June 2023 Society Spotlight
Special Interest Section Edition: LGBTQIA+ Health
For Pride Month, we would like highlight our LGBTQIA+ Health Special Interest Section, which is composed of a diverse group of professionals dedicated to advancing the clinical care for sexual and gender minorities who suffer from headache disorders. We are working on improving access to care and advocating for patients who identify as LGBTQIA+.
We are hoping to promote and facilitate research focused on LGBTQIA+ issues in headache medicine. We are currently developing national surveys to better understand how headache disorders impact sexual and gender minorities as well as how headache specialists approach providing care for LGBTQIA+ patients.
In efforts to educate AHS members on such topics, our section members have published two narrative reviews addressing topics on headache medicine and individuals who identify as transgender and gender diverse. We are developing educational programming for AHS members. Keep an eye out for our upcoming webinar on LGBTQIA+ Health and Headache.
We also hope to create a welcoming and affirming environment and facilitate networking for AHS members who identify as LGBTQIA+. We are looking forward to meeting in Austin, Texas during the 65th Annual Scientific Meeting later this month.
We hope you will join us during Pride Month in identifying ways that we can each strive towards providing welcoming and affirming Headache Medicine care for sexual and gender minorities.
Join the LGBTQIA+ Health Special Interest Section
Meet the Chair
Eric Kaiser, MD, PhD
Dr. Kaiser is an assistant professor in the Department of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is part of the Penn Headache Program. He is board certified in Neurology and Headache Medicine. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Kaiser studies the mechanisms of photophobia in migraine in humans and rodents. He is examining what processes in migraine lead to light being perceived as uncomfortable or painful including the role of trigeminal system and calcitonin gene-related peptide. By characterizing neural pathways and cell populations that mediate altered light perception, he hopes to identify novel therapeutic approaches for the treatment of photophobia in migraine and other disorders, which for many can be disabling. Dr. Kaiser started attending AHS conferences in 2010 when he was awarded Scottsdale Headache Symposium Scholarship as a graduate student. He was later honored with a Frontiers in Headache Research Scholarship Award in 2018 as a neurology resident.