A job for the Oprah Network.
Via CNS News
The National Institutes of Health has awarded a $237,750 grant to George Washington University to study whether the use of telemedicine can help overcome barriers to care for transgender women of color.
“The transgender population is a medically underserved and understudied population with myriad barriers to care. Discrimination, substance abuse, violence, stigma, HIV/STI risk behaviors, and social isolation challenge delivery of primary and specialty services for transgender women of color (transwomen, TW), and thus new models of care are urgently needed,” the grant abstract said.
“By providing real-time access to culturally-sensitive care for TW remotely, we can overcome frequently encountered structural barriers. This study offers the opportunity to translate highly effective telemedicine methods to a population on whom this approach has not yet been tested,” it said.
The study is comprised of two phases. First, “key informant interviews” will be conducted with providers of transgender women and “key informant interviews and focus groups” with transgender women to “evaluate the acceptability of the telemedicine approach.”
Second, researchers will use “peer-referral” to recruit 25 out-of-care transgender women who will have a three-month comparison period followed by a three-month telemedicine/virtual medical home pilot study period.”