(Vienna, 26 March 2026) A recent study by the Medical University of Vienna examines the teaching format “Feminize your Resonance!” and demonstrates how actively engaging with voice, gender and digital applications can deepen medical students’ understanding of transgender people. The publication presents the accompanying scientific study for this seminar and was published in the journal “Frontiers in Public Health” to mark Transgender Day of Visibility on 31 March.
The “Feminize your Resonance!” seminar is part of the public health module in the fourth year of study at the Medical University of Vienna. It combines theoretical content on voice, gender and gender-affirming voice work with an experiential approach: students use digital voice apps to analyse their own voices and vary them in specific ways. This allows voice to be experienced not only as a medical-technical phenomenon, but also as a social and perception-related one.
The accompanying qualitative study is based on the reflections of 100 medical students who took part in a 135-minute online seminar. The analysis reveals a multi-phase learning journey: from initial discomfort with one’s own voice, through engagement with algorithmic feedback, to a heightened ability to adopt the perspective of transgender people.
“With this seminar, we wanted to create a space in which students not only acquire knowledge about the voice and the role of voice apps in healthcare for transgender people, but also question and reflect on their own perceptions,” says study leader Susanne Gahbauer from the Center for Public Health at MedUni Vienna. “The accompanying study shows that it is precisely this experience-based approach that can help to strengthen empathy and the ability to provide nuanced care.”
The findings suggest that experience-based and technology-supported teaching formats can help to make implicit assumptions about voice and gender visible and deepen engagement with the challenges of gender-affirming voice work. This provides a starting point for the further development of teaching in the field of gender-sensitive care, particularly with regard to communicative and empathic skills.
Publication: Frontiers in Public Health
Gahbauer S, Sherafat S and Wagner-Menghin M (2026) From internal echoes to sharing experiences: transformative learning with voice apps to enhance transgender care literacy in medical students. Front. Public Health 14:1767576. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2026.1767576