Project Summary
The PCORI Pipeline to Proposal Award entitled “Building the New Mexico LGBTQ Health Improvement Network: Strengthening Community Health through Communication, Connection, and Empowerment” brings diverse community members into meaningful clinical discussions with healthcare providers and health services researchers in order to identify healthcare needs for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) individuals in rural and underserved communities throughout New Mexico. Through the formation of the New Mexico LGBTQ Health Advisory Council, a panel of stakeholders representing LGBTQ patients, health advocates, healthcare providers, and healthcare researchers, we have begun the process of developing patient-centered comparative effectiveness research questions to increase cultural competency and to guide patient- and practice-based intervention research in order to decrease gaps in New Mexico’s healthcare system. During Tier III, the advisory council will move research questions to one or more proposal(s) to improve patient-centered health care for LGBTQ youth, LGBTQ primary care patients, LGBTQ emergency room patients, and LGBTQ cancer survivors.