Access to quality health care can be a struggle for LGBTQ+ patients. A new fund at UC aims to...

A new fellowship at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Medicine aims to help future doctors become experts in transgender and LGBTQ+ medicine.

The new Sawyer Pardo Fellowship Endowment Fund for LGBTQ+ Health will provide funding for expanded training at UC’s College of Medicine.

The program will train one expert fellow physician, and that doctor will in turn train 18 residents. After that fellow has completed their training, the goal is for them to take their skills to an institution or community that doesn’t have strong LGBTQ+ care, according to Dr. Sarah Pickle, a physician with UC Health and an associate professor of Family and Community Medicine at the UC College of Medicine.

Lack of training is a problem nationwide. Pickle pointed to "The Equal Curriculum," a book published in 2020. The book noted that 33% of medical schools have no LGBTQ+ curriculum, and those that did include LGBTQ+ health had an average of only five hours of instruction. In addition, only 12.9% of medical school students nationally pass competency tests related to LGBTQ+ care.