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Transgender telemedicine use in the COVID-19 pandemic

telehealth
Credit: Unsplash/CC0 Public Domain

Telemedicine services facilitated continued access to gender-affirming care services for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) youth during the COVID-19 pandemic. A new study of telemedicine services for TGD youth, which showed that telemedicine did not worsen demographic disparities in access to this care, is published in Telemedicine and e-Health.

Ruby Lucas, MPH, from the University of Washington, and co-authors examined differences in demographic characteristics and visit completion rates at a gender clinic before and after implementation during the COVID-19 pandemic, and among telemedicine users and non-users. More than half of post-telemedicine period encounters were conducted via telemedicine, and telemedicine encounters were significantly more likely to be completed (72% vs. 50%) and less likely to be canceled (21% vs. 46%) compared to in-person encounters, reported the investigators

"Overall, this study highlights the importance of telemedicine in the ongoing provision of services for TGD youth," they concluded.

"Access to health care is of vital importance to all of us. TGD care is a growing field that must be addressed, and telemedicine is tool that can make a difference in the care these individuals receive," says Charles R. Doarn, MBA, FATA, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Research Professor in the Department of Environmental and Public Health Sciences, and Director of the Space Research Institute for Discovery and Exploration at the University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio.

More information: Ruby Lucas et al, Telemedicine Utilization Among Transgender and Gender-Diverse Adolescents Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic, Telemedicine and e-Health (2023). DOI: 10.1089/tmj.2022.0382

Citation: Transgender telemedicine use in the COVID-19 pandemic (2023, March 13) retrieved 28 March 2024 from https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-transgender-telemedicine-covid-pandemic.html
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