Assessing the Level of Awareness Regarding the Unique Medical Needs of the LGBTQ+ Community Among Emergency Department Physicians, as Well as Their Attitudes Toward Taking Medical Histories, Examining, and Treating Patients From This Community.

August 13, 2026 updated by: Dr. Daniel Leshin Carmel, Barzilai Medical Center
Assessing the level of knowledge and awareness regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community among emergency department physicians by distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (pediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).

Study Overview

Status

Not yet recruiting

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Emergency medical teams play a unique role in providing initial care to diverse populations, including marginalized or minority groups. Implicit prejudice can influence the interactions of emergency personnel and contribute to a lack of trust in healthcare providers among some members of the LGBTQ+ community. Previous studies have highlighted a lack of LGBTQ-focused education tailored to the specific needs of emergency department staff, with 83%-85% of such personnel reporting a deficiency in knowledge and practical tools. This lack of training begins during medical school and persists as students advance to residency and internship. Medical students, residents, and fellows have reported significantly lower levels of comfort in taking sexual histories and managing sexual health issues among the LGBTQ population. Moll et al. surveyed 319 emergency medicine residents in the United States. A significant minority of respondents felt that taking a medical history and performing physical examinations were more challenging with gay, lesbian, or bisexual patients (24.6%) and even more so with transgender patients (42.6%). The majority of residents (63%) do not ask patients about their sexual orientation when they present with abdominal pain or genital complaints. Reports of LGBT-phobic and discriminatory comments came from both fellow residents (16.6%) and faculty members (10%). Additionally, 2.5% of respondents felt uncomfortable working alongside other physicians from the LGBTQ community, and 6% did not agree that LGBTQ patients deserve the same quality of care as others. Training healthcare teams provides information and enhances skills, potentially leading to improved quality of care for LGBTQ individuals. Intervention programs report short-term improvements in the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of healthcare students and professionals regarding sexual and LGBTQ-specific healthcare. However, a unified conceptual model for training-covering duration, content, and methodology-has been, and remains, lacking. We aim to Assessing the level of knowledge and awareness regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community among emergency department physicians by distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (pediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Estimated)

500

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Contact

Study Locations

  • Israel
      • Ashdod, Israel
        • Assuta Ashdod Public Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Caroline Ohayon, MD
      • Ashkelon, Israel
      • Beersheba, Israel
        • Soroka Hospital
        • Contact:
        • Principal Investigator:
          • Eduard Gerber, MD

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • ER physicians

Exclusion Criteria:

  • None

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Health Services Research
  • Allocation: N/A
  • Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: ER physicians
Distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (paediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).
Other: Distribution of Questionnaires
Distribution of questionnaires to all emergency department physicians (pediatric, OB/GYN, and general-internal medicine and surgery).

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Assessing awareness level
Time Frame: 30 days
Assessing the level of knowledge and awareness regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community among emergency department physicians by assessing the extent of physicians' knowledge regarding the unique medical needs of the LGBTQ+ community. Using adjusted questionnaire from previous trials (Moll et al 2018). Range of score 7 (min) to 35 (max).
30 days

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Assessing comfort level in anamneses and physical examination
Time Frame: 30 days
Assessing the sense of comfort of physicians to conduct a comprehensive sexual history when appropriate for the reason for the visit; assessing the sense of comfort regarding physical examinations involving the genital area among both the general and LGBTQ+ populations; and assessing physicians' comfort level in working alongside LGBTQ+ colleagues. Using an adjusted questionnaire from previous trials (Moll et al 2018), with a range from 20 (min) to 100 (max).
30 days

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Barzilai Medical Center

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Daniel Leshin Carmel, MD, Barziali Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Estimated)

September 1, 2026

Primary Completion (Estimated)

November 30, 2026

Study Completion (Estimated)

December 31, 2026

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

August 10, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 13, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

August 18, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

August 18, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

August 13, 2026

Last Verified

August 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • BRZ-0072-26

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

IPD will not be shared

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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