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IGMA Announces Keynote Speakers for 2022 Conference

The International GTA MUTA Association (IGMA) is exited about our yearly conference coming up on December 9, 10, 11 2022! “Back to the Future; Where we’ve been and where we’re going in medical education’s most effective patient empowerment model.” We have some exceptional speakers including two keynote speakers, Dr. Kelly Underman, author of the book “Feeling Medicine” and Dr. Lauren Mitchell founder of The Doula Project.

Dr. Kelly Underman received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She was a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Medical Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine prior to joining the faculty at Drexel. She is a qualitative researcher whose interests include medical education, the social construction of bodies and emotions, and the politics of scientific knowledge production. Dr. Underman is the author of Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training (NYU Press, 2020). Her work has also been published in Social Science & Medicine, Gender & Society and Sociological Forum. Her awards include the Simmons Outstanding Dissertation Award from the American Sociological Association Medical Sociology Section. She previously worked as a GTA for ten years. Dr. Underman will be speaking at the conference about her research. To find out more about Dr Underman’s work Click Here.

Dr. Lauren Mitchell, another of our esteemed keynote speakers, is a researcher and direct care practitioner. She is the founder of The Doula Project, the United States’ first formalized full-spectrum doula program, and is the author of the book The Doulas: Radical Care for Pregnant People (Feminist Press 2016). Her first academic book project, Alienating Aesthetics: Performance Art and the Medical Imagination, contends with the ethics of visual and performance culture, narrative, medical history, and the limitations of our current societal definition of empathy. She has recently published in Configurations, Departures in Critical Qualitative Interventions, and The Journal of Clinical and Translational Science, and has held a faculty position at Texas Christian University. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Social Work at the University of Tennessee and retains a faculty appointment at Vanderbilt University and with the Columbia University Narrative Medicine Certificate of Professional. Achievement Program. She will be speaking on building trust and listening to the patient in a post-pandemic medical landscape. To find out more about Dr. Mitchell’s innovative work with The Doula Project Click Here.

Other acclaimed speakers include Sarah Campbell Bligh and Doug Ferkol from Dalhousie University in Canada who will be presenting on inclusive language. We also have a Pioneer Panel where we will hear from those women who founded the methodology decades ago and will learn how their work early on set the foundation for the work we do today. We will also have presentations on patient advocacy, innovative use of GTAs and MUTAs in SANE training, unconscious bias in medicine and trans and LGBTQ presentations. The conference will have networking hours and Roundtables as well as raffle drawings. Join us. Early bird registration offering significant discounts will be opening soon! To get the most up to date information, sign up for our newsletter by sending an email to admin@gtamuta.org. Take advantage of the benefits of being a member of IGMA, the only professional organization dedicated solely to GTA MUTA methodology. To receive all the benefits of IGMA membership, Click Here

IGMA First Annual Conference December 5 & 6, 2020

The International GTA MUTA Association (IGMA) is hosting it’s first international conference, Voices of Success: Global Partnerships Creating Excellence in Health Care Through GTA/MUTA Education. IGMA is the only organization dedicated solely to GTA MUTA methodology and while we are still in our infancy, just over a year old, we have accomplished some extraordinary things; not the least of which is the organization and planning of our first annual conference. The IGMA conference will be held virtually over the course of two days, December 5 and 6 and will host seven presentations and 22 speakers from four countries, the United States, Turkey, Brazil and Canada. Our speakers hail from active grassroots organizations and prestigious Universities like Columbia, Texas A&M, West Virginia University, Hacettepe University, Tiradentes University, Oregon Health and Science University, Central Michigan University as well as many others.

The cost to attend the conference is minimal and can be broken up into attendance at single workshop or all presentations one or both days. It is only $30 a day to attend all events or $20 to attend a single presentation. In addition to the presentations, (a list of all presentations and links to each of the abstracts is included below), there will be a lunchtime roundtable discussion on Saturday about GTA/MUTA education during the pandemic. On Sunday morning, attendees will hear from IGMA’s Committee Chairs and at lunchtime there will be a lifetime achievement award presentation and a video montage of a number of people who have made significant contributions to the field. Take a look at these exceptional topics:

Opening the Door to Utilizing the Transgender Population in Your Clinical Skills Labs
Liana Hill MSC, RN, RSCN, FNE, SANE-A, SANE-P, Richard Claflin BA; Mani Blunt, Nash Davidson and Charlene Moss

Strategies for Addressing Racism and Promoting Health Equity in Healthcare Education
Kellie Bryant DNP, WHNP, CHSE

Using Best Practices for Simulated Exam Training to Improve Forensic Medical Examinations
Eileen Allen MSN, RN, FN-CSA, SANE-A, SANE-P; Samantha Maloney; Richard Claflin BA

