October 2022

The NIH Research Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research supports Derek Chen, MS (he/him and they/them), a post-master’s trainee, for one year.

As a graduate student at Stanford University, Derek’s master’s thesis examined the differences in health statuses and healthcare access between gender-diverse and cisgender older adults. Derek is continuing his research career development through active participation on the Cancer Prevention for Gender-Expansive Patients pilot, one of several active projects within the BRIDGE-C2 Center, with mentorship support from Nathalie Huguet and Sonja Likumahuwa-Ackman.

The research project work is a pre-implementation study that will fill gaps in our knowledge around cancer screening and risk reduction services among gender-expansive patients (individuals who identify as transgender and those whose gender is broadened from society’s notion of gender) compared to cisgender patients. Derek plans to attend medical school with a vision of being a family medicine physician-scientist who specializes in LGBTQ+ health care and works to improve the health status of this medically-underserved population.