Hi. I'm Sheridan Miyamoto. I am a nurse scientist, health innovator, educator, clinician, mother and spouse. I am passionate about building solutions that ensure everyone, regardless of economic status, race, gender or geographic location, has access to expert, respectful care that helps put them on a path of healing and justice from day one.
Sheridan Miyamoto, PhD, FNP, RN, FAAN
Principal Investigator, Director
Sheridan Miyamoto, PhD, FNP, RN, FAAN is the Director and Principal Investigator of the SAFE-T Center. She is an Associate Professor of Nursing, a Family Nurse Practitioner, and former SANE who received her Ph.D. in Nursing Science and Healthcare Leadership in 2014. In 2015 she joined the Child Maltreatment Solutions Network and PSU College of Nursing. Dr. Miyamoto is an expert in pediatric, adolescent, and adult sexual assault. She provided live telehealth consultations to six rural California sites to conduct quality forensic sexual assault exams for eight years before taking a position at Penn State University.
Before pursuing her Ph.D., she was a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) for 14 years at the UC Davis Child and Adolescent Abuse and Resource and Evaluation Center. In this role, she conducted over 3,000 forensic sexual abuse examinations and provided expert testimony in over 60 criminal court cases. Miyamoto has over 20 years of experience in the development and dissemination of telehealth to enhance access to high-quality forensic SA care. Miyamoto has engaged an interdisciplinary team to ensure the SAFE-T Center continues to advance the field by improving technology, enhancing access, and generating research to demonstrate the effectiveness of these efforts.
Miyamoto has pioneered the conceptualization, implementation, and evaluation of the nurse-led SAFE-T System to support and sustain local nurses in rural communities to develop and deliver the expertise required to allow survivors of sexual assault to receive quality care in their own communities.
Miyamoto designed and delivered continuing education modules through telehealth and provided peer review for rural-based SANEs. Miyamoto and colleagues generated the science to demonstrate the impact of these programs on patient and remote site provider satisfaction and forensic exam quality. This research was the first to demonstrate that telehealth consultation had a positive impact on the completeness of forensic examinations and the accuracy of diagnosis. Building on that work, the team was awarded HRSA funding to evaluate the impact of telemedicine consultation on exam quality and diagnostic accuracy by comparing examinations done in rural hospitals with access to expertise through telehealth to compare rural hospitals with existing sexual abuse programs, but without telehealth access. This published work was the first to demonstrate, through experimental design, that telehealth sexual abuse programs result in significantly higher quality evaluations, more complete examinations, and more accurate diagnoses when compared to similar rural hospitals without telemedicine support.
About SAFE-T Research
The Sexual Assault Forensic Examination Telehealth (SAFE-T) Center was launched in 2016 with support from the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) to enhance access to high-quality sexual assault (SA) care while simultaneously decreasing disparities in forensic SA care quality in underserved communities. Leveraging telehealth technology, SAFE-T provides expert, live, interactive mentoring, quality assurance, and evidence-based training to less experienced nurses. When a SA examination is performed at a partnered hospital, one of SAFE-T Center’s expert SANEs (teleSANEs) provides real-time support to both the on-site nurse and the patient, ensuring best practices, proper evidence collection and a supportive environment exist for the patient. Further, SAFE-T’s model provides a robust source of data and insight to research the impacts of SA on the survivor’s healing trajectory and health outcomes, economic implications of those outcomes, accessible and equitable quality forensic care, and prevention strategies.
Publications
Sexual Assault and Intimate Partner Violence
- Miyamoto, S., Shipe, S., Delwiche, J., Richardson, C., Veerhusen, K., & Bittner, C. (2024). Meeting complex needs of sexually assaulted incarcerated individuals: Impact of expert Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner care via telehealth. Journal of Correctional Health Care, (). https://doi.org/10.1089/jchc.23.03.0015 Read More >
- Miyamoto, S., Bittner, C., Delwiche, J., & Ganguli, A. (2023). A strengths and needs assessment of campus sexual assault response. Journal of Forensic Nursing, ():10.1097/ JFN.0000000000000452, November 6, 2023. | DOI: 10.1097/JFN.0000000000000452 Read More >
- Pennsylvania Chapter, American Academy of Pediatrics (2023). Keystone State Child Abuse Medical Forum Strategic Plan Read More >
- Miyamoto, S., Wright, E.N., Thiede, E., Perkins, D.F., Bittner, C. & Dorn, L. (2023). Multidisciplinary perspectives on the implementation of a comprehensive sexual assault telehealth program in rural communities: A qualitative study. Violence Against Women, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231159413 Read More >
- Miyamoto, S. & Downing, N.R. (2023). Leveraging telehealth to address Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner access disparities in rural communities. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1097/JFN.0000000000000431 Read More >
- Wright, E. N., Miyamoto, S., & Anderson, J. (2023). Having one person tell me I didn’t do the wrong thing: The impact of support on the post-sexual assault exam experience. Violence Against Women, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/10778012231156153 Read More >
- Miyamoto, S., Thiede, E., Richardson, C., Wright, E.N. & Bittner, C. (2022). Pathway to Healing and Recovery: Alleviation of Survivor Worries in Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner-Led Sexual Assault Telehealth Examinations. Journal of Emergency Nursing, 48(6), 709-718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2022.06.005 Read More >
- Wright, E. N.*, Miyamoto, S., & Richardson, C. (2021). The impact of covid-19 restrictions on victims advocacy agency utilization across Pennsylvania. Journal of Family Violence. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10896-021-00307-z Read More >
- Miyamoto, S., Thiede, E.*, Wright, E. N.*, Berish, D., Perkins, D. F., Bittner, C., Dorn, L., & Scanlon, D. (2021). The implementation of the sexual assault forensic examination telehealth center: A program evaluation. Journal of Forensic Nursing, 17(3), E24–E33. https://doi.org/10.1097/jfn.0000000000000337 Read More >
- Thiede, E.*, & Miyamoto, S. (2020). Rural availability of sexual assault nurse examiners (SANEs). The Journal of Rural Health, 37(1), 81–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/jrh.12544 Read More >
Research Informs How We Work
As Principal Investigator of the SAFE-T Center, Dr. Miyamoto’s research informs how we implement systems and strategies with our SAFE-T System partner hospitals, enabling expert nurses to assist during sexual assault examinations and provide trauma-informed care to survivors.
Want to partner with us?
We’re looking for new partners!
Partnership opportunities are available for a select number of hospital sites. Sign up for our webinar to learn about opportunities to work with us.
