SGIM24 Highlights: Generalists as Advocates for Gender-Affirming Care

This is a recorded session from the SGIM 2024 Annual Meeting in Boston.

This symposium provides a broad overview of the clinical and sociopolitical context in which gender-affirming care is presently occurring, as well as delineates clear opportunities for general internists to use their professional skills and backgrounds to advance and protect this evidence-based clinical care. Speakers will define gender-affirming care, discuss its scope, provide pertinent updates to the evidence base supporting its use, and discuss an overview of the current legal and political threats to this care, highlighting local examples affecting SGIM member institutions.

Presenters will present advocacy as a core professional value for physicians and discuss the diversity of advocacy approaches that might be utilized to advance gender-affirming care, emphasizing that advocacy can take many forms (advocacy on behalf of individual patients, interpersonal conversation, interinstitutional advocacy, research as advocacy, government/legislative work, persuasive communication, op-eds, social media, and more) that align with a diversity of skill sets, career types, and personal backgrounds.

Presenters review the importance of relationships at multiple levels – with patients, with our home institutions, and, importantly, with regional and national partners through SGIM and other collaborating organizations – and discuss how these relationships can provide the basis for effective advocacy to protect gender-affirming care and further LGBTQ+ rights. We will provide examples of advocacy approaches at the clinic, institutional, and national levels to support and protect gender-affirming care.

1. Describe the current landscape around gender-affirming care, including clinical and sociopolitical context
2. Conceptualize advocacy as a fundamental professional value for physicians
3. Highlight a diversity of advocacy approaches that can facilitate access to and preservation of gender-affirming care services
4. Identify the importance of relationships at multiple levels (with patients, institutional colleagues, regional and national collaborators) to devise more effective approaches and to involve more voices in much-needed advocacy for gender-affirming care

To receive CME and MOC credit, you must (1) watch the entire presentation, (2) complete the brief MOC Assessment survey, and then (3) click the Certificate item to claim your certificate (print/save for your records).