Improvement of STI Detection in Adolescent Emergency Department Patients

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are epidemic among adolescents, a medically underserved population with limited access to health care. Studies have found that the emergency department (ED) functions as the only source of health care for many adolescents and there is a growing body of evidence that EDs should begin to provide interventions and screening for risky health behaviors, including STIs. Dr. Goyal, a pediatric emergency medicine physician and the candidate for this Career Development Award, has a committed interest in developing interventions that will improve the sexual health care of adolescent ED patients. Dr. Goyal's long term goal is to become an independent health services researcher with expertise in ED-based adolescent sexual health. In order to expand her research training in both qualitative and quantitative study design for health services research, Dr. Goyal has devised a comprehensive five-year career development plan which includes structured mentoring, completion of a Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology, and completion of the proposed research project. The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and the University of Pennsylvania provide an exceptional environment for young clinical researchers to gain experience, formal instruction, and independence in designing and conducting patient oriented research. Dr. Goyal is receiving mentorship from outstanding clinical researchers with expertise in qualitative study design, survey development, psychometrics, trial design, emergency medicine, and behavioral health research. Her mentorship team highlights the interdisciplinary nature of her proposed work. The overall goal of her proposal is to develop a novel intervention to increase testing and detection of STIs among adolescent ED patients. Dr. Goyal will accomplish this by first developing a novel standardized and efficient computerized sexual health assessment tool. She will subsequently conduct a randomized trial to test its efficacy in increasing STI testing among high risk adolescent ED patients. This research plan is consistent with the mission of Healthy People 2020 objectives from the United States Department of Health and Human Services as well as the 2009 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference. Sexually transmitted infections (STIs) are epidemic among the adolescent population and confer significant morbidity. Adolescents frequently use the emergency department (ED) as a sole source of health care, thereby making the ED an important interventional setting. Therefore, the development of an ED based intervention to tackle the STI epidemic among adolescents is timely and needed as it may confer significant public health impact and is supported by the mission of Healthy People 2020 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services as well as the 2009 Academic Emergency Medicine consensus conference.