Harvard LGBTQ health center to address health disparities

An LGBTQ health center that hopes to be a game changer in the medical field will open at Harvard next week.

The LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence will advance health equity for LGBTQ communities by leveraging Harvard’s research and teaching capabilities, according to a press release.

It will be part of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute in collaboration with the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. 

Driving change

Brittany Charlton, an associate professor at Harvard Medical School and Harvard School of Public Health and an expert on reproductive health and cancer disparities impacting LGBTQ+ communities, will lead the center, which launches Tuesday.

“One in 10 people in the U.S. are LGBTQ, and this population will grow, as that number is twice as high among young people,” Charlton said in the release. “LGBTQ people experience widespread discrimination resulting in adverse physical and mental health. As leaders in public health and medicine, we have both the responsibility and the opportunity to drive real change.”

Several reports recently have spotlighted health problems the LGBTQ+ community faces due to various health disparities.

Bisexual women, lesbians die sooner than heterosexual women, report says

Fighting LGBTQ health disparities

Harvard is the latest institution to tackle LGBTQ health disparities and the lack of cultural competency in the medical field.

Nurse practitioners receive culturally competent training for LGBTQ health care thanks to the first fellowship of its kind in the nation. The Keith Haring Nurse Practitioner Postgraduate Fellowship, at the Callen-Lorde Community Health Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 2019, was started thanks to a $2.5 million donation from the Keith Haring LGBTQ+ Health Equity Endowment.

Conceding that LGBTQ patients encounter a desert of knowledgeable and culturally competent doctors, the American Medical Association’s philanthropic arm launched a national fellowship program in 2022. It trains physicians and promotes best practices on LGBTQ+ health while working to decrease LGBTQ+ health disparities.

Harvard LGBTQ+ health center

The Harvard LGBT+ health center will focus on several areas.

• Training, research, and dissemination to prepare the next generation of LGBTQ health leaders
• Expand the evidence base for LGBTQ+ health
• Inform policymakers and health care providers on effective strategies to improve LGBTQ health outcomes

“Public health is key to addressing inequities in LGBTQ health, but the field lacks infrastructure to prepare learners to have the necessary skills to protect the health of this marginalized population and to be leaders in the field,” Charlton said. “We have a clear vision of how our center will train the next generation of leaders not only to continue to document that inequities exist but also to design interventions and advocate for policy changes that tangibly improve the lives of LGBTQ people.”

Health center programming

The Harvard center has several initiatives planned for its first year.

• Awarding tuition scholarships to students focused on LGBTQ+ health
• Creating courses on LGBTQ health research methodology
• Providing pilot grants for LGBTQ health research
• Launching a fellowship program to train public health leaders in engaging the public on LGBTQ health issues.

Emily Oken, president of the Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute and a professor at Harvard Medical School, said the center can be a game changer.

“The Institute is distinctive for aligning researchers and resources to optimize health care policy, care delivery, and outcomes. The LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence stands poised to create the change needed to right the inequities that face this population,” Oken said.

“Dr. Charlton has assembled what you might call a ‘dream team’ of researchers across both institutions for this purpose.”