Embedding concepts of sex and gender health differences into medical curricula.

Sex, a biological variable, and gender, a cultural variable, define the individual and affect all aspects of disease prevention, development, diagnosis, progression, and treatment. Sex and gender are essential elements of individualized medicine. However, medical education rarely considers such topics beyond the physiology of reproduction. To reduce health care disparities and to provide optimal, cost-effective medical care for individuals, concepts of sex and gender health need to become embedded into education and training of health professionals. In September 2012, Mayo Clinic hosted a 2-day workshop bringing together leading experts from 13 U.S. schools of medicine and schools of public health, Health Resources and Services Administration Office of Women's Health (HRSA OWH), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH), and the Canadian Institute of Health and Gender. The purpose of this workshop was to articulate the need to integrate sex- and gender-based content into medical education and training, to identify gaps in current medical curricula, to consider strategies to embed concepts of sex and gender health into health professional curricula, and to identify existing resources to facilitate and implement change. This report summarizes these proceedings, recommendations, and action items from the workshop.

Outdoor brothel culture: the un/making of a transsexual stroll in Vancouver's West End, 1975­1984.

In the mid-1970s, following a series of police raids on prostitution inside downtown nightclubs, a community of approximately 200 sex workers moved into Vancouver's West End neighborhood, where a small stroll had operated since the early 1970s. This paper examines the contributions made by three male-to-female (MTF) transsexuals of color to the culture of on-street prostitution in the West End. The trans women's stories address themes of fashion, working conditions, money, community formation, violence, and resistance to well-organized anti-prostitution forces. These recollections enable me to bridge and enrich trans history and prostitution history ­ two fields of inquiry that have under-represented the participation of trans women in the sex industry across the urban West. Acutely familiar with the hazards inherent in a criminalized, stigmatized trade, trans sex workers in the West End manufactured efficacious strategies of harm reduction, income generation, safety planning, and community building. Eschewing the label of "victim", they leveraged their physical size and style, charisma, contempt towards pimps, earning capacity, and seniority as the first workers on the stroll to assume leadership within the broader constituency of "hookers on Davie Street". I discover that their short-lived outdoor brothel culture offered only a temporary bulwark against the inevitability of eviction via legal injunction in July 1984, and the subsequent rise in lethal violence against all prostitutes in Vancouver, including MTF transsexuals.

Pharmacy course on women's and men's health.

OBJECTIVE: To design and implement an integrated course dedicated to women's and men's health. DESIGN: A women's and men's health module that integrated the basic and clinical sciences was developed and implemented as part of the core undergraduate pharmacy curriculum. Instruction included classroom lectures, large- and small-group case discussion, self-directed learning assignments, and case-based simulations with standardized patients, all of which focused on conditions impacting women's and men's health. ASSESSMENT: Assessment of student learning included multiple-choice and written examinations using case vignettes when possible, evaluation of documentation of patient care process with standardized patient interactions, and group case assignments. Students appreciated the scope of topics, the active-learning opportunities, and use of simulated patients, as well as teaching by experts in the area. CONCLUSION: A mandatory course in women's and men's health was well received by students and ensured that these important issues were addressed in the undergraduate pharmacy curriculum.