Grant: Foundation Grant

<html> <body> <p>One in ten Canadians has chronic kidney disease. For those who survive to end stage disease, treatment with either dialysis or transplantation is required. Dialysis treated patients have a prognosis that is worse than most cancers. Compared to dialysis, transplantation increases survival, improves quality of life, and is cost saving. However, a dwindling proportion of patients (less than 40%) are able to access transplantation because of a shortage of organs.<br> <br> The proposed research will inform new strategies to reduce the gap between the supply and demand for kidney transplantation in Canada.<br> <br> Objective 1 examines new strategies to increase deceased donation including:<br> a) Incorporating opportunities for the public to obtain information ask questions and register a decision on organ donation in a variety of health care settings.&nbsp;<br> b) Novel approaches to increase public awareness about organ donation.&nbsp;<br> c) The use of in-hospital deceased organ donation specialists.&nbsp;<br> <br> Objective 2 examines strategies to increase living donation including:<br> a) A multi-faceted patient and donor engagement program.&nbsp;<br> b) The use of compatible living donors and recipients in the national living donor kidney paired donation program.<br> <br> Objective 3 will advance new organ allocation policy that matches donor longevity with patient longevity to reduce the need for repeat transplantation.<br> <br> The work will identify new paradigms to educate and engage the public on deceased organ donation, provide evidence for targeted investments in organ donation services, and inform strategies with the potential to increase the rates of deceased and living and kidney donation in Canada (currently 15 per million population) to levels comparable to the United States (25 per million population). The work will also inform changes to organ allocation policy that could increase deceased donor kidney transplant survival by 20% or more. The work has the potential to dramatically increase patient access to life-saving kidney transplantation, will indirectly benefit Canadians in need of extra-renal transplantation, and will be of high international interest.<br> <br> In the absence of a national organization responsible for the delivery of organ donation and transplant services in Canada, an integrated knowledge translation approach that involves regional and national stakeholders as partners differentiates this work, and is a key factor enabling the success of this ambitious project. A proven national research network involving investigators in all Canadian transplant centers and established networks for end of grant KT also ensure the feasibility and impact of the project.<br> <br> Experts in organ donation, transplantation, clinical trials, health-services, qualitative research methods, bio-statistics, ethics, marketing, and filmmaking will undertake the work. The project expands and diversifies the activities of an established group into a new area of research that will attract, and support the formal training of new investigators (including those not traditionally engaged in organ donation research) and knowledge users. The training and mentoring program will build on an established model focused on training clinician scientists: The program uniquely offers post-doctoral trainees the opportunity to complete formal training in clinical research leading to a Masters degree from the UBC School of Population and Public Health while completing advanced clinical training in transplantation.</p> </body> </html>