The Experience of Founding the First GTA Program in Brazil to Train Nurses Examining Victims of Sexual Violence
Juliana Musse PhD, MPH, SANE, Rebeca Vieira RN, GTA; Wesley Augusto de Jesus Santos RN

Looking Back to Change the Future: How GTAs use an anti-oppression framework to change medical practice
Mosopefoluwa (Sope’) Willoughby, MLS(ASCP)^CM, MPH, Lauren Mitchell, PhD, MS

Introducing the Association of Standardized Patient Educators (ASPE) GTA/MUTA Standards of Best Practice (SOBP)
Holly Hopkins DNP, CNM; Chelsea Weaks Med, BSN; Tim Webster MEd, Melih Elcin MD

Unconscious Bias in GTA Exams
Jennifer Lanier, Tru Chatelain AAS

Small Scale GTA/MUTA Programs: the Challenges and Triumphs
Lee Ann Miller EdD, CHSE; Rachel Older BS; Chelsea Knutson MSN, BS, RN, CNE, CA-SANE

Continuing Education hours will be offered to attend the conference. IGMA is grateful to have partnered with Crisis Services of North Alabama in order to provide the CE hours. We are also grateful to our sponsors, Clinical Practice Resources for Training and Education, Solvit LLC, Clinical Skills USA and Rori Baldari. The conference would not be able to move forward without your help, support and your belief in the work that we do.

For those of you who are not familiar, GTAs, MUTAs and FTAs are more than Standardized Patients, they are instructors. These men and women instruct medical students from the patient’s perspective in a patient empowerment methodology focused on patient centered care. Medical students and other health care learners receive standardized, step by step instruction in an anxiety free atmosphere creating an optimum learning environment so that all aspects of the exam can be best absorbed and retained long after clinical rotation. This methodology is the gold standard of training invasive exam procedures but the training includes much more than clinical exam technique instruction. Learners are taught how to to interact with their patients so there is strong focus on patient education and communication. And, GTA/MUTA education has moved beyond well patient training to include involvement in sexual assault forensic evidence instruction through participation in SANE/SAFE, (Sexual Assault Nurse/Forensic Examiner) training. These men and women provide high quality instruction on the forensic evidence collection kit and are in a unique position to provide critical information on trauma informed care from the survivor’s perspective. Additionally, inclusion of marginalized populations, such as transgender and gender non-binary persons, in both trauma and well patient care has been a growing component of this work.

Come support our organization and our esteemed speakers who are donating their time and expertise to this event. Consider becoming an IGMA member. Our membership dues are nominal and anyone that joins the organization before the conference receives founding member status and FREE entry to the conference, including all presentations and conference events. Visit www.gtamuta.org for more information or email admin@gtamuta.org. This is one event you will not want to miss. See you there!

IGMA Founding Members to Present at IAFN

This September, founding members of IGMA, the International GTA MUTA Association, will present 5 different presentations on use of GTA and MUTA methodology in sexual assault forensic evidence training for SANE (Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner) and SAFE (Sexual Assault Forensic Examiner) programming. The IAFN, International Association of Forensic Nurses is holding their annual conference in New Orleans and IGMA will have a strong presence. Isle Polonko, Richard Claflin and Samm Maloney, from Clinical Practice Resources and Scott George from Clinical Skills USA all have presentations at this upcoming conference. Ms. Polonko is also presenting with Eileen Allen adjunct Professor at Monmouth University, Forensic Nursing Graduate Program and SANE Program Coordinator and Liana Hill, Director Crisis Services of North Alabama and SANE Program Coordinator. Presentations cover critical information from trans health to Standards of Best Practices in simulation and will be presented over the course of 4 days.

Less than a decade ago, GTAs were not used in simulation in SANE or SAFE training. GTAs reviewed safe, effective invasive pelvic examination techniques in some programs, but use of GTAs in simulation to provide opportunities for SANE trainees to practice the forensic evidence collection on simulated patients, was simply not done. A couple of critical studies were done in 2010 and again in 2014 that highlighted efficacy and benefits of using the specialized skills of highly trained GTAs in this way and everything changed. Today programs are still working on protocol and measures of safety for use of GTAs in this kind of simulation. Inclusion of MUTAs is an even rarer phenomenon. Addressing these issues in order to create opportunities for successful collaboration and safe, effective use of GTAs and MUTAs will be the ultimate goals of these presentations.

If you are interested in learning more about this work, email admin@gtamuta.org for more information. Additionally, IGMA is seeking a Chair and volunteers to serve on the Forensic GTA MUTA Committee. Visit our website at www.gtamuta.org to join IGMA as a founding member and express interest in serving on the committee in order to promote use of GTAs and MUTAs in the very important work. Also, consider attending the IAFN Conference and learn more about the advancements being made in the field of sexual assault nurse examination. Visit to sign up and attend the conference. Come join us in New Orleans!