Contracepción por telemedicina en el Valle – A community-engagement project exploring the potential of telemedicine for accessing contraception among Spanish-speaking women in the Lower Hudson Valley
Contraception
Awarded 2022
Contraceptive equity in telehealth
Bianca Stifani, MD, MPH
Westchester Medical Center
$24,984

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the popularity of telemedicine rapidly increased, raising questions about its future potential to reshape the way people access healthcare, including reproductive healthcare. However, individuals with language barriers and limited access to technology may not be benefiting as much as others from the expansion of telemedicine. We propose a community engagement project that aims to explore the perspectives on and barriers to telemedicine among primarily Spanish-speaking women in New York’s Lower Hudson Valley. These are rural and urban communities where long distances and few public transportation options complicate access to healthcare, and where telemedicine is an ideal solution. We will partner with local community-based organizations to conduct a series of focus groups asking women what a telemedicine program designed for them to access contraception would look like, and how it would work. We will then implement this program at our academic hospital and monitor whether the community that was engaged in its design utilizes it.