Affirming Care

There is increasing recognition of the need for health care providers to provide affirming care to persons who are LGBTQ ^1-3. On October 6, 2015, the U.S. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)1 and the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC)2 announced that they will require that all electronic health record (EHR) systems certified under the Meaningful Use incentive program have the capacity to collect sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) information from patients. The CMS final rule indicates that ‘‘CMS and ONC believe including SO/GI in the ‘demographics’ criteria represents a crucial step forward to improving care for LGBTQ communities.’’⁴ Yet the role of medical schools in ensuring students and residents are trained to provide affirming care continues to lag^5-7. While there has been an increasing call for health care professionals to provide culturally appropriate care for LGBTQ patients, the teaching of future primary care providers how to provide affirming care is largely lacking in medical school curriculum ^5-7.

Affirming Care Annotated Bibliography

Teaching Medical Students to Provide Affirming Care for LGBTQ Patients

Affirming Care Policy Brief 

Cultural Competence

Cultural Competence education for medical students

Improving Cultural competence to reduce health disparities 

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT)

The Case for a Transgender Curriculum in Medical Education

Affirmative and Responsible Health Care for People with Nonconforming gender identifies and expressions

Integrated and Gender-Affirming Transgender Clinical Care and Research

The future of PrEP among transgender women the critical role of gender affirmation in research and clinical practices

Source: Teaching Medical Students to Provide Affirming Care for LGBTQ Patients