Development and Test of a Communication Skills Training for Transplant Providers - Aims 2 & 3

Live donor kidney transplant (LDKT) is the preferred treatment modality for patients with chronic and end-stage kidney disease. LDKT is less expensive than prolonged dialysis and offers improved mortality and morbidity over either dialysis or deceased donor kidney transplants (DDKT). However, ethnic minorities have significantly less access to LDKT than their White counterparts. Collectively, Blacks, Asians, and Hispanics represent 64.3% of the kidney transplant wait list, yet received only 36% of all LDKTs in 2019. Further, rates of LDKTs have decreased for Black patients over the last decade. Decades of research point to patient-provider communication as a contributing factor to observed disparities in health and healthcare outcomes. To date, however, no attempt has been made to gauge the impact of the communication occurring during transplant evaluation consultations on LDKT outcomes. The long-term goal of the proposed study entitled, Increasing Equity in Live Donor Kidney Transplant through Effective Patient-Provider Communication, is to increase parity in access to LDKT for Black patients. A community-engaged, mixed-methods study employing a concurrent triangulation design is proposed to identify the specific communicative behaviors that result in live donor inquiries and evaluations, and actual LDKTs for Caucasian and Black patients, providing critical information to the design of an intervention to improve patient-provider communication about LDKT. Specifically, this project will simultaneously quantitatively assess patient and provider factors with established and hypothesized associations with receipt of LDKTs, and qualitatively assess discrete elements of patient-provider communication occurring during transplant evaluation consultations for Caucasian and Black patients (Aim 1). Brief quantitative surveys administered before and after medical consultations held as part of the evaluation for transplant candidacy will capture providers' (N=52) confidence and comfort discussing LDKT and patients' satisfaction with the consultation, medical mistrust, health literacy, and LDKT knowledge, attitudes and readiness. In addition, transplant evaluation consultations will be evaluated for 60 Caucasian and 60 Black patients (N=120) across the two study sites - Saint Barnabas Medical Center (NJ) and Temple University Hospital (PA), and qualitatively assess the communication occurring during the consultations. The findings will be used to inform development of the content and format of a communication skills training for transplant providers and evaluate the direct and indirect effects of the training on patient-reported and LDKT process outcomes (Aims 2 & 3). Intervening at the provider level is both practical, given that all transplant candidates already must undergo this consultation, and efficient, given that a single transplant physician can evaluate >100 transplant candidates per year. Thus, the results of this innovative study have the potential to increase access to LDKT for Black patients currently awaiting kidney transplant. Improving communication during the transplant consultation may prove to be an effective and efficient means of alleviating ethnic disparities in LDKT.

Inclusion criteria

• (1) appear for a kidney transplant evaluation at Cooperman Barnabas Medical Center (CBMC) or Temple University Hospital (TUH)
• (2) speak English
• (3) be of self-reported Black or Caucasian ethnicity
• (4) be ≥18 years of age.

Including patients who:

• have received prior kidney transplants
• patients with limited English proficiency, as long as they speak with the physician via a translator
• patients evaluated at offsite satellite locations that are not actually at CBMC or TUHS.

All transplant nephrologists, nurses, and social workers employed at the kidney transplant programs at CBMC and TUH who are actively involved in patient evaluations for transplant will be eligible for participation in the study. Providers refusing to permit digital audio recording of the transplant consultation will be deemed ineligible.

Exclusion criteria

• (1) are non-verbal or otherwise unable to converse with providers
• (2) are already listed for kidney transplant at CBMC or TUHS or at another transplant center
• (3) have limited English proficiency and speak directly with the physician in a language other than English.

Patients having (1) received an offer to donate a kidney from a family member or friend, or (2) explicitly asked a family member or friend to consider serving as a LD will be excluded, along with any patients refusing to permit digital audio recording of the transplant consultation will also be deemed ineligible to participate.

The following special populations will be excluded: adults unable to consent, individuals who are not yet adults (infants, children, teenagers), prisoners, and individuals who do not understand English.

It is unlikely that any female patient will be pregnant while awaiting kidney transplant; however, we will not exclude pregnant women.