Source: NJ.com
Gender-affirming providers are not only doctors who perform plastic surgeries or administer hormone replacement therapy. They’re doctors, nurses, front desk staff and everyone in a medical office who know how to respectfully care for gender diverse patients. Creators behind an upcoming app, TranZap, want to make that search simpler for gender diverse people seeking care.
Taylor Chiang, a second year student at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School who came up with TranZap, wants people to find “gender-affirming [providers] to get regular old routine care — big barrier to health care is being afraid that you’re going to be discriminated against or not knowing information,” Chiang said. “Whether or not a primary care provider is gender-affirming, that information is lacking.”
Transgender people face a high risk of physical and mental health problems, but are “consistently and systemically underserved by the American medical system,” a Center for American Progress report reads. Some 62% of transgender respondents said they worried about being judged based on their sexual orientation or gender identity in health care settings, according to TransPop survey results.
Chiang experienced uncomfortable conversations surrounding their identity in health care settings before. They typically searched for providers who accepted their insurance, or heard about affirming providers via word of mouth. Sometimes, they “risked” the provider lacking knowledge about caring for and talking to transgender and gay patients.
The app allows gender diverse people to review health care providers by answering a series of questions. Some ask for simple “yes” or “no” responses, like “Did the provider ask your pronouns? Did they use your correct pronouns?” Others ask for written responses, like the overarching question “How was your experience with this provider?”
“[TranZap is] really building on the whole community aspect of, I think, what really drives the LGBTQ+ community, building on that idea that we really do support each other and want each other to succeed, get the health care they need and feel good about it,” Chiang said.
Beyond serving as a source for transgender people, Chiang’s mentor Gloria Bachmann believes TranZap could also provide ongoing education for medical professionals. Bachmann serves as medical director of the PROUD Gender Center of New Jersey as well as director of Rutgers Medical School’s Women’s Health Institute.
“Clinicians and providers will talk about [the app], they will discuss it in smaller meetings and in the hallways in the hospital,” Bachmann said. “This will be ever-present, in your face so that it will be a continual education that ‘yes, I have to provide the best possible care to everyone.'”
Chiang plans to begin beta testing TranZap in November with a small group of New Jersey residents. They hope it rolls out to the general public after the new year.