Sex and Gender in Medical Education: The Next Chapter

Figure 14.1

From the bench to the bedside: translational education

Points of Engagement: Creating Culture Change

Altering the culture of a one-sex model within medicine will require engagement on many fronts. Figure 14.2 represents proposed points of engagement required to create real and lasting change. As stated in the Introduction, there is a growing momentum to ensure sex balance in research. This momentum has been increasing over the past two decades, as evidenced by the development of sex- and gender-based medicine (SGBM) professional organizations, textbooks, and online resources (Table 14.1). For example, in the United States, a group of academic and nonprofit organizations, researchers, clinicians, and educators have come together to create the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative (www.sgwhc.org). This group’s mission is to ensure integration of sex and gender knowledge into medical education to improve health care for all. Such programs will gradually increase the visibility of sex and gender topics in medicine and facilitate the integration of these topics into medical school and continuing medical education curricula.

Figure 14.2

Defining sex and gender health

Table 14.1 Sex- and Gender-Based Medicine Resources

Web Based Continuing Medicine Education Courses

NIH ORWH The Science of Sex and Gender in Health. Courses 1–3. http://sexandgendercourse.od.nih.gov/
TTUHSC Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health. Y Does X Make A Difference? www.laurabushinstitute.org

Web Based Curriculum Products

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center Sex and Gender-Based Medicine. www.texastechsgbm.org

Evidence Based Scientific Publication Database and Search Engine Tools

GenderMed Database is a systematic collection of scientific publications in the medical field analyzing sex and gender differences. http://gendermeddb.charite.de/protected.php?site=home&;lang=eng
SGBM PubMed Search Engine Tool www.texastechsgbm.org

Professional Membership Organizations

Organization for the Study of Sex Differences. www.ossdweb.org

Textbooks

Legato M. Principles of Gender-Specific Medicine. Elsevier. 2011. 2nd ed.
Oertelt-Prigione, Regitz-Zagrosek. Clinical Aspects of Gender Specific Medicine. Springer. 2012.
Schenk-Gustafsson K, DeCola PR, Pfaff SW, Plsetsky DS. Handbook of Clinical Gender Medicine. Karger. 2012.
Regitz-Zagrosek V. Sex and Gender Differences in Pharmacology. Springer. 2012.

Web Based Research and Educational Resources

Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative. www.sgwhc.org
Stanford University’s Gendered Innovations. http://genderedinnovations.stanford.edu/
Canadian Institute of Gender Health. What a Difference Sex and Gender Make. www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/44082.html

Gender and Medication Effects

Karolinska Instituet. www.genderedreactions.com

Translational Health Education

What is translational education? Before answering this question, let us review the definition of translational research from Merriam-Webster: “medical research that is concerned with facilitating the practical application of scientific discoveries to the development and implementation of new ways to prevent, diagnose, and treat disease, also called translational medicine.”³ We propose the following definition for translational health education: health care education that integrates the practical application of scientific discoveries to improve the health and well-being of patients through prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of disease. Coupling SGBM with translational health education ensures that practitioners first consider, and then apply, sex and gender evidence to health and disease.

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