A Telehealth Intervention to Increase Patient Preparedness for Surgery in Latinas - PROJECT SUMMARY This application is for an NIDDK K23 award for Dr. Gabriela E. Halder, a Female Pelvic Medicine and Reconstructive Surgeon (FPMRS) at the University of Texas Medical Branch. Dr. Halder has shown promise as an early investigator in patient-centered research but needs further training to achieve her goal of becoming a leader in the use of Human Centered Design (HCD) and Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) methods to address disparities in access to treatments for urogynecologic conditions. This award will provide protected, mentored support to obtain the following career goals: 1] acquire proficiency in HCD methods to systematically design intervention procedures and materials; 2] obtain advanced skills in applying appropriate D&I frameworks, measures, design methods, and implementation strategies for behavioral interventions; 3] develop expertise in health equity research methods and outcome measures; 4] develop and strengthen research leadership, management, and grantsmanship skills. Her mentors for this K23 are Dr. Heidi Brown (Primary), an NIH NIDDK funded FPMRS and leader in D&I; Dr. Elizabeth Lyons (Co-mentor), an NIH funded expert in HCD; and Dr. Rebecca Rogers (Co-mentor), an NIH funded FPMRS and leader in patient-centered research. Dr. Halder also has 4 advisors with expertise in health equity, clinical research, and academic leadership. Latinas suffer more perioperative complications that their non-Hispanic peers when undergoing urogynecologic surgery, in part, because of lower surgical preparedness. We previously developed Telehealth Intervention to Increase Patient Preparedness for Surgery (TIPPS) which is one of the few interventions proven to successfully increase surgical preparedness for patients undergoing urogynecologic surgery. Unfortunately, our intervention studied mostly White women, excluded non-English speakers, and was not cost-effective nor practical. Therefore, there is a gap in knowledge on culturally appropriate, language-sensitive, and sustainable interventions that increases Latina surgical preparedness for urogynecologic surgery. Dr. Halder’s proposed research will use HCD and D&I methods to center stakeholder input to develop TIPPS-Latina – a usable and sustainable intervention that considers the cultural and societal needs of Latina patients and their clinical environments, an approach not used thus far in development and testing of other surgical preparedness interventions. Aim 1 will identify factors associated with surgical preparedness using a participatory action research framework. Aim 2 will use the HCD framework of Discover, Design/Build to develop TIPPS-Latina. Aim 3 will pilot test TIPPS-Latina using a mixed methods approach that determines feasibility and implementation outcomes. The expected outcome of this mentored research is to provide a foundation for a larger randomized clinical trial that assess the effectiveness of the developed intervention and a successful transition to research independence for Dr. Halder.
