Advancing Sex- and Gender-Informed Approaches to Health in an Academic Medical Center

Abstract

Social science and basic and clinical research continue to demonstrate the powerful impact of sex and gender on health and disease across all organ systems and throughout the lifespan (Legato, Johnson, & Manson, 2016; Schiebinger & Stefanick, 2016). Gender and sex also influence responses to treatment, care provision, and use (Legato et al., 2016). Gender and sex should be central components of the growing precision medicine movement. However, gender and sex remain inadequately considered in clinical care, medical research, and medical education and training. Further, strategies to promote consideration of sex and gender in the activities of academic medical centers (AMCs) are not well-described. Numerous AMCs have distinct women's health centers and initiatives that lead important efforts in women's health care, research, and teaching. Given the historic underrepresentation of women in basic and clinical research studies, critical clinical and public health issues specific to women, and the value of distinct approaches to women's health, we feel that there remains value

Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of an Intensive Course on Issues in Women's Health and Gender-Based Medicine

“… 56 , 57 In other instances, centers for “women's health” such as the Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women's Health at the Brigham's and Women's Hospital have served as bridges that bring sex- and gender-informed medicine into the undergraduate medical curricula. 58 Other strategies employed by institutions include lecture series centered on SGBM themes offered throughout the academic year and open to medical students as well as to trainees from other health professions such as nursing and pharmacy. 59 However, due to the diverse and nascent nature of SGBM education, a clear picture of the effectiveness of these educational strategies is still evolving.…”

Sex/gender differences in brain function and structure in alcohol use: A narrative review of neuroimaging findings over the last 10 years

“…Differences between women and men can be identified as sociocultural (gender; Darnall & Suarez, 2009) and biological (sex; Clayton, 2018;Cornelison & Clayton, 2017;National Institutes of Health, 2019). For the purpose of the present narrative review we will use sex/gender (SG) to acknowledge that findings may be driven by both sociocultural and biological factors (Pace et al, 2018;Streed & Makadon, 2017). It is known that SG differences exist on multiple levels, including neurobiology, neurochemistry, and connectivity (Choleris, Galea, Sohrabji, & Frick, 2018;Cosgrove, Mazure, & Staley, 2007;Lind et al, 2017), with relevance for understanding SG differences in the neural mechanisms underlying addiction (Peltier et al, 2019;Sharrett-Field, Butler, Reynolds, Berry, & Prendergast, 2013); yet, even modern neuroimaging studies on addiction often do not account for SG in their analyses.…”