The American Medical Women’s Association announces the re-launch of the Sex and Gender Health Collaborative (formerly known as the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative).
Over the past twenty years, much scientific evidence has shown unequivocally that women’s and men’s bodies differ at all levels, including at the cellular level. However, this evidence has not been integrated into medical or health professions’ education or clinical care. In order to improve health education and clinical practice for women and men, the Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative (SGWHC) has partnered with the American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA) to become a program under AMWA’s auspices with the support of the Laura W. Bush Institute for Women’s Health and will be renamed the Sex and Gender Health Collaborative (SGHC). These combined efforts and resources will enable the new entity, SGHC, to provide physicians, students, and other healthcare professionals with the knowledge and skills they need for personalized patient care.
The Sex and Gender Health Collaborative works to fill the gaps identified in the 2010 IOM Report on Women’s Health Research, which stated that while “over half of the U.S. population is female, gaps remain both in research areas and in the application of results to benefit women in general and across multiple population groups.”
Research has shown that differences in health and illness are due to both biological (sex) and social/cultural (gender) factors. Sex and gender variability go beyond obvious reproductive distinctions. Until recently, medical research and practice were largely based on the model of the 70kg white male. There is now a great deal of evidence about the relevance and centrality of sex and gender differences in health and illness. These differences must be recognized, and that knowledge must be integrated into all health professions education and applied in the clinical setting.
The new SGHC entity gives physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and all health professionals access to a unique centralized resource that will aid them in providing individualized care to their patients. It gives medical students, health professional trainees, and healthcare faculty access to an online collection of medical education curriculum products. The resources are available at www.amwa-doc.org/sghc. They will facilitate the integration of a culturally competent, sex and gender specific approach into all healthcare professionals’ education and training.
The SGHC is proud to collaborate with more than 18 medical institutions and professional organizations. A full list of collaborators can be found on the website.
We welcome institutions and organizations within medicine, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, and all health professions to become collaborators, expand the Sex and Gender resource base, raise awareness, and advance the adoption of sex and gender content into curricula and practice.
ABOUT AMWA
Founded in 1915, the American Medical Women’s Association functions at the local, nation, and international level to advance women in medicine and improve women’s health. AMWA achieves this by providing and developing leadership, advocacy, education, expertise, mentoring and strategic alliances. For more information, visit amwa-doc.org.
