Fenway to publish medical textbook on LGBT health

Fenway Community Health and the American College of Physicians will publish next month a medical textbook, The Fenway Guide to LGBT Health, focusing on the specific health issues faced by LGBT patients. Fenway is billing the book as the first LGBT-focused textbook in American medical publishing. Dr. Harvey Makadon, one of the editors of the textbook and director of training and education at the Fenway Institute, said the goal of the book is to spread knowledge about LGBT health to practitioners beyond those who specialize in treating LGBT patients.

"The textbook was written to appeal in the broadest possible sense to all health care providers, clinicians in practice, medical students, and really is an attempt to get education about LGBT patients beyond just LGBT physicians," said Makadon.

The book contains sections focusing on health promotion and disease prevention, understanding LGBT populations, transgender and intersex health issues, the LGBT lifespan from coming out to old age, and legal issues affecting LGBT health such as health care proxies to allow people to make medical decisions for their partners. Makadon said Fenway hopes to develop an online continuing education resource to complement the book.

Later this month Makadon and the other editors of the book will present a workshop at the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association annual conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico on how to integrate LGBT issues into training for health care providers.

"The purpose of our workshop is to try to follow up on the book and see how people are using LGBT teaching materials in different settings," said Makadon.