Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #110555

Barbara Herbert, MD, Emergency Department, Lawrence General Hospital, 1 General St, Lawrence, MA 02137, 978-683-4000, blaherbert@aol.com

Transgender people's struggle for recognition and dignity is often linked with expanded access to pharmaceuticals, and medical/surgical care with few demands for community accountability for providers. Historically, feminists, anti-racist and HIV activists have interrogated care delivery practice to delineate structural barriers to full engagement of marginal populations. Community demands have redefined acceptable practice, quality of care and meaningful intervention by medical personnel. This presentation uses the analytic framework of historical struggles around unnecessary and unavailable surgical intervention, novel disease characterization and intervention, and clinical trial and off-label medication use, to explore the possibility of community interventions as a mechanism to improve care for vulnerable transgendered people. It raises questions about the role of the internet as an isolating or community building tool for better access and improved quality of medical care

Learning Objectives:

1.Recognize analytic tools used historically by marginal groups to demand accountabilty from medical systems and providers. 2.Identify similarities and differences in the contemporary struggle for improved access to care for transgender people.
• Identify new models for interrogating care available to transgender people.
• Articulate roles and responsabilities of progressive health care workers engaged in delivering care to transgender people.

Keywords: Gender, Community

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.