They get marginalized. We need to change that culture. We need to make it very attractive financially to do the research on this underserved minority. Robertson knows what some of those issues are, however. She believes we have to increase the sensitivity of providers.
Access is the big issue.
How to change prejudice has to be a focus for research. Otherwise we're going to spend a lot of time not knowing what's effective and we'll put our patients at risk by encouraging them to come out only to receive a negative reaction. Maybe they will never return for an exam and perhaps serious hypertension will go undiagnosed. She has experienced antagonism within the medical community on a personal basis. I did this one talk on Lesbian health care four years ago.