Transplant Navigator Intervention to Overcome Barriers to Kidney Transplantation

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 as they together make transplant-related decisions. Future work will involve determining the impact of navigators on disparities in transplant rates, examining the cost-effectiveness of transplant navigators, and disseminating the intervention for use across the country. Helping patients complete steps in the transplant process may lead not only to improved access to kidney transplantation but also to better patient survival, decreased health care costs, and increased quality of life.

Conditions

• End Stage Renal Disease

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Transplant navigator

Navigator will provide help to patients in completing specific steps in transplant process.

BEHAVIORAL

Usual care

Nephrologists and dialysis facilities will provide usual care regarding access to transplantation.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Case Western Reserve University

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Ash Sehgal, MD · MetroHealth Medical Center

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

70 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2009-01-31

Primary Completion

2011-02-28

Completion

2011-02-28

Countries

• United States

Study Locations