Ways to Improve Care for LGBT Patients in Dermatology Clinics.

Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) patients face significant dermatologic health disparities. LGBT patients are often discriminated against, refused healthcare, or otherwise have negative healthcare experiences that may deter future utilization of professional care. While a number of factors may mitigate these negative experiences, the present article focuses on improving organizational and institutional drivers specific to individual dermatology clinics. Clinic workflow and operations, emerging technologies and EHRs, clinic culture, clinic environment and resource availability, and provider and staff education are all characteristics of healthcare clinics that can be improved to better facilitate high-quality dermatologic care for LGBT patients.

Improving Shared Decision Making For Asian American Pacific Islander Sexual and Gender Minorities.

BACKGROUND: Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) sexual and gender minorities (SGM) face unique challenges in mental health and accessing high-quality health care. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to identify barriers and facilitators for shared decision making (SDM) between AAPI SGM and providers, especially surrounding mental health. RESEARCH DESIGN: Interviews, focus groups, and surveys. SUBJECTS: AAPI SGM interviewees in Chicago (n=20) and San Francisco (n=20). Two focus groups (n=10) in San Francisco. MEASURES: Participants were asked open-ended questions about their health care experiences and how their identities impacted these encounters. Follow-up probes explored SDM and mental health. Participants were also surveyed about attitudes towards SGM disclosure and preferences about providers. Transcripts were analyzed for themes and a conceptual model was developed. RESULTS: Our conceptual model elucidates the patient, provider, and encounter-centered factors that feed into SDM for AAPI SGM. Some participants shared the stigma of SGM identities and mental health in their AAPI families. Their AAPI and SGM identities were intertwined in affecting mental health. Some providers inappropriately controlled the visibility of the patient's identities, ignoring or overemphasizing them. Participants varied on whether they preferred a provider of the same race, and how prominently their AAPI and/or SGM identities affected SDM. CONCLUSIONS: Providers should understand identity-specific challenges for AAPI SGM to engage in SDM. Providers should self-educate about AAPI and SGM history and intracommunity heterogeneity before the encounter, create a safe environment conducive to patient disclosure of SGM identity, and ask questions about patient priorities for the visit, pronouns, and mental health.

Emerging technologies for health information in dermatology: opportunities and drawbacks of web-based searches, social media, mobile applications, and direct-to-consumer genetic testing in patient care.

Emerging technology is fundamentally changing how individuals interact with the health care system. Web-based searches, mobile applications, social media, and directto- consumer genetic testing companies are facilitating information exchange at a higher rate than ever before, creating a macroscopic shift in the mechanisms by which individuals seek health information. The visual nature of skin disease enables individuals to browse, share, and search based on images, adding another dimension to how dermatological information is transferred. These trends carry important implications on user health care behavior, and so it is vital for health care professionals to stay attuned to the morphing characteristics of their patients' health management in order to continue to provide high-quality, patient-centered care.