BOSTON, September 29, 2021—Fenway Health announces that Dr. Rachel L. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will deliver the keynote speech at its 7th annual Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health Conference. Dr. Levine, who holds the highest rank ever achieved by an openly transgender person in the field of health care as well as in the federal government, will deliver her keynote on Thursday, September 30 at 6 p.m.
The Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health Conference will take place online from Thursday, September 30 through Sunday, October 3, 2021. Registration for the conference is still open.
“The future for our community is brighter but we have not made progress unless we have made progress for all,” said Dr. Levine, Assistant Secretary for Health. “Together we must strongly advocate for the most underserved and marginalized in our community, including our trans youth and trans women of color.”
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Levine to our conference this year. She has been a visionary leader and tireless champion in support of health equity for all people, including transgender and gender diverse communities,” said Dr. Alex S. Keuroghlian, who directs the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center at The Fenway Institute and the Massachusetts General Hospital Psychiatry Gender Identity Program, and is one of the conference’s three co-directors. “We are honored that Dr. Levine is joining us and look forward to learning from her.”
The Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health Conference is offered as a national course accredited by Harvard Medical School. It is designed to train comprehensive health care teams including physicians, behavioral health care providers, physician assistants, nurses, and all healthcare staff in providing culturally responsive and confident gender-affirming health care, grounded in research evidence and best clinical practices. Sessions are led by expert faculty specialized in research and patient care with transgender and gender diverse communities.
In addition to speaker presentations, attendees will learn from panels of transgender and gender diverse community members and have the opportunity to engage in interactive case discussions that highlight medical and behavioral health approaches to gender-affirmative care, led by experienced clinicians specialized in gender-affirming care.
Conference topics will include:
· Gender Affirmative Health Care
· Unconscious and Implicit Bias
· Considerations for TGD Providers Caring for TGD Patients
· Gender-Affirming Hormone Therapy
· Behavioral Health Care
· Primary and Preventative Health Needs
· PrEP and HIV Prevention
· Gender-Affirming Surgeries
· Puberty Blockers and Hormone Therapy for Youth
· Trauma-Informed Care
· Fitness and Wellness for transgender and gender diverse people
· Transgender Legal Issues
· Providing Mental Health Assessments for Gender Affirming Surgery Referral Letters
· Collecting Gender Identity Data
· Engaging Leadership and Organizational Change
The Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health Conference was developed in 2015 in response to the high volume of queries from clinicians and health care staff seeking to learn about providing high-quality care for adults, adolescents, and children who are questioning their gender identity or who identify as transgender or gender-diverse. It has grown in successive years and the 2020 conference had 578 registrants from 46 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, the Philippines, Portugal, and Singapore.
The 2021 conference will have virtual poster presentations of clinically focused, evidence-based projects that bring new knowledge to the field and advance health care for transgender and gender diverse people.
Following Dr. Levine’s keynote address, conference attendees will be entertained by Johnny Wu, a world-renowned celebrity magician who has performed for the world’s biggest corporations including Google, Apple, Spotify, and Netflix as well as celebrities such as Jamie Foxx and Jessica Alba.
For more information about the Advancing Excellence in Transgender Health Conference, please visit the Fenway Health website here.