Institute of Medicine Recommends Studying LGBT Health Needs

& That’s not an April Fool’s joke! Honestly, you’d expect it would be, but it’s not: the IOM released a report that in order to address LGBT health disparities, LGBT health issues need to be studied further.

Seems nutty, right, to find out what people need in order to provide it.

Tammy Baldwin will be introducing an Act (the Ending LGBT Health Disparities Act) based on the IOM’s findings.

Seven of the recommendations are as follows:

Recommendation 1.  NIH should implement a research agenda designed to advance knowledge and understanding of LGBT health.

Recommendation 2.  Data on sexual orientation and gender identity should be collected in federally funded surveys administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and in other relevant federally funded surveys.

Recommendation 3.  Data on sexual orientation and gender identity should be collected in electronic health records.

Recommendation 4.  NIH should support the development and standardization of sexual orientation and gender identity measures.

Recommendation 5.  NIH should support methodological research that relates to LGBT health.

Recommendation 6.  A comprehensive research training approach should be created to strengthen LGBT health research at NIH.

Recommendation 7.  NIH should encourage grant applicants to address explicitly the inclusion or exclusion of sexual and gender minorities in their
samples.