In an effort to help improve healthcare provision for transgender and gender diverse folk in the US, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School medical student, Taylor Chiang, has co-created a revolutionary new web-based review app.
The app will allow users to leave reviews of health care providers, look up reviews already left in the app, and search for particular physicians and healthcare providers.
Access to timely and respectfully delivered Gender Affirming Healthcare services can very much depend on where an individual is in the world, and often on the region they live in. Some cities such as London and New York offer various options, and online organisations such as GenderGP offer more flexibility and services that require minimal gatekeeping and centre the individual’s needs rather than those of the clinicians.
Sadly though not everyone has access to the more progressive services and many are left crossing their fingers and hoping that they can find a clinician who will have the knowledge and will needed to help them. Far too often trans and gender diverse patients are met with discrimination and hostility when seeking the help of healthcare professionals.
A lot of the time, trans folks do avoid health care because they are afraid of the barriers that they might face. Those barriers can include financial barriers like straight-up access to care, but also discrimination, harassment, trying to explain what it means to be transgender, microaggressions, things like that. I think a lot of those things are off-putting to trans folks in terms of just seeking everyday care.
Taylor’s app hopes to make engaging with the best providers easier for people, and is a much needed development that’s likely to be enthusiastically welcomed by trans and gender diverse people and communities.
Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash