The Role of Sex and Gender in Precision Emergency Medicine: A Scoping Review and Proposed Hierarchy.

BACKGROUND

Precision medicine utilizes individual patient data to guide decision making. Sex and gender medicine is likewise focused on individual patients' biological sex or sociocultural gender as determinants of disease. How these two fields intersect with one another and with acute care medicine is unclear.

METHODS

We conducted a scoping literature review utilizing the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses for Scoping Reviews to evaluate the primary research in three related areas: sex & gender medicine, emergency medicine, and precision medicine. We searched six databases and screened eligible studies for inclusion. Included studies were reviewed in full, and study characteristics were compiled using a standardized data extraction form. Research questions were drafted by workgroup members and ranked by all participants of the consensus conference.

RESULTS

A total of 401 studies were screened for inclusion. Of these, 70 met inclusion criteria and were evaluated in full text. The majority (84%, 59/70) reported evaluating sex, whereas only 16% (11/70) reported evaluating gender. The most common clinical topics were cardiovascular diseases and trauma/injury prevention, comprising 50% (35/70) of the included manuscripts. Cumulatively, 77% (54/70) of the manuscripts reviewed cited at least one funding source. The vast majority (66/70, 94%) of studies were included because their statistical analysis accounted for sex or gender, and very few studies (4/70, 6%) were included due to their use of biomarker or genomic data.

CONCLUSIONS

Sex- and gender-based medicine and research commonly employ precision medicine concepts to evaluate the effects of sex and gender in a variety of clinical topic areas, but much of this literature is not commonly described as precision medicine. We propose a hierarchy to categorize, label, and advance sex and gender precision medicine research. Fundamental to this advancement are implementation of guidelines regarding the correct use of sex and gender and continued research funding for sex and gender precision EM research.