Closing Plenary /Saturday, September 11, 2021, 9:00 – 10:00 am CT

Delivering Equitable Care to the LGBTQ+ Community

Presented by:
Jessica Lapinski, DO
Assistant Professor, Northwestern McGaw Family Medicine Residency at Delnor Hospital
Pronouns: She/her/hers

Learning Objectives:
•    Recognize health disparities faced by the LGBTQ+ community
•    Discover the role that Family Medicine providers play in enhancing the care of the LGBTQ+ community
•    Describe avenues for incorporating community engagement, advocacy, and leadership

Session Description:
Family Medicine providers are well equipped to provide competent, equitable, and accessible care to our LGBTQ+ community. This presentation aims to examine the role that Family Medicine providers play within the LGBTQ+ community and the potential impact we can make. Utilizing a population health lens, this presentation will highlight avenues for incorporating community engagement, advocacy, and leadership to deliver equitable care to the LGBTQ+ community.

Speaker biography:
Dr. Jessica Lapinski is an Assistant Professor of Family and Community Medicine at Northwestern Medicine, where she serves as core faculty at the Delnor FM Residency program. She completed her residency in Family Medicine in 2019 at Duke University in the Department of Community and Family Medicine. She served as the Education Chief resident from 2017 - 2018 and then as the Population Health Chief resident from 2018 - 2019. She is a 2016 graduate of A.T. Still University-Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, where she completed a fellowship in Medical Education. She graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2010, where she obtained a bachelor of science in biology, a bachelor of arts in psychology and studied abroad at Lancaster University, England.

Dr. Lapinski is passionate about research, especially research that examines healthcare disparities and effective physician-patient interactions. Her main areas of expertise are LGBTQ-related issues (LGBTQ health, LGBTQ institutional climate, curriculum development), gender affirming care and student/resident mental health (burnout, depression, wellness). She has conducted and successfully published several research studies, presented at a variety of conferences and is a recipient of an American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM) grant. She was awarded AACOM’s Outstanding Medical Education Research Poster and Presentation Award, Best Leadership Project Award for Family Medicine Leads Emerging Leader Institute, AAFP Award for Excellence in Graduate Medical Education, in addition to several other research awards.

The decision to pursue family medicine evolved from Dr. Lapinski's love of diversity. She relishes the idea of being able to care for the entire spectrum of the population, regardless of age, sex, orientation, race or socioeconomic status. She believes it is the family physicians’ role to provide comprehensive, patient-centered care that takes into account the biological, behavioral, and social aspects of health.