image: LGBT Health, published bimonthly online with Open Access options and in print, brings together the LGBT research, health care, and advocacy communities to address current challenges and improve the health, well-being, and clinical outcomes of LGBT persons. Spanning a broad array of disciplines, the Journal publishes peer-reviewed original research, review articles, clinical reports, case studies, legal and policy perspectives, and much more. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the LGBT Health website.
Credit: ©Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers
New Rochelle, NY, July 5, 2016--The U.S. Veterans Health Administration (VHA), which is likely the largest provider of LGBT healthcare in the world, is implementing various system-wide changes aimed at improving LGBT care, including transgender e-consultations to aid interdisciplinary providers and the addition of a self-identified gender identity field to all veteran record systems. These actions and other planned VHA system changes are discussed in an Editorial published in LGBT Health, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on the LGBT Health website until August 5, 2016.
In the Editorial entitled "Transforming a System: Improving Patient-Centered Care for Sexual and Gender Minority Veterans," the directors of VHA's LGBT Program for Patient Care Services (Washington, DC), Michael Kauth, PhD and Jillian Shipherd, PhD, describe the expanded transgender e-consultation program. Interdisciplinary teams of providers that have undergone intensive training respond to clinical questions submitted by a VHA clinician through a patient's electronic health record. The authors also describe the upcoming placement of LGBT Veteran Care Coordinators at VHA facilities and a new national directive on LGB veteran healthcare that is in development.
"VHA's LGBT Program, directed by the authors, has truly transformed VHA into a leader in LGBT healthcare, as evidenced by the fact that 19% of all facilities designated as Leaders in LGBT Healthcare Equality by the Human Rights Campaign in 2016 are VHA facilities," says LGBT Health Editor-in-Chief William Byne, MD, PhD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, NY. "Other healthcare organizations might want to consider how to replicate this success."
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About the Journal
LGBT Health, published bimonthly online with Open Access options and in print, brings together the LGBT research, health care, and advocacy communities to address current challenges and improve the health, well-being, and clinical outcomes of LGBT persons. Spanning a broad array of disciplines, the Journal publishes peer-reviewed original research, review articles, clinical reports, case studies, legal and policy perspectives, and much more. Complete tables of content and a sample issue may be viewed on the LGBT Health website.
About the Publisher
Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers is a privately held, fully integrated media company known for establishing authoritative medical and biomedical peer-reviewed journals, including Transgender Health, AIDS Patient Care and STDs, AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses, Journal of Women's Health, and Population Health Management. Its biotechnology trade magazine, GEN (Genetic Engineering & Biotechnology News), was the first in its field and is today the industry's most widely read publication worldwide. A complete list of the firm's more than 80 journals, newsmagazines, and books is available on the Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers website.
Journal
LGBT Health