCToday)

Axis serves as a nationally and internationally recognized resource to support the efforts of academic medicine and the biomedical sciences at the local, regional, national, and international levels to promote the health of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT), gender nonconforming (GNC), and/or born with differences in sex development (DSD).

Our profession needs to change to keep up with the world that it exists around it. In many of my interactions, it’s not keeping up. I’ve encountered this before, when I was in training (▶ The Embrace of Failure TED EYTAN and REGINA HOLLIDAY TEDxAlvaPark 2012 – YouTube). This time we don’t have to stand idly by.

Luckily I’m not the only person and not the only part of health care that recognizes this:

Implementing Curricular and Institutional Climate Changes to Improve Health Care for Individuals Who Are LGBT, Gender Nonconforming, or Born with DSD: A Resource for Medical Educators

I’m saying yes because of these priorities for the Axis Committee:

Improve the Ability of Practicing Physicians to Care for LGBT, GNC, and DSD Patient Populations

and

Forge Partnerships to Advance the Health of LGBT, GNC, and DSD Patient Populations

Where I work (@KPTotalHealth @KPShare), we do have expertise in these areas, my colleagues are changing the profession, and we want to share and learn with people across the biomedical sciences who are doing fantastic work also. And why shouldn’t we, it’s what our patients expect.

I think:

• Our learning coalition can expand
• We can understand the people we serve better using a human-centered design approach
• Our health care institutions, including our academic ones, can declare themselves as best places to work for LGBTQ people, through their benefits and other human capital policies
• Every patient in every health system can encounter care that’s open to diversity, instead of one that is based on the ability of a person to fit in

Just a few little things … and a ton of allies 🙂