Faculty and Staff Spotlight: Courtney Streur
Courtney Streur, MD, MS, is a pediatric urologist and health service researcher focused on improving the transition to adulthood for adolescents with physical disabilities. As a provider who also runs a clinic for these adolescents and young adults, she saw first-hand the poor outcomes young women face as a result of a lack of disability-specific sexual health education. This includes unintended pregnancies, delayed diagnoses of STIs, and stories of sexual abuse and coercion as well as missed opportunities to achieve their goals.
As a part of her K23 award from the NICHD, with additional funding from a Women’s Health Innovation Award from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, she and her team, together with members of the community, have developed an online, video-based educational platform specific to adolescent girls with physical disabilities (AbilityForLife.org). Animated videos, interviews of women with disabilities and health care providers, and lessons from adolescent gynecologists are divided into three curricula based on the adolescent’s developmental stage. Users also have the option to create their own personalized video library. They are currently testing the websites effectiveness at improving the number of parent-adolescent conversations about sexual and reproductive health, which has been shown to decrease risky behaviors.
She is also currently administering a best-worst scaling survey to identify the highest priority worries of adolescent girls and mothers around the transition to adulthood. The pilot has demonstrated the feasibility of analyzing results on the dyad level. Overall, dyads were more similar than random adolescent-mother pairs. Such dyad instruments could have clinical utility, especially around the complex shared-decision making for adolescents and their families.
Dr. Streur recently received a grant from the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine to study the sexual and reproductive health of women with cerebral palsy. Although cerebral palsy is the most common cause of a physical disability in childhood, with more women living well into adulthood than every before, their sexual and reproductive health remains poorly understood. This significantly limits the ability to educate adolescents about what to expect. This study will provide foundational knowledge for the community and the basis for a future larger-scale study.
Finally, Dr. Streur was recently promoted to Associate Professor in the Department of Urology. She continues to give national and international invited talks around the topic of the sexual and reproductive health and education of young women with physical disabilities as well as transitional providing care during the transition to adulthood. She will speak at the College of Surgeons East, Central, and South Africa (COSECSA) in Zimbabwe this winter on multidisciplinary care for people with spina bifida.