Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health: An International Professional Development Conference on Affirming Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse People

Sarah Mitnick; Hilary Goldhammer; Julie Thompson; Jack Bruno; Mason Dunn; Sari L Reisner; Alex S Keuroghlian

doi:10.1177/23821205231191478

Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health: An International Professional Development Conference on Affirming Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse People

J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2023 Jul 31:10:License type: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (CC BY-NC 4.0). 23821205231191478. doi: 10.1177/23821205231191478. eCollection 2023 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Sarah Mitnick¹, Hilary Goldhammer¹, Julie Thompson², Jack Bruno¹, Mason Dunn¹, Sari L Reisner^{3

4

5

6}, Alex S Keuroghlian^{1

7

8}

Affiliations

¹ Division of Education and Training, The Fenway Institute, Fenway Health, Boston, MA, USA.
² Fenway Health, Boston, MA, USA.
³ The Fenway Institute, Fenway Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁴ Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Hypertension, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.
⁶ Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
⁷ Division of Public and Community Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA.
⁸ Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

Abstract

Objective: Increasing workforce capacity to provide knowledgeable, skilled, and affirming care for transgender and gender diverse people is critical to reduce health inequities; however, few clinicians receive sufficient training on this topic. This article describes Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health (AETH), an annual international conference that offers continuing professional development on evidence-based medical and behavioral healthcare for transgender and gender diverse people across the lifespan.

Methods: Registration data and post-conference evaluation data were descriptively analyzed to assess conference reach, participant satisfaction, and participant intentions to change practice.

Results: Between 2015 and 2022, AETH trained 2677 participants from all US states and 24 countries. Based on post-conference evaluations, 2017-2022, participant satisfaction was high (mean ≥4.4 on a 5-point scale) on all measures, including meeting learning objectives, quality of presentations, and relevance to practice. Participants reported intentions to: implement new information or skills (86.7%); create or revise protocols, policies, and/or procedures (63.2%); and seek additional information (64.2%). To increase equity, the conference waives fees for transgender and gender diverse participants and offers free online sessions. The conference also holds sessions specifically for transgender and gender diverse participants to promote opportunities for community-building, self-care, and professional networking.

Conclusion: The broad reach of AETH demonstrates a large demand for more continuing professional development on transgender and gender diverse healthcare. This conference has expanded the availability of training designed to increase and enhance clinical workforce capacity to meet the health needs of transgender and gender diverse communities in the US and across the world.

Keywords: continuing education; gender-affirming care; professional development; training; transgender and gender diverse.