Explore Transplant @Home Within Kaiser Permanente Southern California

Study Summary

Today, there are 25 million Americans with chronic kidney disease (CKD) and 660,000 patients in full kidney failure, the final CKD stage, known as end stage renal disease (ESRD). Over half of ESRD patients are Black, Hispanic, or Asian. ESRD patients must either receive regular dialysis treatments, by which waste is filtered from the blood by a machine, or a kidney transplant from a deceased or living donor. Five-year survival on dialysis is only 40%, compared to 74% with a deceased donor kidney transplant (DDKT) and 87% with a living donor kidney transplant (LDKT). Despite the known health benefits of DDKT and LDKT, 70% of ESRD patients remain on dialysis, especially ethnic/racial minorities. An American Society of Transplantation (AST) Consensus Conference recently recommended that patients in all CKD stages should have the opportunity to learn about and decide which treatment option is right for them, particularly about LDKT. However, early education about LDKT and DDKT is inconsistent and often poor, with early stage CKD patients and ethnic/racial minorities even less likely to receive it. Through previous HRSA grants, Dr. Waterman designed the Explore Transplant@Home (ET@Home) video-guided education program, and found that it significantly increased LDKT knowledge and informed decision-making for Black and White dialysis patients in Missouri when delivered by mail and supported through bimonthly postcards and texting. Now based at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she has partnered with Kaiser Permanente Southern California (KPSC), an integrated learning healthcare system providing insurance coverage and comprehensive care to 65,000 patients in CKD Stages 3, 4 and 5 (ESRD) (24% Hispanic, 52% White, 15% Black, and 9% Asian; 10% Spanish-speaking).

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL Patient-Guided