RESEARCH & EDUCATION
PILOT TRIAL STUDIES DISPARITIES IN ACCESS TO KIDNEY DONATION EDUCATION
The UAB Comprehensive Transplant Institute ( CTI ) is continually developing new ways to increase the number of donor kidneys available to patients , to help reduce their time on dialysis and on the organ waiting list . At the same time , it seeks to help living kidney donors more easily navigate the donation process and receive the care and support they need while on their donation journey . These two goals come together in the UAB Living Donor Navigator Program , which is provided free of charge .
RESEARCH & EDUCATION
Given that the CTI draws living donors and recipients from across Alabama and beyond , it ’ s important to meet them where they are with the training and education provided through the Living Donor Navigator Program . To that end , the CTI is collaborating with the Alabama Department of Public Health , which operates telehealth services in 65 of Alabama ’ s 67 counties . This partnership eliminates the need to travel to Birmingham by providing the county health departments with infrastructure that gives living donors , kidney recipients , and their loved ones the opportunity to receive training from CTI patient navigators without traveling to Birmingham .
Confident of the value in expanding access to the Living Donor Navigator Program , the CTI recently kicked off a research trial to quantify the benefits of “ telenavigation ”. The “ Promoting Increases in Living Donation via Telenavigation ” ( PILOT ) trial launched in September 2022 and will run through May 2024 . It is a randomized control trial of 440 kidney recipients , their families , and potential living donors .
Alexis Carter , MPH , clinical research coordinator with the UAB Division of Transplantation , is helping lead the study . The principal investigator for the trial is CTI Director Jayme Locke , MD , MPH .
“ Our Living Donor Navigator Program is the first of its kind to use lay navigators in the transplant population while simultaneously addressing the needs of both transplant candidates and living donors ,” Carter says . “ Our hypothesis is that expansion of the Living Donor Navigator Program , to include telehealth delivery , can overcome geographic disparities in access and facilitate sustained increases in living donation .” uabmedicine . org / refertransplant 17