Three medical students from Philadelphia-based University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine plan to launch a healthcare app that connects LGBTQ patients to recognized LGBTQ-friendly physicians by the end of the month, reports NBC News.
The app, called SpectrumScores, was developed by Naveen Jain, Jun Jeon and Phil Williams as part of the university's PennHealthX competition, which invites student entrepreneurs to develop healthcare-focused startups. The app will connect LGBTQ patients with physicians that advocacy organizations and academic medical centers have recognized as LGBTQ-friendly.
The app also allows users to write their own reviews of physicians, which will be displayed next to the user's demographic information, including location, sexual orientation and gender identity. Combining physician reviews with a patient's identity information will help individuals evaluate the helpfulness of another user's review, according to NBC News.
The students hope their app will fill a need in the LGBTQ community, which is vulnerable to discrimination when accessing healthcare. The service will first be available in Philadelphia, New York City and Chicago, but the team plans to expand its reach across the U.S.
More articles on health IT:
Indiana links PDMP to EHRs in statewide Appriss Health license
Indiana Biosciences Research Institute appoints Dr. Daniel Robertson VP of digital technology