SAN FRANCISCO — A new clinician-to-clinician e-consultation service devoted to transgender issues has launched out of San Francisco’s Lyon-Martin Health Services, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

TransLine has grown from answering an average of three questions a month when it started in 2012 to more than a question a day now. Most of the questions concern hormone therapy, but they also include queries about surgery, insurance coverage, fertility and mental health, the Chronicle reports.

“This is a much-needed service. There really is nothing else like it in the country, or even the world as far as we know,” JM Jaffe, Lyon-Martin’s trans health manager who manages TransLine, told the Chronicle.

TransLine is essentially a form of telemedicine, the growing practice of providing medicine remotely. While some practices involve video or other more sophisticated technology for virtual visits, TransLine is a basic email consultation service that relies on volunteer clinicians to answer questions, typically within 30 hours.

About three years ago, TransLine started adding providers from health centers around the country who have expertise in transgender care so Lyon-Martin staff no longer have to answer all the questions. The clinic has partners in Boston, Philadelphia, Springfield, Mass., and Baltimore, and plans to work with a practice in Chicago. Lyon-Martin became part of the HealthRight 360 group of free clinics last year, the Chronicle reports.

Lyon-Martin’s medical director, Dr. Dawn Harbatkin, modeled TransLine after UCSF’s National HIV Telephone Consultation Service, which provides providing readily available expert HIV/AIDS consultation to clinicians nationwide.

“I used the HIV warmline all the time to support my care,” she told the Chronicle. “I figured if I’m a physician in the middle of Iowa and I have a transperson come into my practice … there should be a place to go.”