Sex and Gender Enriched Neurology

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The overarching goal of this R25 Program is to leverage our rich institutional environment to iteratively develop the materials and curricula necessary to train the first generation of neurologists how to systematically advance both neurological care and research by prioritizing sex and gender considerations. From neurodevelopment to neurodegeneration, sex and gender influence the risk and course of neurological diseases. It is essential that neurologists provide care that is informed by a patient's reproductive goals and experiences, hormonal transitions and treatments, and their gendered societal roles. However, we identified a significant national training gap in these critical topics at all levels of neurology education and related key knowledge gaps in the scientific literature that hinder the growth of this field. The SAGE (Sex- and Gender-Enriched) Neurology Program at UCSF is designed to galvanize and integrate emerging clinical, educational and research efforts to fill these important gaps through three key aims. These curricula and educational materials will initially target UCSF neurology residency trainees (15 annually for a total class of 45) and UCSF medical students (165 annually) during core and/or selective neurology clerkships, as well as clinical fellows (20 annually). The approach to curriculum development will be guided by the UCSF Center for Faculty Educators, using evidence- based principles to optimize motivation, experiential learning, collaborative learning, and retention in adult mixed- level learners. Our first objective (Aim 1) is to develop and implement a core best practices clinical curriculum that accelerates the translation of SAGE principles into neurology clinical practice using both a core didactic for all trainees, and a week-long selective for any interested trainee. Trainee participants' core clinical competency and self-efficacy in providing neurological care informed by a patient's sex and gender will be systematically evaluated. Our second objective (Aim 2) is to develop and implement a core research curriculum to train the next generation of clinician-scientists to conduct and interpret neuroscience research by leveraging SAGE principles, whether bench or bedside. We will develop and pilot a tool to apply a sex/gender lens to analyzing the design and interpretation of basic, translational and clinical studies. We will evaluate learners' competency at using this tool. Our third objective (Aim 3) is to promote active generation of new knowledge by pairing interested trainees with a faculty mentor to develop and lead a quarterly interprofessional mentored inquiry workshops designed to identify new areas of inquiry and create interprofessional research teams. Teams will then distil key points from each session into publications and novel curricular materials that serve as evaluative benchmarks of success. SAGE Neurology will transform the training of clinicians and clinician-scientists through the continued sustainable long-term development, evaluation, and refinement of innovative, clinically-relevant curricular materials. Curricular products will then be disseminated widely across UCSF departments, national academic neurology programs, national neurological associations and the broader ORWH community.