UCSF Launches LGBTQ App With ResearchKit Inside

The PRIDE Study app has been launched by the University of California, San Francisco to begin early research for their ambition project on LGBTQ health issues. The PRIDE Study app works with ResearchKit to provide LGBTQ users to contribute to the study before it begins. There, users will be able to answer questions to help the researchers do their job, aiming in the end "to better understand the health of the underserved LGBTQ community." This app has been in the works for weeks and launches for the first time this week.

This app isn't just for questions asked by the study group, it's for contributing your own topics of interest as well. "What do you care about?" is part of the app, a place where you can "post a topic you would like researchers to study about the LBGTQ community." Questions such as the following appear there:

Are LGBTQ members at higher risk for social anxiety?

How can transgender people get more complete support during the decision to transition?

Are LGBTQ people more likely to have certain types of cancer?

As each of these proposed topics are suggested, the community member also includes why they want to know, what they want to know specifically, and in what categories they believe the question belongs.

Using Apple's HealthKit as a framework for this app, these researchers have created a dashboard, activity monitoring, a community, a place where individual users can create a profile, and a place where literature can be found.

At first, this app is aimed at allowing LGBTQ participants "voice their health concerns" to these researchers. Once topics of interest have been collected, they'll create longitudinal questionnaires that'll then appear in this same app in 6-9 months from now.

The research network being created here is what the team at UCSF call PRIDEnet. This network includes "over 40 LGBTQ-focused community-based organizations, health clinics and national professional organizations."

PRIDEnet is a key component of how we plan to engage with study participants and the wider LGBTQ community over the long-term," said UCSF researcher Juno Obedin-Maliver, MD, MPH. "These partners understand the importance of The PRIDE Study and are committed to helping us with recruitment, community listening and dissemination of results."

"The strength of this network and the tools we have in place to listen to and interact with participants will be invaluable as we engage this population over the coming decades."

The PRIDE Study app can be found on iTunes app store right this minute.

You can learn more about the UCSF's effort at their LGBTQ-focused community-based organizations, health clinics and national professional organizations. – See more at: LGBTQ blog entry now.