Inclusivity needed in Medical Information Systems

Outdated and inflexible medical information systems are harmful to transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people, according to a literature review published in the Journal of Medical Radiation Sciences (JMRS) this week. It found patient record options available to medical clinics and hospitals frequently merge sex and gender as a single, binary concept.

Non-inclusive practices like these threaten to disengage TGD people from the healthcare system. A recent Australian study found 41.3% of TGD people have avoided seeking emergency care when they needed it, largely due to fear of transphobic harassment.^[1]

Most studies analysed in the JMRS literature review propose recommendations to make medical information systems more inclusive. However, researchers made these recommendations without consulting TGD people. There was no evidence to suggest whether the recommendations improved TGD patient satisfaction and health outcomes.

Carolyn Heyes, President of the Australian Society of Medical Imaging and Radiation Therapy (ASMIRT) says more meaningful engagement with the TGD community is needed to ensure TGD people feel safe when seeking health care.

“First and foremost, transgender and gender diverse people must be consulted on information system improvements that affect them.”

“Care should be about the patient. Making patient information systems inclusive for transgender and gender diverse people is part of treating patients with dignity and respect.”

The review gave specific attention to patient information systems in radiology and recommended the following improvements to patient data collection:

• Systems need to be able to accurately record each patient’s used name (which might be different to their legal name) and pronouns.
• Systems should record both current gender and assigned sex at birth for each patient to discriminate between the concepts of gender and sex.
• Systems should use current and appropriate terminology to avoid discrimination and support inclusivity.

The review was led by Professor Zhonghua Sun of Curtin University, Perth and is available online here.

[1] Kerr, L., Fisher, C.M., Jones, T. 2019. TRANScending Discrimination in Health & Cancer Care: A Study of Trans & Gender Diverse Australians, (ARCSHS Monograph Series No. 117), Bundoora: Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health & Society, La Trobe University, https://www.latrobe.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/1065866/TRANScending-Discrimination-in-Health-and-Cancer-Care.pdf

Media Enquiries

Simone Costa
simone.costa@asmirt.org
0421 046 102