70% of breast radiologists surveyed either unsure about or had zero LGBTQ competency training
About 70% of radiologists surveyed said they are either are unsure about or had no LGBTQ care competency training, according to new data published Saturday.
Depending on the part of the country, as few as 38% of breast imagers follow screening guidelines for transgender women, while 65% did not provide any for trans men. The findings are part of a survey of 400 physicians across the U.S. and Canada, shared in JACR.
Emily Sonnenblick, MD, and co-authors believes there is work to be done to address this issue, with data a key ingredient. Yet, only about 13% of respondents said they record birth-assigned sex distinct from gender identity for their patients using a precise, two-step method.
“In the practice of breast imaging, there is a substantial need to record nonbinary gender information,” Sonnenblick, with the New York-based Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai’s radiology department, and co-authors wrote Dec. 10. “Breast radiologists differ in their practice and knowledge regarding screening of transgender women and men but expressed interest in contributing data to facilitate longitudinal databases needed to inform cancer screening guidelines,” they added.
Researchers administered their 19-question email survey to members of the Society of Breast Imaging in fall 2020, logging an 18% response rate. Sonnenblick and colleagues note that more than 1 million individuals in the U.S. identify as transgender. But there is limited data about breast health related to this population, underlining the need for surveys such as this one. About 81% of radiologists reached also said they believe the evidence base for screening trans patients is incomplete.
Researchers also found a strong correlation between LGBTQ competency training and academic practice, with high levels also found among Veterans Affairs medical centers. This correlation persisted across all geographic areas, and the Northeast was the only area that delivered competency training to the majority of rads polled (58%).
Sonnenblick and her co-investigators found it “striking” that most do not uniformly ascertain data to classify nonbinary gender identity. This comes a decade after the Institute of Medicine recommended that providers routinely collect information on sexual orientation and gender identity.
“Allowing the patient to identify precise gender and then recording such data in the [electronic medical record] is critical to patient-centered healthcare as well as evidence-based research,” the authors argued. “Answering questions about sexual orientation and gender identity is acceptable to transgender patients in the clinical setting and is therefore feasible.”
You can read much more about the survey’s findings in the Journal of the American College of Radiology here.
Marty Stempniak has covered healthcare since 2012, with his byline appearing in the American Hospital Association's member magazine, Modern Healthcare and McKnight's. Prior to that, he wrote about village government and local business for his hometown newspaper in Oak Park, Illinois. He won a Peter Lisagor and Gold EXCEL awards in 2017 for his coverage of the opioid epidemic.