Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation Use in and Impact on LGBTQIA+ Healthcare

The LGBTQIA+ community has unique health experiences and needs that often go unmet by both healthcare providers and current health technologies because they are not being asked about their identity nor is their care being tailored to their unique health needs as LGBTQIA+ individuals. The purpose of this qualitative study was to improve patient care for the LGBTQIA+ community by identifying, through perceptions and experiences of LGBTQIA+ individuals, the challenges and barriers they experience when seeking health information and services. We discovered that there were several technological and societal improvements that could be made that would drastically improve their health experiences and accessibility while simultaneously alleviating the identified challenges and barriers. To improve healthcare accessibility and experiences for the LGBTQIA+ community, our study points to the need to use LGBTQIA+ gender identity in healthcare settings and technologies, training to create knowledgeable providers, a rating system to identify LGBTQIA+ competent providers and an associated national directory, a LGBTQIA+ health information repository, and improvements to social media to facilitate health information sharing.