Transplant Navigator Intervention to Overcome Barriers to Kidney Transplantation

Study Summary

Compared with chronic dialysis treatment, kidney transplantation generally offers a longer life span, a better quality of life, and lower health care costs for the over 500,000 Americans with End Stage Renal Disease. Despite Medicare funding of virtually all kidney transplants, minority, female, and poor patients with End Stage Renal Disease have decreased access to kidney transplantation. In prior work, the investigators identified the steps in the transplant process that are responsible for creating these disparities. These include medical suitability, interest in receiving a transplant, referral to a transplant center for a pre-transplant workup, placement on a waiting list or identification of a living donor, and receipt of a kidney from a deceased or living donor. The investigators now propose to train transplant recipients to act as transplant navigators and then test the value of using transplant navigators to help patients and providers complete these steps. The proposed community-based randomized controlled trial will involve approximately 75-100 adult hemodialysis patients at intervention dialysis facilities and approximately 75-100 patients at control facilities to compare a transplant navigator intervention with usual care over a 24 month interval. Baseline evaluation will include sociodemographic and medical characteristics, specific steps completed in the transplant process, and barriers to moving forward in the transplant process. At periodic intervals, the navigator will provide tailored information and assistance to patients and their nephrologists to help them complete the tasks required at each step. The major outcome will be completion of additional steps in the transplant process. Secondary analyses will examine impediments to successful intervention among subjects who fail to move forward in the transplant process despite assistance from a navigator. The proposed project will test a novel intervention that targets patients and nephrologists a

Primary Outcome

Many kidney failure patients, particularly minorities and women, face barriers in completing the steps required to obtain a transplant. These sequential steps include: medical suitability, interest in transplant, referral to a transplant center, first visit to center, transplant workup, successful candidate, waiting list or identify living donor, and receive transplant. We calculated the number of transplant process steps completed by both groups.

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Usual care
• BEHAVIORAL Transplant navigator