Grant: Project Grant

A kidney transplant can save the life of a person with kidney failure. A person who donates one of their kidneys is giving someone else a better healthier life. Guidelines recommend that living kidney donors get lifelong follow-up care to monitor their health. Follow-up care may result in the prevention, early detection, and management of diseases. Previous donors and their families have identified inadequate follow-up care as a growing concern. Currently, it is unclear how frequently living kidney donors are receiving follow-up care and if it is effective in preventing diseases. There is a need for high-quality research to understand what follow-up care donors are receiving and what aspects should be monitored to keep donors healthy. We will study how often living kidney donors in Alberta, Canada are getting follow-up care after they donate a kidney. We also want to understand if this follow-up care leads to better outcomes for donors, who are otherwise healthy. We will use the large databases within the Alberta Kidney Disease Network (www.akdn.info) to study these questions. One of the unique features of the AKDN is the ability to capture results from blood and urine tests done anywhere in the province. We will be able to determine how often donors are seeing a doctor and how frequently they are getting blood and urine testing done. Based on these results, we will find out how well their remaining kidney is working after they have donated. We will see if consistent follow-up care leads to better function in their remaining kidney and fewer diseases. Our research will help us understand what follow-up donors are getting and what the possible barriers are to regular follow-up care. Also, understanding the risk factors for complications will lead to better strategies to prevent donors from developing kidney failure and heart disease. This research will improve care provided to living kidney donors who have already done a selfless act to care for someone else.